Title: Wheeler Family Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1833-1965

Creator:

• Wheeler Family

Call Number: Northland Mss 14; PH Northland Mss 14

Quantity: 5.0 cubic feet (12 archives boxes and 4 oversize folders) and 125 photographs (1 archives box)

Repository:

Housed at the Area Research Center, History Center and Archives, Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center / Ashland Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

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

Abstract:

Papers of Leonard H. Wheeler (1811-1872), an early missionary to the Ojibwa Indians at Madeline Island, Wisconsin (1841-1866), and his family. The Wheelers also founded and operated the Indian boarding school at Odanah, Wisconsin, in 1845. They later moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, where they were prominent in religious and manufacturing circles. The papers mostly consist of correspondence with family, officials at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other missionaries. Also includes diaries, writings, family photographs, and family library.

Language: English, Ojibwa

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-nort0014

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Leonard Hemenway Wheeler (1811-1872) was an early missionary to the Ojibwa Indians at Madeline Island, Wisconsin. The Wheeler family also founded, in 1845, and operated the Indian boarding school at Odanah, Wisconsin. They later moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, where they became prominent in religious and manufacturing circles.

Leonard Wheeler and his wife Harriet Wood Wheeler (1816-1894), had at least five children: Leonard Jr. (1843-?), a Congregational clergyman; Julia (1845-1873), a teacher; William H. (1847-1937), an engineer, industrialist, and Civil War veteran; Charles Eugene (1856-1941); and Harriet (1859-?), a teacher and fiction writer.

The papers of the Leonard H. Wheeler family arrived in three different accessions. Boxes 1-8 arrived in 1954 and 1964; Boxes 9-11 and Oversize Folders 1-3 arrived in 1999 and 2000-2002; Box 12 and Oversize Folder 4 arrived in 2016. The papers have been arranged into seven series: Family History; Photographs; Correspondence; Writings; Other Collected Materials; Library; and Harriet (Hattie) Wheeler Papers.

The FAMILY HISTORY series contains background material on the Wheeler family and their activities that were compiled by relatives and by staff at the Madeline Island Historic Site. This includes clippings, biographies, certificates, genealogies, and a family history by Amanda J. Holmes, “Shadows on the Land: the Protestant Missionaries in Odanah, Wisconsin, 1841-1866.” Also includes a lengthy article in the Daily Cleveland Herald documenting the 1864 marriage of Rhoda Spicer of Ellsworth, Ohio, to Leonard Wheeler Jr. in the Wisconsin “wilderness.”

The PHOTOGRAPHS series include several 19th and early 20th century views of Madeline Island, and the mission buildings and the Ojibwa Reservation at Odanah as well as portraits of the Wheeler and Phillips families. The originals are housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison and photocopies of these images have been made available at the Ashland Area Research Center.

The CORRESPONDENCE series consists of family letters, and professional communication in relation to their missionary work.

Family correspondence consists of the correspondence of Leonard Hemenway Wheeler, his wife Harriet Wood Wheeler, and their children. The children that figure most prominently in the correspondence are Leonard Jr., Julia, William H., Charles Eugene, and Harriet. Topics covered in the personal correspondence include family news, religious homilies, a smallpox epidemic, and of travel on Great Lakes steamers, to Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. Of note is an account of the mobilization for the Civil War written from Lowell, Massachusetts one week after the firing on Fort Sumter.

A long series of letters between Hattie and her brother Charles Eugene illuminates the difficulty experienced by an educated single woman in supporting herself and her family's frustration with her financial situation.

Correspondence with the Wheelers' parents and other relatives in Vermont and Massachusetts is also included. Also includes letters to Rhoda Spicer prior to her marriage to Leonard Wheeler Jr., and letters from the family of Rosa Phillips Wheeler, the wife of Charles Eugene Wheeler.

Professional correspondence documents their activities among the Ojibwa Indians at Madeline Island and Odanah. Included is communication with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Boston, the Congregational missionary board that sent the Presbyterian Wheelers to Wisconsin. Most of these letters are from S.B. Treat of the Mission Board. Correspondence with individual missionaries in the Midwest includes exchanges with Frederick Ayers, William T. Boutwell, A.M. Fitch, James M. Gordon, Richard M. Smith, and Asaph Whittlesey, but, most prominently, Rev. Sherman Hall of Crow Wing, Minnesota Territory. The salutation “Dear Brother” can easily identify the correspondence with missionary colleagues. Most of this correspondence relates to the management, successes, and problems of the missionary enterprise.

Wheeler correspondence with officials at the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other government agencies includes exchanges with General L.H. (L.E.?) Webb, agent to the Ojibwa of Lake Superior. There are also letters from tribal elders to federal officials transcribed by the Wheelers. This correspondence concerns the maintenance of the boarding school, in part supported by the federal government. There are also references about the proper education of Native American children (i.e., academic or vocational subjects); problems with illegal liquor sales; the 1862 Sioux Uprising in Minnesota; and federal treaty obligations.

