BIOGRAPHY: Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., Auburn, Cayuga co., New York transcribed and submitted by: Ann Anderson (ann.g.anderson at gmail.com) ========================================================= Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ny/nyfiles.htm ========================================================= BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THIS VOLUME CONTAINS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE LEADING CITIZENS OF CAYUGA COUNTY NEW YORK BOSTON BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW PUBLISHING COMPANY 1894 HON. CYRENUS WHEELER, JR., he well-known inventor of harvesting machinery, ex-Mayor of the city of Auburn, N.Y., was born on March 21, 1817, at Seekonk, Bristol County, Mass. This town was set off from Rehoboth in 1812, and became a separate town, assuming the original Indian name, composed of two words, "seeki," meaning black, and "konk," goose black goose Seekonk River being a favorite feeding-place for wild geese in the fall of the year. The old town of Rehoboth, the residence of the Wheeler family for several generations, at one time embraced in its greatest extent portions of the present towns of Seekonk and Attleboro, Mass., and Cumberland, R.I., with that part of Swansea, Mass., and Barrington, R.I., which was called by the Indians Wannamoiset. The Wheelers were active participants in all the stirring events in the history of Rehoboth, five persons of the name from that town appearing on the muster-rolls of the Revolution. The records of the town show that James Wheeler had a son born to him in 1697, named James Wheeler, Jr., and he had a son Jeremiah, born 1731, who had Jeremiah, Jr., born 1753. Cyrenus Wheeler, father of the subject of this sketch, and a son of Jeremiah, Jr., and Elizabeth (Thurber) Wheeler, was born at Rehoboth, August 13, 1791, and died at Venice, N.Y., July 4, 1887, lacking only thirty-nine days of being ninety-six years of age. His educational advantages were limited and confined to the town school, and mainly to the winter terms, which were short. At an early age he was apprenticed to learn the machinist's trade, which he acquired in the thorough manner in which it was taught and practised in those early days, seven years being the term of service. In April, 1816, he was united in marriage with Thirza D. Evans, a daughter of William and Meribah (Dillingham) Evans, of Berkley, Bristol County, Mass. With her he enjoyed a happy married life of nearly sixty-eight years, her death occurring February 13, 1884, when she was eighty-seven years old. Her father, who was of Welsh descent and a Revolutionary pensioner, reached eighty-six years. Mrs. Wheeler was a woman of superior intellectual endowments, joined to those Christian graces which fitted her to fill the sphere of wife and mother, and to become the beloved centre of a happy family circle, a woman whose kindness of heart manifested itself in her good works, and whom none knew but to love and esteem. To her could have been fitly applied these words of the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs: " She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." To this couple were born five children, two sons and three daughters, of whom Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., is the eldest. Henry Josephus Wheeler, the youngest, who was born February 22, 1834, married Cornelia Culver, and resides with his family on the old homestead of his father near Poplar Ridge in Venice, N.Y. Candace M. Wheeler, born May 1, 1819, married John W. Vaughan (both now deceased). Delana Borden, the second .daughter, born December 13, 1822, married Charles W. Manahan, of Norwalk, Ohio, and resided there with her husband until her death, March 29, 1887. The youngest daughter, Marion Isabella, born April 24, 1829, married Allen Mosher, of Venice, N.Y., and now resides at Aurora, Cayuga County. Mr. Wheeler began his married life as a farmer, occupying and cultivating a farm in the town of Seekonk. The sterile soil sparingly rewarded his labors; and marketing cord wood in Providence, R.I., some four or five miles distant, was resorted to in the winter to increase his scanty income. A few years satisfied him that farming under such circumstances did not fill the measure of his ambition, and he determined to abandon that occupation, and return to his earlier calling. Early in 1822 he removed with his family, consisting of his wife and two small children, to what was then known as Wellington, now Dighton, Mass., and entered the employ of Nathaniel Wheeler, an uncle, as a machinist. In 1823, at the request of his brother Dexter, he went to Fall River, Mass., and was there engaged at first in the manufacture of cotton machinery, and subsequently, with that brother and Edward Mason, in the manufacture of cotton cloth, which business they continued until 1833, when it was sold to other parties, and he moved with his family to Rehoboth, and occupied the farm on which he was born. Dexter Wheeler, whose health had failed, disposed of his interest in the Fall River Manufacturing Company, with which he had been actively identified for more than twenty years, and after several months of illness died at Rehoboth of consumption in