Hon. Loring Wheeler, DeWitt

LORING WHEELER, son of Jonas and Sarah Boynton Wheeler, was born on the 16th of July, 1799, the place of his nativity being Westmoreland, Cheshire county, New Hampshire. His grandfather, John Wheeler, fought for American independence, beginning on the 17th of June, 1775, and spending his fortune in that grand struggle. His father, Jonas Wheeler, was a farmer, and Loring followed that occupation at home until about 1816, after which date he spent two years at an academy in Chesterfield, making good use of the precious opportunity ; then returning to Westmoreland he became a clerk in a store.

On the 21st of April, 1821, with three other enterprising young men, Mr. Wheeler started for the west in a two-horse buggy, going by the way of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There they purchased a flat-boat, took their team down the Ohio river as far as Shawneetown, Illinois, at which place they disposed of the boat, and struck across the country to Alton, Illinois, where they had friends.

Mr. Wheeler soon went to Green county, Illinois, whence, after clerking two years, he repaired to Exeter, Morgan county, and worked for Colonel Enoch C. Marsh, an extensive trader and flour manufacturer. While thus employed he was often sent to New Orleans with various kinds of stock and provisions, he acting at different times in almost every official capacity on the boat, including the positions of mate and captain. A writer in the Clinton county "Advertiser" states that Mr. Wheeler's was the first flat-boat that ran out of the Illinois, and that he saw the first steamboat that ever ascended that river.

Interested in the reports of lead at Galena, Illinois, in 1827 he went there, and mined until 1834, when he crossed the Mississippi river to Dubuque. On the 26th of December of that year he was commissioned chief justice of the county court for Dubuque county, which was then in Michigan territory, and embraced the northern half of what is now the State of Iowa. After holding one term of the court he resigned. He sold goods two years in Dubuque in company with Hiram Loomis, and in the summer of 1836 came to Round Grove, near where De Witt now stands, made a claim on the 4th of July, and there, with his brother-in-law, Alva G. Harrison, erected a cabin, and then returned to Dubuque. The next winter he was a member of the legislature of Wisconsin territory, to which Iowa then belonged, the session being held at Belmont, on the east side of the river, near Dubuque, and was also a member of the next legislature, which met at Burlington, on the west side of the river. In the spring of 1841 he settled on his farm at Round Grove, and in the autumn of that year was appointed clerk of the court for the new county of Clinton, holding that office during the territorial history of Iowa. In 1846 he was elected to the state senate for the term of four years, the legislature meeting at Iowa City.

In 1849 Mr. Wheeler, with several of his neighbors, went to California by the overland route, and returned by the Nicaragua route in 1853. The next year he was elected clerk of Clinton county, holding the office steadily until the close of 1862. Since that date he has been on the county board of supervisors four years, and was chairman three-fourths of the time. He is a stockholder in the Clinton National Bank, and until recently was one of its directors. He has lost the sight of his right eye by inflammation, and has suffered a year with dry gangrene in his right foot, and is rarely seen on the streets of De Witt, which has been his home since March, 1877. Mr. Wheeler has acted with the republicans since the dissolution of the whig party.

His wife was Susan R. Harrison, a sister of Jesse M. Harrison, of Dubuque, and Alva G. Harrison, of De Witt. They were joined in wedlock on the 8th of February, 1837, and have had nine children, only four of them now living. George Loring is constable of De Witt; Thomas Wilson is deputy clerk of the court of Clinton county; Lloyd B. resides in Mendota, Illinois, and Martha Frances is the wife of Frank W. Cottrell, of Chicago.

Source:

The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Iowa Volume.

Chicago and New York: American Biographical Publishing Company, 1878