Wheeler family.

Although the bulk of the Wheeler Family Papers documents the public life of Joseph Wheeler (1836-1906), there are financial, legal, and personal papers that belonged to various family members, including his father Joseph Wheeler (1787-1866), General Wheeler's wife Daniella Jones Sherrod Wheeler (1841-1896), her father Richard Jones (1793-1833), her first husband Benjamin Sherrod (d.1861), her brother Thomas Harrison Jones (1820-1889), and General Wheeler's brother William Hull Wheeler (1834-1861).

The youngest of four children, Joseph Wheeler was born in Augusta, Ga. on 1836 Sept. 10, to Joseph and Julia Knox (Hull) Wheeler, whose marriage united two old New England families. He was educated in Conn. and at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., from which he graduated in 1859.

After cavalry school Wheeler was sent to N.M. where his tour was cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War. Through the help of influential Alabamians, Wheeler was quickly promoted to colonel and to the command of the Nineteenth Ala. Infantry Regiment. By the end of the war he was a major general, the senior cavalry general of the Confederate armies.

In 1865 he married Daniella Jones Sherrod. After a brief business venture in New Orleans, Wheeler returned to Lawrence County, Ala. where he prospered. He studied law, and set up a law practice with his brother-in-law, Thomas Harrison Jones.

In 1880 he was elected to the U.S. Congress from the Eighth District, but his opponent, William Lowe, successfully contested the election, and it was not until 1884 that Wheeler became a bona fide member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Spanish-American War gave Wheeler another military experience at the Battle of Santiago, followed by a brief tour in the Philippines. His public career was noted for his concern for his constituents, for the development of the Tennessee River, and for military matters. He died in 1906, after six years of retirement.

From the description of Papers, 1809-1943. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122537924