Title: J. Russell Wheeler Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1840-1876, 1896-1966

Creator:

• Wheeler, J. Russell, 1875-1966

Call Number: Mss 464; SC 1047; Tape 307A

Quantity: 6.5 c.f. (16 archives boxes and 1 folder) and 1 tape recording

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of J. Russell Wheeler, the manager (later president) of the Farmers' and Merchants' Union Bank of Columbus, Wisconsin, and of his relatives, John and Lester Rockwell, and John R. and John E. Wheeler, also bankers. Present is personal and business correspondence, reminiscences recorded in 1963, financial records, abstracts of title, land indentures, and related materials for the Rockwell and Wheeler families' business interests, which included land speculation, lumbering, and the Columbus Food Company. Also in the collection is a file on the architecture of Louis Sullivan, including the Columbus bank.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00464

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John Russell Wheeler (1816-1881), the grandfather of J. Russell Wheeler, first settled in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, where he was employed at the bank owned by the Rockwell brothers, Le Grand and Lester R. His wife, who had died before he left New York state leaving him with a nine-year-old son, John Edward (1850-1917), was a sister of the Rockwells. A third Rockwell brother, John S., was considered to be the founder of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, where he and Lester erected a mill.

In 1861, John Russell Wheeler left the Rockwell Brothers Bank at Elkhorn and moved to Columbus to establish the Union Bank as a private bank. Two years later, Samuel Marshall and Charles F. Ilsley, both Milwaukee bankers, seem to have owned stock also. In 1873, the Union Bank of Columbus was sold to Wheeler's brother-in-law, Lester R. Rockwell, who managed it until his death in 1884, when it came under the management of his son, Ruggles S. Rockwell.

After selling the Columbus bank, John Russell Wheeler and his son, John Edward, went to Colorado to engage in banking and ranching, and it was in Colorado Springs that J. Russell Wheeler was born. However, the family returned to Wisconsin some years later and John Edward became manager of the La Crosse Power Company. In 1896, he repurchased the Union Bank of Columbus, founded by his father, renamed it the Farmers' and Merchants' Union Bank of Columbus, and established his son, J. Russell, as cashier and manager. The bank was incorporated in 1903 as a state bank, and after the death of John Edward Wheeler in 1917, J. Russell Wheeler became president, the capital stock was doubled, and a number of relatives and customers became stockholders.

J. Russell Wheeler was particularly interested in the development and improvement of agriculture in Wisconsin, knowing that his bank would profit from a prosperous rural economy. He was a stockholder and director of the Rib Lake Lumber Company and the Wisconsin Farm Land Company; and in 1900 was one of the organizers of the Columbus Canning Company, and its successor, the Columbus Foods Corporation. As a director, he helped to effect the merger of the foods corporation with Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. in 1946. Always active in banking and agriculture organizations, he served as president of the Wisconsin Bankers Association in 1916 and 1917. It was he who commissioned noted Chicago architect Louis Sullivan to design the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank Building in Columbus in 1919, the only Sullivan-designed building in Wisconsin.

In 1924 J. Russell Wheeler left the Columbus bank and moved to Milwaukee to become vice president, and later president, of the Bankers Joint Land Bank, from which he resigned in 1927 due to ill health and discord between the directors and the Federal Farm Loan board. The remainder of his life was spent as an investment counselor in Chicago and Milwaukee.

J. Russell Wheeler was married to Anne May Knutesen of La Crosse in 1897. They had three children: John E., Helen A., and Mary Alice. John E. carried on the family tradition of handling finances and became an investment broker in Chicago and California. The father and son had frequent correspondence concerning the investment of stocks and bonds, right up to the time of J. Russell Wheeler's death in 1966.

J. Russell Wheeler was primarily a small town banker, and as such had an interest in land speculation and the development of the lumbering industry in Wisconsin. In general, the correspondence in these papers is concerned with services for bank customers and business associates, financial data and records, abstracts of titles, and land indentures. Because of his interest in agriculture and the foods industry, there are many letters relating to farm loans, canning companies, and lumber operations--the latter in Jackson and Clark counties at the turn of the century.

