Wheeler, Buel G.

Born: 1815-05-10 Feeding Hills, Massachusetts

Died: 1906-12-26 Boston, Massachusetts

Flourished: Rockford, Illinois

Buel G. Wheeler was a postmaster, banker, and merchant in Rockford, Illinois. In November 1837, he married Harriet L. Norton, with whom he had five children. In 1848, Wheeler received warrants for 160 acres of public land southeast of Rockford in Cherry Valley Township. In May 1849, he received appointment as postmaster, holding that position until May 1853. In 1850, Wheeler was employed as a merchant and owned real property valued at $3,000. In 1851, he purchased seventy-seven acres of public land northwest of Rockford. He was among the original members of the Rockford lodge of the Freemasons, which was established in February 1851. In 1855, Wheeler entered into partnership with W. A. Dickerman and others to form the banking firm of Dickerman, Wheeler & Company. During the Civil War, Wheeler served as a temporary clerk and superintendent of furniture for the U.S. House of Representatives. Wheeler and his daughter Cora, who would become a prominent poet, were at Ford's Theatre the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Past and Present of the City of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1905), 53, 79, 132; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Greene County, 22 November 1837, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Winnebago County, 706:54, 819:85, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:210; 1855-1865, 20A:54, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1849 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1849), *487; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1851 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1851), *547; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1853 (Washington, DC: Robert Armstrong, 1853), *517; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1855 (Washington, DC: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1855), 344*; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Rockford, Winnebago County, IL, 442; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1863 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1864), 280; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1865 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1866), 305; Francis E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, eds., A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Buffalo, Chicago, and New York: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893), 763; Gravestone, Linwood Cemetery, Weston MA.