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- HON. WILLIAM G. WHEELER, a distinguished member of the
- Bar of Janesville, is a son of Hon. Guy and Ann L. (SNELL)
WHEELER, both of whom were born in New York. Mrs. WHEELER's family
settled in Wisconsin three years before her husband, the respective
dates of their location being 1839 and 1842.
- In 1844 Guy WHEELER settled on a farm of 240 acres, two and
a
- half miles southeast of Janesville, and on this tract he
still resides, honored by the community and beloved by his friends.
His family consisted of two sons and two daughters, of whom three
are yet living: Marion W. is the wife of A. C. DOW, of Chicago,
Ill.; Ralph H. is a successful physician in the same city; and
the third is Hon. William G. WHEELER, whose name appears as the
subject of this sketch. Cordelia, the second child, died in her
fourteenth year. Hon. Guy WHEELER is one of Rock County's most
influential
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- citizens, broad-minded, keen-sighted, and public-spirited.
He was one of the founders of the county agricultural society,
and for many years its secretary. The meeting to organize the
township of La Prairie was held at his house, and he was chosen
the first town clerk. The township was so named at the instance
of his brother Samuel, who is now one of the leading citizens
of Rochester, Minn. Guy WHEELER was a member of the Wisconsin
Legislature in 1864.
- Hon. Guy WHEELER married a daughter of Asa F. SNELL, who
was the father of ten children.
- Mr. SNELL and his wife were New Yorkers, and settled at Fort
Atkinson, Wis., in 1839. He was a prosperous farmer, and was
elevated, by the suffrages of his fellow citizens, to various
offices of trust, the duties of which he discharged with rare
acumen and fidelity. He died at the age of about sixty years.
- The paternal grandfather of William G. WHEELER, Justus P.
WHEELER, was born in
- Lanesboro, Mass., and was descended from Welsh ancestry.
He was a patriot of pronounced devotion, and served with gallantry
throughout the war of 1812. He came West in 1840, settling in
what is now known as La Prairie township, Rock Co., Wis. As is
his son Guy, so was he, a man keenly alive to every vital interest
of the people among whom his lot was cast. His life was a long
and useful one, and not devoid of honor. The Rock County Agricultural
Society chose him its first president. He was a man of superior
classical education, having graduated form Williams College.
He held deep and earnest religious convictions, and was a devout
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Janesville, having
taken a prominent part in founding the M. E. congregation in
that city.
- The early life of Hon. William G. WHEELER was much the same
as that of other boys of his day
- and generation who grew up on Wisconsin farms in the early
history of the State. He was born in the township of La Prairie,
Rock County, Nov. 11, 1861, and the district schools and the
Janesville high school gave him his early education. At the age
of twenty years, in 1881, he began the study of law, his preceptors
being Messrs. WINANS & FETHERS. He was admitted to the Bar
in 1884, and from Oct. 1 of that year until June 6, 1885, served
as deputy in the office of the circuit court clerk. On the date
last named he was himself appointed clerk of the circuit court,
to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of the previous incumbent
of the office, A. W. BALDWIN. His term expiring in January, 1887,
he began the active practice of his profession in the following
May, and has been remarkably successful. In 1892 he entered the
firm of DUNWIDDIE & GOLDIN, the name of the new co-partnership
being DUNWIDDIE, GOLDIN & WHEELER. Three years later this
firm was dissolved by the election of Mr. GOLDIN as clerk of
the circuit court, and on June 19, 1899, the partnership between
Messrs. DUNWIDDIE & WHEELER came to an end through the elevation
of the senior member of the firm to the circuit court bench.
From 1891 until 1895 Mr. WHEELER filled the office of district
attorney, bringing to the discharge of his arduous duties a well-trained
legal mind, a ripe experience, and unquestionable integrity.
Among many noteworthy prosecutions which he successfully conducted
while in this incumbency may be mentioned the cases of the State
versus D. G. CHEEVER and the State versus Matthew R. ASHTON.
The trial of ASHTON, who was charged with the murder of a woman
consumed thirty days. The case ranks among the causes celebres
of the Northwest, and so skillfully was the web of evidence woven
around he guilty man, by the astute and careful district attorney,
that a conviction and life sentence were secured. In 1897, and
again in 1899, Mr. WHEELER represented his district in the Wisconsin
Legislature, and during the last session filled the responsible
post of chairman of the committee on Judiciary. During his first
term in the Assembly he nominated Hon. John C. SPOONER for the
United States Senate, and in 1899 was a supporter of MR. QUARLES.
On Jan. 11, 1901, he was appointed United States attorney for
the Western District of Wisconsin, which position he now holds.
- Mr. WHEELER is personally one of Janesville's most popular
citizens, cordial, genial and
- generous. He is, as may be imagined, prominent in both social
and political circles, and is a member of Oriental Lodge, No.
22, K. of P., and of the B.P.O.E. He was until recently a member
and chairman of the commission to organize a park on the St.
Croix river, to be known as the Inter State Park of the Dalles
of the St. Croix.
- On Nov. 19, 1889, Mr. WHEELER married Miss Jessica M. JACKMAN,
a daughter of Hiram
- and Harriet M. (COATSWORTH) JACKMAN. Mrs. WHEELER is a communicant
of the Episcopal Church.
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-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 184-185; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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