Harvey March Wheeler, Noblesville, IND., then Catahoula Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Source:
Date: Aug. 2001




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Harvey March Wheeler.  A prominent representative of the lumber manufacturing 
business and particularly that branch of this industry which has to do with the
making of boxes, is found at Jonesville in the person of Harvey March Wheeler. 
Mr. Wheeler comes legitimately by his predilection for this line of endeavor, 
for his father was a lumberman before him and the youth was brought up to 
understand the work and to gain a real liking for it.  During his career he 
has worked out an honorable success, and can be considered as one of the 
"fathers" of Jonesville, as he has been a resident of this community since 
its inception and in various ways has assisted materially in its development 
into an important manufacturing center.

Harvey March Wheeler was born in 1878, at Noblesville, Indiana, and is a son 
of H. P. and Frances Wheeler.  His father was for many years a manufacturer 
of poplar and walnut lumber at Noblesville, Indiana, and later operated 
mills in Murray Count, Kentucky, and at Madison, Arkansas.  In the evening 
of life he retired from active business and took up his residence at Memphis,
Tennessee, where he died at the age of sixty-five years, his widow surviving 
him until she was sixty-eight years of age.  They were the parents of one 
son and three daughters.

Harvey M. Wheeler spent his school days at Noblesville, Indiana, and while 
not applying himself to his studies built up a good constitution by joining 
the other lads of his neighborhood in playing baseball, going on fishing 
expeditions and otherwise engaging in the sports and pastimes which are the 
prerogative and birthright of American youths.  When he was still little more
than a lad he was taken into his father's mill and soon became an assistant 
to the elder man, later had a mill of his own at Lake Cormorant, Mississippi,
and at the time of his father's demise took over the latter's mill interests 
at Madison, Arkansas.  At this time, while seeking a new field for mill work,
Mr. Wheeler's attention was directed to Jonesville, which he at once 
recognized as a coming field of prominence in the lumber industry.  At this 
time, 1913, the railroad bridge was under construction but the railroad had 
not yet been built, but a townsite had been laid out and Mr. Wheeler, with 
the courage of his conviction, purchased an addition of forty-five acres, 
laid out in town lots.  To this he has since added an additional thirty acres.
Since coming to Jonesville he has built and operated six plants and his box 
factory, has built about thirty houses, and as an enthusiastic Jonesville 
booster has been active and prominent in civic affairs.  At present he is a 
member of the town council.  Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Benevolent 
and Protective Order of Elks, at Natchez, and the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows.


In 1895, at Madison, Arkansas, Mr. Wheeler was united in marriage with Miss 
Etta Crippen, daughter of J. W. Crippen, a Confederate veteran, still living, 
and to this union there have been born three children:  Henry Paul, a graduate 
of the Jefferson Military College of Mississippi, who married Myrtle, daughter 
of John A. Wouster, and has three children:  Henry Paul, Jr.,  Harvey March, 
Jr., and  Alice; and  Virginia and  Frances, graduates of Silliman College, 
Clinton, Louisiana, who are unmarried and reside with their parents.


A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 12, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by
The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.