the house in which he was born, and on the farm where he unaided inaugurated the manufacture of cotton yarn thirty years before. Dexter Wheeler late in the fall of 1834 visited Cayuga County, New York, and while there contracted with Monmouth Purdy for the purchase of his farm of two hundred and twenty-five acres, lying in the town of Venice, one mile south of Poplar Ridge. He returned to Rehoboth seriously ill. In February following, Cyrenus, with his son Cyrenus, Jr., visited Venice, and made arrangement for the season's work, the former returning to Rehoboth and leaving his son upon the farm. In May he removed with his family to the farm in Venice, where he spent the remainder of his days. During the early years of his residence upon the farm, he entered energetically upon a series of improvements. Among them was a thorough system of underdrainage, in which he substituted pipe drain tile in place of the cobblestones then in general use. The roadway through his land was widened and straightened, and neat posts and board fences took the place of the zigzag rail fences. Canadathistles abounded in some of the fields. These were exterminated by frequent ploughings during the season. New and commodious buildings were erected and neatly painted. Always having a workshop on the place, well supplied with tools, necessary repairs were attended to in time; and there was a place for everything and everything in place. Though his sons succeeded him in the management, Mr. Wheeler the elder never lost his interest in the farm, and as long as he lived attended personally to his horse, cow, and pigs, and cultivated a small patch of corn in addition to his garden, in which the earliest and finest vegetables annually were found. With few of the infirmities of a person of his age, which neared a full century, and an intellect unclouded until a short time preceding his final sleep, he gave to his eldest son, who sat by his bedside, minute directions as to the settlement of his estate, what there was of personal property, and where it could be found. Having obtained an elementary education, Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., when still a youth, entered the machine shop and factory, and at an early age became familiar with the use of tools and the operations of machinery. Commencing at first principles, his progress was such that at the age of seventeen years he was able to perform all the operations necessary to convert the raw material into cloth. In the new occupation of farming, begun in Cayuga County in the spring of 1835, he also became proficient; but the mechanical and inventive traits of his character would assert themselves, and in a few more years he was spending more time in devising and constructing labor-saving implements and machines than in the cultivation of the land. Succeeding his father in conducting the farm, he engaged in experimental tests, carefully prosecuted, to ascertain the relative value of different kinds of food for stock and different kinds of fertilizers in the production of various crops. Labor-saving machinery at that time was but little in use. The cast-iron plough invented by Jethrow Wood (who resided for many years prior to his death, which occurred in 1834, three-fourths of a mile west of Poplar Ridge) was the most important and useful implement then in use. Of Jethrow Wood, that distinguished citizen of Auburn, the late Secretary Seward said, "No person has benefited his country pecuniarily more, and no man has been so inadequately rewarded." The hand scythe, the hand cradle, and the hand rake were the implements in use for gathering the bountiful crops produced by the virgin soil of Cayuga County. The necessities of his business soon stimulated Mr. Wheeler's inventive and constructive talents; and seed-planters, horse pitchforks, feed-cutters, and numerous other highly serviceable appliances rapidly appeared on the farm to the wonder of his non-mechanical neighbors. In 1852 his attention was directed to the question of a machine for mowing grass and harvesting grain, and in the summer of 1853 he commenced practical experiments in the field. The first machine was constructed at Poplar Ridge, Cayuga County, and was tried on his farm, one mile south of that place, in stout grass thoroughly wet by recent rains. This trial was pronounced a perfect success by every one present at the time. The cutting apparatus of the machine consisted of a series of double-edged pivoted shears or cutters, which worked well at all times in wet grass, but failed to work satisfactorily in dry, gummy grass; so that the Hussy open guard and scalloped cutter was substituted for the pivoted shears. Prior to the invention of Mr. Wheeler mowing and reaping machines were of the type known as "stiff or rigid bar machines " and had a single wheel for supporting the framework and imparting motion to the cutters. He added another wheel for supporting the framework of the machine, and connected the cutting apparatus to the frame by an arrangement of hinges and pivots at right angles to each other, so that the cutting apparatus would conform to the undulations of the ground uninfluenced by the motions of the supporting wheels of the machinery. He was the first man to put a hinged cutter bar