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WHEELER, MORRIS

Portrait and Biographical Album of Oakland County, Michigan, Chapman Bros. (1891), p. 768

MORRIS WHEELER, a farmer residing on section 3, Highland Township, is a son of Cyrus Wheeler, a son of Benjamin, who was born in Massachusetts and married there.  At an early day he went to Ontario County, N, Y., where he ended his days. His wife was a Miss Short of Massachusetts.  He served for seven years in the War of the Revolution, and received a pension for his services.   He owned considerable land in New York which he farmed.  He was also a distiller and a drover.  He gave his children each a farm.

Cyrus Wheeler was born in East Bloomfield, Ontario County, N. Y.   Here he married his wife, Sarah Colt, and here his son, our subject, was born.  Cyrus died at the early age of twenty-one years.   His wife married a second time to a Dr. Andrew Wood, and by him she became the mother of seven children - Jane, Lavina, Nancy, Elizabeth, Andrew, Alva and Madison.  The mother of our subject died in 1881 in Niagara County, N. Y.

Morris Wheeler was born in Ontario County, N. Y , in 1817.  Here he lived in his native town, Bristol, until twenty-four years of age, when he removed to Highland Township, Oakland County, Mich., which he has made his permanent home.

Previous to his removal to Michigan he married in 1835, in Ontario County, Mary Whitemore, a daughter of Jonas Whitemore, a native of Massachusetts.  To Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have been born the following children: Adeline, now Mrs. Downs residing at Milford; Cyrus V., residing in Highland Township; Jonas, living in Cheboygan County, Mich.; Alice, now Mrs. Bridgman, who resides in Milford Township; Charles and Ulysses, deceased; Frank [sic], who is now Mrs. Watson and resides in Nebraska; Hattie, who is at home; Harry, who lives in Detroit, and is in business with a paper dealer, and Eliza, who is at home with her parents.  The two oldest children were born in New York and the others in Highland Township.

In 1841, when Mr. Wheeler came to Michigan, the country was new and wild animals abounded.  He often heard wolves howling near his home.  He bought one hundred and twenty acres of land which he now owns, and erected on it buildings which now adorn it.  His wife is an efficient and active member of the Presbyterian Church.   His political affiliations are with the Republican party, but he has never sought office at the hands of his fellow-citizens.  In 1883 Mr. Wheeler purchased a stock of goods and started a grocery and queensware business in Cheboygan County, Mich.  This business is carried on for him by his son Jonas.

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