Wheeler, Loring

Born: 1799-07-16 New Hampshire

Died: 1889-01-26 Iowa

Loring Wheeler was a judge, territorial and state legislator, and early pioneer of the Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa territories. He received his early education in Westmoreland County, New Hampshire. In 1829, Wheeler left his native state for Illinois, settling in Galena, where he engaged in lead mining. During the Black Hawk War, he served as a private in Captain Enoch Duncan's company of mounted riflemen. After the war, he moved to Dubuque in what was then the Michigan Territory, receiving appointment as chief justice of Dubuque County. When the Wisconsin Territory came into existence, Wheeler won election to the first Legislative Assembly, representing Dubuque County in the House of Representatives. In 1839 and 1840, he represented Dubuque and Clayton counties in the second Legislative Assembly. In February 1839, Wheeler married Susan Roe Harrison. In 1841, Wheeler and his family moved to Dewitt in Clinton County. After Iowa became a state in 1846, he won election to the Iowa Senate, representing Clinton and Scott counties in that body from 1846 to 1850. Wheeler affiliated with the Whig Party until 1856, when he helped to establish the Republican Party in Iowa. He would remain a Republican until his death.

Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-8 (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1882), 165; Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (New York: Century History, 1903), 3:443, 459, 460; 4:284; "Loring Wheeler," The Iowa Legislature, accessed 23 April 2020, https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/legislator?ga=1&personID=6013.