Prior to 1900, papers of John S. and Lester R. Rockwell, and of Julius L. Edwards of Walworth County, Wheeler's maternal grandfather, appear with the correspondence. These are concerned with land speculation in southeastern Wisconsin, especially in the vicinity of Oconomowoc and Elkhorn, and are in the collection due to the family relationships; in fact, John Edward Wheeler served as Lester Rockwell's executor. Within this early correspondence there are about sixteen letters, 1860-1862, from Nelson Dewey to Lester R. Rockwell dealing with monies Dewey collected in Rockwell's behalf.

Correspondence after 1900 chiefly concerns the business enterprises of J. Russell Wheeler himself. In the 1930s and early 1940s he dealt in securities for firms in Chicago; and in 1949 he was commissioned to sell mutual fund stock from his home in Evanston, although he had retired from active trading some years before. His letters show that after moving back to Milwaukee in 1950, he managed small investments for himself and relatives.

Although most are personal account books, the volumes listed in the contents list below give some indication of the Wheelers' involvement with the Columbus bank. This is particularly true of the first five. The volumes do not cover consecutive years, but show something of the bank's early development and of the financial affairs of the Wheelers.

Also in the collection are recorded and transcribed reminiscences, July 31, 1963, of J. Russell Wheeler, including references to architect Louis Sullivan and his designing of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Columbus.

The researcher's attention is called to two subjects documented in these papers which are unrelated to banking, investment, and agriculture: (1) In the Civil War period members of the Wheeler, Edwards, and Rockwell families exchanged letters with relatives in the service. Scattered correspondence is found here; and letters from Albert J. Rockwell compose a small Civil War collection cataloged separately (Wis Mss 92S). (2) In his later years J. Russell Wheeler was absorbed with his family's genealogy. These papers contain many letters concerning family history; and in addition a collection of genealogical charts and notes relating to the Wheeler, Edwards, Rockwell, and Rust families is cataloged separately as John Russell Wheeler Genealogical Information (SC 345).

Acquisition Information

Papers presented by Fred Stare, Columbus, Wis., October 30, 1956, and by Mrs. Helen Wheeler Fuller, Milwaukee, Wis., November 23, 1966. Interview recorded by David Thelen of the State Historical Society staff, at Milwaukee, July 31, 1963.

Processing Information

Processed by Margaret Hafstad, February 17, 1967.

Mss 464	Correspondence
Box   1	1840-1876; 1896-1901, October
Box   2	1901 November-1902 September
Box   3	1902 October-1903 August
Box   4	1903 September-1904 May
Box   5	1904 May-1905 January
Box   6	1905 February-August
Box   7	1905 September-1906 March
Box   8	1906 April-October
Box   9	1906 November-1907 June
Box   10	1907 September-1908 March
Box   11	1908 April-September
Box   12	1908 October-1927
Box   13	1928-1939
Box   14	1940-1953
Box   15	1954-1966
Box   15	Genealogical data--Wheeler
Box   15	Folder of articles on Louis Sullivan's architecture, including the Columbus Bank
Box   16 Volume   1	Ledger for the Union Bank of Columbus, Wisconsin, 1863-1866 (Kept by John Russell Wheeler)
	John Russell Wheeler Account Books
Box   16 Volume   2	Account Book, 1867-1869
Box   16 Volume   3	Account Book, 1868
Box   16 Volume   4	Inventories and Accounts, 1869-1878
Box   16 Volume   5	Account Book, 1869-1881
	John Edward Wheeler Account Books
Box   16 Volume   6	Account Book, 1881-1884
Box   16 Volume   7	Inventories and Accounts, 1885-1888
	J. Russell Wheeler Account Books
Box   16 Volume   8	Private Account Book, 1894
Box   16 Volume   9	Private Account Book, 1894
Box   16 Volume   10	Diary and Account Book, 1900-1901
	G. W. Stephens and Jay Walbridge, plaintiffs, vs. J. R. Wheeler and Farmers and Merchants Union Bank of Columbus
Box   16 Volume   11	Brief of Appellants, undated
Box   16 Volume   12	Reply Brief for Appellants, undated
Tape 307A	Recorded Reminiscences, 1963, July 31
SC 1047	Transcription