on a mowing or reaping machine; and this he controlled by a patent for twenty-one years, fourteen years the natural life of a patent and an extension of seven years. He was also the first man to put a reaping attachment to a hinged bar machine. He further devised and applied at the same time levers, by which the driver in his seat could raise the cutting apparatus to pass obstructions, and elevate or depress the points of the cutters to cut lodged and tangled grass or grain or a higher stubble, as desired. By means of his system of hinging the cutting apparatus to the frame, it could be folded to the side of the main frame so that the machine could be transported with the same facility as a cart. In the following year he added a platform, reel, and raker's seat, making it a combined machine, adapte*d to the double purpose of mowing grass and cutting grain, and provided with a system of gearing of his devising convenient for boxing and protecting from dirt. A self-rake was, with other improvements, from time to time added to the machine and protected by patents, forty-four having been obtained by him for improvements in harvesting machinery. He also purchased a large number, being at one time the owner of more reaper patents than any other person in the United States. From 1853 to the present time more than one and one-half millions of machines, containing improvements embraced in his patents, have been constructed. Though his efforts have been mainly confined to harvesting machinery, improvements in other classes of machinery have been made, for which he has received patents. September 8, 1891, he purchased the Clothes Wringer Works at Auburn, which had heretofore been unsuccessful; and, by obtaining nine patents of his own for improvements and purchasing six others, he put the works in sound financial condition. Like all inventors, he found the public slow to appreciate the advantages of his improvements. With unwavering faith, however, in their ultimate success, he devoted himself with untiring industry to perfecting and introducing them. In his field experiments his crops were sown and freely sacrificed for that purpose, and for thirty successive harvests he followed his machines in the field. He travelled extensively in all the grass and grain growing States and Territories, and in 1863, in the prosecution of this work, visited eighteen different States, travelling over twenty-three thousand miles. The value of the improvement once demonstrated, infringers became active; and protracted and expensive litigation followed, which required the same energy and perseverance to sustain his rights that had been shown in making, improving, and introducing his inventions to the public. Success in litigation after many years crowned his efforts, and Mr. Wheeler to-day enjoys the proud satisfaction of knowing that his improvements are in use on every mowing machine in the United States and in foreign countries. In the field of mechanics and invention his originality is a marked feature. Fertile in his conceptions, he often found it difficult to decide which of the several devices suggested to his mind would best serve his purpose; but his sound practical judgment enabled him to choose such as led him to success. His machine prior to i860 was known simply as the Wheeler machine, after which up to 1874 it was called the "Cayuga Chief"; from 1874 to the present time it has been known as the "Wheeler," and, as now manufactured extensively by D. M. Osborne & Co., Auburn, N.Y., is distinguished as Nos. 2, 5, and 6. The earliest manufacture was at Poplar Ridge, N.Y., by Shounds & Mosher. They were succeeded by Reynolds & Co., who continued to i860, when the works were moved to Aurora, on Cayuga Lake, where the advantages of shipment were better. In 1857 Dean & Machin manufactured the machine at Auburn. In 1858 Ross, Dodge & Pomeroy, in connection with Sheldon & Co. and Barber, Sheldon & Co., carried on the business. In 1866 the Cayuga Chief Manufacturing Company was organized for continuing the manufacture, Mr. Wheeler being chosen President of the company. In 1874 the concern was consolidated with D. M. Osborne & Co., who continue the manufacture at Auburn. Mr. Wheeler sold out his interest in January, 1882, and retired from active business. Mr. Wheeler has been three times married, and has four children living. His first wife, whom he married at Venice, N.Y., January 6, 1841, was Harriet,, daughter of Charles and Hannah (Benjamin) Kendall, who was born at Venice, November 11, 1819, and died at the same place May 22, 1843. The children of this union were a son and a daughter, namely: Lucy Maria, born September 27, 1841; and Dexter, born May 18, 1843, wno married Fanny Hotchkiss, and resides on the home farm near Poplar Ridge. Mr. Wheeler was married the second time at Bethany, Genesee County, N.Y., June 26, 1845, to Susan K. Frary, daughter of Roswell and Fanny (Kendall) Frary, who was born September 7, 1820, and died at Venice November 5, 1849, leaving one daughter, Harriet Frary Wheeler, born May 16, 1846. At Venice, December 26, 1850, Mr. Wheeler married Jane Barker, daughter of John A. and Phebe (Ogden) Barker, who was born at Venice, May 12, 1821, and died January 5, 1894. They had three children: the