Sumter-Oglethorpe County GaArchives Biographies.....Cheatham, Walter B. 1853 - living in 1913
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 31, 2004, 11:51 pm

Author: William Harden
p. 1037-1038

   JOHN WRIGHT WHEATLEY. An early and honored resident of Sumter county, John
Wright Wheatley, of Americus, has for many years been prominently identified
with the leading business and public interests of that city, and influential in
promoting its material growth and prosperity. He was born, June 30, 1833, in
Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, which was likewise the birthplace of his
father, John Wheatley, Jr.

   His paternal grandfather, John Wheatley (1), was born and reared in the city
of Nottingham, England, where as a young man he was engaged in mercantile
pursuits. His sympathy with the French Revolutionists becoming the subject of
warm discussions, he decided to seek a home on foreign shores, and in 1788
immigrated to America, locating in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, carrying
with him a stock of merchandise, which he afterwards traded for a farm. A man of
much ability, he soon became prominent in public life, and served as justice of
the peace and scrivener. He lived to a venerable age, passing away in 1840, at
the age of eighty-eight years.

   John Wheatley (2), who died in 1873, aged seventy-six years, married Harriett
Withington, a daughter of Martin Withington, whose grandmother, Rachael
Thornton, was the only female survivor of the Wyoming Massacre which occurred
July 3, 1778.

   Gleaning his early education in the village Schools, John Wright Wheatley
remained beneath the parental roof-tree until seventeen years old. A manly,
self-reliant youth, full of pluck and determination, he bade good-bye to friends
and relatives in 1850, and started forth in quest of fortune. On December 24th,
of that year, he made his appearance in Americus, Georgia, which was then a
small village, giving scant promise of its present prosperous condition, while
the country roundabout was but thinly populated. There were few railways in the
state, and he made his advent on foot, walking part of the way from Macon to
Americus. Industrious and capable, he soon found employment with his cousin, Mr.
R. T. McCoy, as a clerk in his general store, which was located on the corner of
Lee and Lamar streets. When Mr. McCoy sold out, Mr. Wheatley, in partnership
with Mr. McCoy's brother, H. Kent McCoy, embarked in the drug business in
Americus. Subsequently Mr. H. Kent McCoy entered the legal profession, and was
later made chief justice of the state of Georgia. In 1855 their store was
burned, and Mr. Wheatley accepted a position as bookkeeper for P. H. Oliver, a
general merchant, whose store stood at the corner of Colton avenue and Lamar
street, near the site now occupied by the Commercial City Bank building. The
firm failing in 1857, Mr. Wheatley took charge of the stock, which was later
purchased by Nelson Tift, of Albany.

   Being out of a situation, Mr. Wheatley returned to his old home in
Pennsylvania, but his sympathies were so evidently with the South that he
thought best to come back to Georgia, and on his return to Americus he entered
the employ of Kendrick & Johnson, general merchants, as bookkeeper, and ere long
bought out the entire business. Early in 1861 the building and stock were
destroyed by fire, and during the same year he was elected clerk of the Court of
Ordinary of Sumter county. During the latter part of the war Mr. Wheatley was
appointed aide-de-camp, with the rank of major, on the staff of General McCoy,
and with him went to the defence of Atlanta, and after the fall of that city was
an active participant in the engagements at Jonesboro and Griswoldville. At the
close of the war, his sole possessions consisted of about a hundred bales of
cotton, for a part of which he received twenty-five cents a pound.

   Forming a partnership with his brother-in-law, W. H. C. Dudley, in 1866, Mr.
Wheatley, as senior member of the firm of J. W. Wheatley & Company, engaged in
the banking business, being affiliated with William Bryce & Company, of New
York. This firm continued successfully until 1887, when it was merged into the
Bank of Southwest Georgia, of which bank Mr. Wheatley was elected vice
president. In 1897 he was made president of that institution, and continued in
that position until 1905, when he retired from active business. Upon the
organization of the Commercial City Bank, he was made honorary president, an
office which he has since filled most acceptably to all concerned. His beautiful
home, "Harmony Hall," is pleasantly located on the Oglethorpe road, about two
miles from the court house, and its hospitable doors are ever open to his many
friends.

   The record of Mr. Wheatley's public service has been as honorable and
distinguished as his business achievements. For thirty years he rendered
faithful service as secretary of the board of county commissioners. During that
period the county buildings were erected, and much to the surprise of the
majority of people in the county, all were paid for in full without any increase
in the tax rate, payment being made from the sinking fund which Mr. Wheatley had
created.

   Mr. Wheatley married, May 10, 1855, Mary E. Dudley, who was born in
Lexington, Georgia, November 20, 1835. Her father, George Edward Dudley, who
settled in Americus in 1840, was one of the most prominent lawyers of the South,
and the author of Dudley's Law Reports, which were the first records of the
supreme court ever published, and which are standard authority today. Mr. Dudley
married Caroline Crawford, whose father, Honorable William H. Crawford, a
well-known statesman, served as secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of
President Monroe, and was also minister to France, and was a presidential
candidate in 1824 with Adams, Jackson and Clay. Four children have blessed the
union of Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley, namely: Caroline Susan, wife of L. C. Smith, of
New York City; John W. Wheatley, Jr., who married Emma Bird; George Dudley
Wheatley, who married Maggie Galloway; and William H. Crawford Wheatley, of whom
a brief personal account may be found on another page of this work.


Additional Comments:
From:

A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA
BY
WILLIAM HARDEN

VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1913

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