Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Wheeler, Oliver G. 1842 - 
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Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

OLIVER G. WHEELER.

     Prominent among the energetic, enterprising and successful business men of
Crown Point, Indiana, is numbered Oliver G. Wheeler, who is conducting a
dry-goods store in that city. His business career will bear the light of strong
investigation, and throughout the community where he makes his home he is held
in high regard because of his active, useful and upright life.

    He was born in Florence, Erie county, Ohio, March 4, 1842, and in the
paternal line comes of English ancestry, although the family was established in
America at an early period in the development of this country. The paternal
grandfather was a native of Connecticut, and it was in that state that Johnson
Wheeler, the father, was born and reared. He removed to Ohio during the pioneer
epoch in the history of that state, settling in Erie county, whence he came to
Lake county, Indiana, in 1847, establishing his home in the southern part of the
county. He was a civil engineer and surveyor by profession, and did work in that
line throughout northwestern Indiana. For a long period he served as county
surveyor, and he surveyed the larger part of Lake county. His activity, however,
extended to other lines of business, and he carried on both farming and
merchandising interests, his efforts contributing to the business development
and substantial commercial growth of his portion of the state. He died when
seventy-two years of age, honored and respected by all for what he had
accomplished and for what he did in behalf of his fellow men. He gave his
political allegiance to the Whig party in early manhood, and upon the
organization of the Republican party joined its ranks. He held membership in the
Universalist church. He married Sallie Burr, a native of Connecticut, who died
in Crown Point when fifty-four years of age. They were the parents of ten
children, four sons and six daughters, seven of whom reached years of maturity,
while four are now living, three daughters and one son.

    Oliver G. Wheeler, the ninth child of the family, was only five years of age
when he came to Indiana. His education was acquired in the district schools
until he reached the age of fifteen years, when the family removed to Crown
Point, and he then continued his studies there. He entered upon his business
career as a clerk in his father's mercantile establishment, and he was thus
employed until after the inauguration of the Civil war, when he enlisted in
Company A, Seventy-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in August, 1862. He joined
the army as a private, but was promoted to the rank of orderly sergeant and
afterward to second lieutenant. He served for about three years or until the
cessation of hostilities in 1865. His first battles were at Perryville and Stone
River. The command, known as Colonel Straight's Provisional Brigade, then
consisting of fifteen hundred men, passing through North Alabama on the way to
Rome in Georgia, overtaken by Forrest's men at dusk in the passes of Sand
mountain and fighting there for three hours, April 30, 1863, repulsing an attack
of three thousand cavalry, surrendered on the 2d of May, at Blount's Farm in
Alabama. This expedition is known as Straight's raid. Brewer, a historian of
Alabama, says of the three hours of night battle, "The scene of this prolonged
and desperate conflict on the barren mountain heights of north Alabama is
remembered by participants * * * as one of peculiar, weird grandeur, impossible
to paint with words." The men of the Seventy-third were exchanged at Richmond,
and Mr. Wheeler went home on furlough. He soon returned, joined his regiment at
Indianapolis, and went south, again, to Nashville and to Decatur in Alabama,
taking part in the battles at Athens, at Decatur, and at Nashville. At the close
of the war he received an honorable discharge at Indianapolis in July, 1865. He
never faltered in the performance of any task assigned to him, but did his full
duty as a soldier, his military career being a credit to the army.

    Returning to Crown Point, Mr. Wheeler has since been identified with
business interests here. In 1867 he opened a hardware store which he conducted
successfully and continuously until 1896. In that year he sold his stock of
hardware and opened his present store, dealing in dry-goods, boots and shoes and
clothing. His business methods are in keeping with the modern progressive spirit
of the times, and his earnest desire to please his patrons, his honorable
dealings and his reasonable prices have secured to him a trade that makes his
enterprise a profitable one.

    In 1870 Mr. Wheeler was united in marriage to Miss Alice Clark, a
granddaughter of Judge William Clark. She was born in Crown Point and was
educated in the public schools. Four children have been born of this union,
three daughters and a son: Maud, a very promising, talented and truly handsome
girl, who lived to be fifteen years of age and died at Ashville, North Carolina;
Myra, at home; Ned J., who is a teacher in Purdue University, giving instruction
in the mechanical engineering department; and Gretchen Hope.

    Mr. Wheeler is a member of John Wheeler Post No. 149, G. A. R., in which he
has filled a number of positions. This post was named in honor of Colonel John
Wheeler, a brother of Mr. Wheeler, who was killed at Gettysburg. Mr. Wheeler is
also identified with the Masonic fraternity at Crown Point, and he has been a
life-long Republican. Almost his entire life has been passed here, and those who
know him—and his acquaintance is wide—recognize in him a loyal citizen, a
reliable business man and a faithful friend. His salient characteristics have
ever been such as to commend him to the confidence and good will of all, and it
is therefore with pleasure that we present the record of his career to our
readers.

    Of the "English ancestry" of Mr. Wheeler there are only uncertain 
traditions, as is the case with other old New England families, but it 
is certain that John Wheeler settled in Concord before 1640, and 
removed to Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1644; also that a son of this 
early resident of New England, another John Wheeler, joined a colony 
for the settlement of Woodbury on the east of the Housatonic river, of 
which colony he was a prominent member and had a large family. He died 
in 1704. His youngest son, a third John Wheeler, was born in 1684. He 
had a son, Samuel Wheeler, born in 1712, and a grandson, Johnson 
Wheeler, born in 1754. This grandson of the third John Wheeler had a 
son, Johnson Wheeler, born in 1797, who was the father of O. G. Wheeler 
of this sketch, so that between him and the unknown English ancestry 
are six generations, two ancestors bearing the name of Johnson, one the 
name of Samuel, and three having the noted English and also Bible name 
of John.

    "The Wheelers of New England were a hardy, robust set of men." 
Members of the earlier and more aristocratic families often referred to 
their English family escutcheon. Evidently the Lake county Wheeler 
families came of a good English lineage.

    Inheriting the benefits of such ancestry, descendants also through 
their gifted mother of the prominent Clark and Farwell families of 
pioneer days, Miss Myra Wheeler is justly prized for her excellent 
qualities in home life, in society and as assistant to her father in 
his business; and the now young school girl, Gretchen Hope, is a bright 
beam of life and joy within her fathers home.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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