eldest, Charles Barker, born December 27, 1851, married Frances Munro, of Rochester, is a graduate of Williams College, and a lawyer in successful practice in Buffalo; Allen Mosher, born January 22, 1853, died June 9, 1860; Thirza Dillingham, born January 22, 1857, died June 7, 1860. The death of Mrs. Wheeler after an illness of several months called forth warm tributes of affection and praise from her many friends and associates in charitable work in Auburn. In her young womanhood, as Miss Barker, she was one of the most successful district school teachers in Cayuga County. Shortly after removing to this city Mrs. Wheeler became a member of the Board of Managers of the Cayuga Asylum for Destitute Children, and was closely identified with its interests for nearly twenty-eight years, being Recording Secretary sixteen years. She was also long connected with the management of the Home for the Friendless, and was deeply and actively interested in the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, of which she was President for several years. "She always strove to promote its interests, and to her untiring efforts in the early history of this now flourishing organization is due much of its success and marked progress. At a special meeting of the Union held on January 10, 1894, the following resolutions were adopted: "That we, members of the Auburn Women's Educational and Industrial Union, have heard with deep sorrow of the death of our beloved friend and associate, Mrs. Jane Barker Wheeler. From its organization she has been a warm friend and firm believer in the success of the work which her own active efforts and generous liberality have done so much to promote. In the offices held by her as a member of the Board of Trustees and for three years our honored President, she gave faithful service, her sound judgment, rare executive ability, and courage in the face of difficulties making her invaluable as a leader and guide. Our workers are falling, but the work remains and goes on. The loss of such a one from our ranks leaves a vacancy hard to fill. Her gentle presence, her wise counsel and ever ready helpfulness will be long and sadly missed. But we recall her own words. They came as a last message to incite us to renewed activity in the cause she so much loved: 'We must not relax our efforts or lose our enthusiasm, and so fail to reap the harvest for which such plentiful seed has been sown.' A life so nobly spent needs no word of praise, but it is the privilege of affection to record the virtues and pay a last tribute to the memory of one who will share our work on earth no more. We are grateful for the lessons her life teaches of gentleness, of unselfishness, and benevolence. Truly she has left us an example. We deeply sympathize with the surviving family, bereft of wife, mother, and friend. May their hearts find comfort that through faith and patience and suffering she has entered into rest." Of the Women's Christian Temperence Union in Auburn Mrs. Wheeler was one of the first Presidents, and would have been elected to the Presidency for the State, but refused it in order to devote her time to the home temperance work. She was also interested in the Martha Washington Society, and was long a member of the Central Presbyterian Church, faithful in the discharge of her home, her public, and social duties. "To a charming personality was added a manner sincere and unassuming, and the graces of her noble Christian womanhood were always apparent." An excellent likeness of this estimable lady may be seen beside that of her husband on an adjoining page. To a life of unusual business activity his fellow-citizens have added public duties and responsibilities, which Mr. Wheeler has found time to discharge, it is believed, most acceptably to all. He was four times in succession elected to the office of Justice of the Peace for the town of Venice, receiving on the last occasion within two ballots of the entire vote cast at the election. He continued to fill that office until he removed to Auburn. He also served two years as Supervisor of the town. In 1881 he was elected Mayor of Auburn. In 1883 he was reelected, and again in 1885, making six years of continuous service. In the spring of 1889, reluctantly accepting a fourth nomination for the same office, he was elected by a large majority, and in March, 1891, finished the eight years' service. In March, 1893, he was made President of the Board of Water Commissioners of the City of Auburn, which position he still holds. He has also become quite prominent in military circles throughout the State, on account of his efforts to establish the "Wheeler Rifles" and his connection with this company, of which he was made godfather. In fact, Mr. Wheeler has long been identified with the business interests and development of the beautiful city of his adoption. Mr. Wheeler is a gentleman of pleasing address. His geniality invites acquaintance, and his rare intelligence and kindly manners inspire respect and friendship. His portrait, which appears in connection with this biography, will be of special interest to a large circle of readers, who know him either personally or through his works, the products of his inventive skill, whereby so many have been richly profited.