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On May 1, 1847 he started over the old Oregon Trail along
the Platte River, arriving in Oregon on September 7, 1847.
He continued down the Columbia River from The Dalles with
Governor Abernethy, and when arriving in Linn County, took
up a claim of 640 acres near Peterson’s Butte. He built
a little log cabin there, where he prepared to make his home.
With the breaking out of the Cayuse Indian War in January
1848, he volunteered under Captain Maxon and at once went
to the scene of action where he was in the First Regiment
of Oregon Riflemen.
On February 28, 1848, in the battle at Wells Springs, in
Gilliam County, he was wounded in the right knee. It was during
this time, while laying wounded, Wheeler was elected as Sheriff.
Wheeler left Linn County in the spring of 1849, and returned
once again to the valley in the fall of 1850. He married Eliza
Claypool in June of 1850 and they had five children, Melissa
, Delia, Ellen, Mary and Frank. After his wife passed away
in 1897, he married Diana Hanchett in 1898.
After his term of sheriff, Wheeler had several political
vocations. He served three terms as county commissioner, and
one term in the territorial legislature. He also served one
or two terms as a City Councilman of Albany and one term as
Mayor of Albany. In 1878 he served as a state representative.
During the administration of President Cleveland, he was appointed
as an Indian Agent at the Warm Springs Reservation, serving
for three terms.
Wheeler was a popular and prominent man in the state. He
was a member of the committee which was sent to Congress to
obtain the passage of the Indian War Pension Bill. He supervised
the building of the Albany canal. He also performed the same
duties during the construction of the military road over the
Cascade mountains from the Willamette to the Deschutes River.
Wheeler belonged to several state organizations, among them
being the Indian War Veteran Association and the Linn County
Pioneer Association, where he served as President in 1899
. He was made a Mason in Corinthian Lodge in Albany.
A devoted member of the Baptist Church, he was active in
all the work pertaining to the same. Mr. Wheeler’s character
was known as one belonging to an upright, honest and honorable
citizen. He was called a landmark of the early times. From
his entrance into the territory, he was connected with almost
every movement, every enterprise upon which statehood had
been reared. As a sturdy, steady patriot of the new land,
he exposed his life to the dangers of Indian warfare; as a
public official, chosen to serve through the indisputable
evidence of his personal worth, he faithfully performed the
duties which fell to his lot; as a citizen he had accepted
the bounty of the government and given it back tenfold, in
the cultivated fields of the lands which have been made the
agricultural life of the State of Oregon. He was rich in characteristics,
which won him many friends and called forth the esteem and
confidence of all who knew him. Wheeler passed away in 1907.
He was laid to rest in the Albany Masonic Cemetery.
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