Biography of the Hon. Charles A. Wheeler, Bowie County, Texas *********************************************************** Submitted by: V Richardson Date: Apr 2000 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/bowie/bowitoc.htm *********************************************************** The HON. CHARLES A. WHEELER Source: Watlington Manuscript The subject of this brief sketch, the present District Attorney of the Fifth Judicial District of Texas, is a native to the born, his birth occurring near Whitesboro in Grayson County, on September 18, 1879. His father, A. S. Wheeler, was a Tennesseean by birth, but was raised in Georgia, and came to Texas in 1856, settled in Shelby County, where he resided until 1861, when he crossed the State line into Sabine Parish, Louisiana, and entered the confederate service, serving until the close of the war. When hostilities terminated, he returned to his old home in Georgia, where in 1866, he married Miss Sarah E. Wilkins. In 1873 the family moved to Grayson County, Texas, where they resided until 1882, removing thence to Cool County, Texas. Charles was then only about three years old and lived with his parents on the farm in Cook County, until he left home to enter school, at the age of eighteen. At this time he had completed the course of study in the country school where he resided, which by the way, Mr. Wheeler still regards as one of the best schools in Cook County. He attended a small college at Whitesboro Texas, known as the Whitesboro Normal College, for two terms, and then came to Bowie County, Texas in the spring of 1899. After teaching a school during the winter of 1899, he attended the Tyler Commercial College during the spring and summer of 1900. Returning to Bowie County to teach again, the following winter, after which, he attended the North Texas Normal College at Denton, Texas, for one term. Mr. Wheelers next engagement in teaching was at MALTA, Texas, where he taught for three consecutive years. At the close of the third year at Malta, he was elected County Superintendent of Public Instructions of Bowie County, which position he held for three consecutive terms, and declined to stand for a fourth term. After retiring from the County Superintendents Office, Mr. Wheeler went to Austin, finding employment in the Comptroller's office, and studied law under the direction of the faculty of the Law Department of the State University. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1911, and in September of the year, was appointed assistant County Attorney of Bowie County. He resigned this position in April, 1912, and moved to Texarkana where he now resides. In 1918 he was elected District Attorney, and is now serving his first term with a record which he is glad to refer. Mr. Wheeler's legal attainments are of a very high order, and as a prosecutor, able just and fearless, he is universally regarded as in the class of the ablest and best of the 5th Judicial District ever had. On September 10, 1902, Mr. Wheeler was married to Miss Sallie D. Looney, of New Boston, Texas, a member of one of the oldest families in Bowie County, her grandfather, David Looney, having settled in Bowie in about the year 1837. Mrs. Weeler's father, P. D. Looney, died at his home near New Boston, in 1899, at the age of fourty-two years. Six boys have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler, five of whom are living. Mr. Wheeler owns a magnificent home on the Texas side of State Line and has also large farming interests. He and his law partner, Mr. S. I. Robison, have a large civil practice with a splendid library and well equipped law office. Mr. Wheeler in an enthusiastic booster for his adopted County -Bowie - and has always lent his energies to her development, and to the best interest of her citizenship. In politics, Mr. Wheeler comes from a long line of Southerners and Tom Jefferson, "States Rights", Democrats, and boasts that he never "scratched" a ticket.