E. D. Wheelock Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1152-1153 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	A photo of E. D. Wheelock appears facing page 1152.


	HON. E. D. WHEELOCK is one of the pioneers of South Dakota, and 
has been actively identified with the industrial and general business 
interests of Codington county since its organization. He is now one of 
the oldest settlers in the eastern part of the state, and it is but 
justice to say that few, if any, have been more prominent than he in 
public affairs or have exerted greater influence upon its material, 
political and business history. 

	E. D. Wheelock combines in his physical and mental make-up the 
best elements of New England manhood, coming of that good old colonial 
stock that figured so prominently in the struggle for independence and 
in the war of I8I2. The Wheelock family is of English descent and was 
represented in this country at an early period, the American branch 
locating in Massachusetts, when the few scattered settlements were but 
niches in the almost impenetrable forests. Cyrus Wheelock was a son of 
Henry Wheelock, a farmer and cooper, who spent all his life in 
Massachusetts. Cyrus Wheelock, also a native of that state, was reared 
to agriculture, which he always followed. He married Lois Ober, whose 
father, Peter Ober, also a descendant of an old Massachusetts family, 
served in the war of 1812, as did also Henry Wheelock, brother of Cyrus. 
Cyrus and Lois Wheelock reared a family of five children, three sons and 
two daughters. 

	E. D. Wheelock, son of Cyrus, was born April 5, 1847, in Johnson, 
Lemoille county, Vermont, and in 1854 was taken to McHenry county, 
Illinois, where he grew to maturity on a farm. After attending the 
common schools he entered an academy at Wauconda, but soon laid aside 
his studies and, though but a youth of sixteen, enlisted in September, 
1863, in Company G, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, and served until 
honorably discharged, in February, 1866, taking part in the campaigns in 
Missouri and the southwest, his command toward the latter part of the 
war being sent to quiet the hostile Indians in Kansas and Colorado. 

	In 1866 Mr. Wheelock went to Iowa, thence the year following, to 
Steele county, Minnesota, locating near Owatanna, where he engaged in 
farming, which, with teaching, occupied his attention during the ensuing 
ten years. Meanwhile he learned the miller's trade, and followed the 
same at intervals, but his chief employment was agriculture, which he 
prosecuted until 1878. In that year he came to Codington county and took 
up a homestead about three miles north of Watertown, but for the last 
fifteen years his principal business has been buying grain for the Atlas 
Elevator Company, of Minneapolis, in connection with which he carries on 
an extensive store at Kampeslia, of which place he is also postmaster, 
having been appointed to the position in 1884, when the office was 
established. 

	Mr. Wheelock carries a full line of general merchandise and 
commands a lucrative trade. He took an active interest in the 
organization of the county, served for nine years as a member of the 
board of county commissioners, and in 1895 was elected to the upper 
house of the state legislature, where he earned the reputation of an 
able, discreet and judicious member. Mr. Wheelock has been prominent in 
the Republican party, and his efforts have made him one of the party 
leaders in the county. He is wide-awake, enterprising and progressive 
business man, and his public work has won him more than local repute. 
His loyalty is of that kind which subordinates other considerations to 
the public good. He has been successful in his business and has an ample 
competence. 

	Mr. Wheelock was married April 10, 1869, to Miss Eliza McClelland, 
of Maine, but at that time a resident of Freeborn county, Minnesota. She 
is the daughter of William J. McClelland, one of the pioneers of that 
state, and has borne her husband eleven children, namely: Ruby L., wife 
of 0. M. Brown, of Watertown; Bertha S. married Robert Lewis and lives 
in North Dakota; Edwin M., a traveling salesman; Nellie G., now Mrs. 
Fred M. Ray, of North Dakota; Emery F.; Cyrus J.; Dickinson O.; Benjamin 
H. died February 6, 1902, at the age of fourteen years; Clifford R. and 
Warren W., the last two still members of the home circle. 

	Mr. Wheelock is an enthusiastic member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic. In this connection it may be proper to state that his father 
also served from the beginning of the Civil war to its close as a member 
of Company F, Ninety-fifth Illinois Infantry, and a brother, L. C. 
Wheelock, was also in the same command and distinguished himself.