Also includes early letters of Leonard Wheeler while he was still a student at Andover Theological Seminary, and a February 16, 1867 letter explaining how Rev. Wheeler's health problems led to the family's decision to relocate in Beloit.

A letter book kept by the Wheelers covers the years 1842 to 1844. It contains both personal and professional correspondence. Unfortunately, the legibility of this volume is very poor.

Many letters, family and professional, have typed or handwritten transcriptions. There are a few letters in the collection for which no original exists. John Nelson Davidson probably gathered these letters for his book, In Unnamed Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1895). Of special interest is an incomplete account addressed to Mrs. Wheeler about a trip to the upper Saint Croix River in 1829.

The WRITINGS series includes diaries, reminiscences and an autobiography, essays, fiction, sermons, and speeches. Rev. Leonard H. Wheeler's diaries consist of brief notes from 1835, but a more complete journal covers the years 1843 and 1844. The diary of R.W. Wheeler contains entries for 1895 only. Also includes the partial autobiography by Harriet Wheeler's father, Samuel Wood, of Lowell, Massachusetts, personal recollections of Charles E. Wheeler, and a recollection of early Beloit by William H. Wheeler.

Hattie Wheeler's fiction writings include manuscripts and published works, as well as a novel-length work about the Black Hawk War serialized in the Beloit Daily News after her death. Her writings focus on Native American topics, and her younger years at La Pointe and Odanah. With the research material for her book is a file pertaining to the Warren family at La Pointe, as well as a portrait of Mary Warren English, a descendant of Lyman Warren and Michael Cadotte. See also writings under the Harriet (Hattie) Wheeler Papers series.

Also present are scattered business papers of the Wheelers' sons; sermons by Rev. Leonard H. Wheeler, Leonard Jr., and other family members, a partial script of unknown provenance for a pageant featuring the Wheelers, a windmill (invented by the Wheelers), and the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Indians.

OTHER COLLECTED MATERIALS

Rev. Wheeler invented and patented a windmill in 1867, which was originally designed for use by the Ojibwa, and is briefly documented in the collection through correspondence and a patent. After the family moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, Fairbanks, Morse, and Company manufactured his design under the brand name “Eclipse Wind Engine.” (A photograph of the windmill is included in PH 2705).

The Manual Labor Boarding School for the Education of Indian Youth, which the Wheelers operated at Odanah, and other issues concerning Native Americans are documented by reports, agency records, and a transcription of the 1854 treaty with the Ojibwa together with an 1861 petition, apparently drafted by Rev. Wheeler, requesting that the federal government honor its treaty obligations. The agency financial records for 1866 include itemized disbursements for supplies, and a listing of agency employees, their occupations and salaries. Leonard Wheeler served for a time as a supervisor of La Pointe County (now Bayfield County), and as a result there some government documents, including an 1856 Madeline Island inquest and papers of Robert Boyd, justice of the peace.

Also includes documents concerning the difficulty experienced by Leonard Wheeler Jr. with the sale of his Eclipse windmill sales business, other business papers and maps concerning William H. Wheeler's real estate developments in Beloit and South Beloit, and an incomplete Ojibwa/English lexicon of unknown authorship.

The LIBRARY series contains over twenty books owned by the Wheelers from Sunset Lodge in Omena, Michigan, donated by Amanda Holmes. The library is comprised generally of books with religious themes. Of particular interest are five books written in the Ojibwa language, including a spelling book and religious titles. All of these titles have been cataloged by author and title in the WHS catalog.

The HARRIET (HATTIE) WHEELER PAPERS series contains the papers of Leonard Wheeler and Harriet Wood Wheeler's daughter Harriet, who was also a third grade teacher. Most of Harriet's writing focuses on Native American issues and topics resulting from a youth spent in La Pointe and Odanah, Wisconsin. The family later moved to Beloit where Harriet taught school and wrote articles, stories and plays. The records include articles of a book published in serial form in the Beloit Daily News, correspondence, certificates, notes and parts of stories that are titled and untitled, a photograph of Sarah or Harriet Wheeler holding a bear cub, a list of royalties, and portions of stories, plays and notes with some titles (with an index to the titles in folder 6). The correspondence is to and from Harriet with her family, friends, editors, lawyers, and a publisher. Other writings and correspondence by and from Hattie are included in other series.

Lathrop and Wheeler family photographs (PH 2705)

Acquisition Information

Portions presented by Mrs. Minnie Wallace, by Harriett E. Wheeler, and by Mrs. George W. and Helen Bunge, La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1954, 1964 (Box 1-8). Portions presented by Elizabeth J. Fitch, Flossmore, Illinois, 1999, and Amanda J. Holmes, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2000-2002 (Box 9-11, Oversize Folder 1-3). Portions presented by Judith Fowler, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2016 (Box 12 and Oversize Folder 4) Accession Number: M2001-188, M2002-016, M2016-012

Processing Information

Processed by Jonathan Nelson, 2001-2002, and WHS staff, 2016.

Northland Mss 14	Series: Family History
Box   1 Folder   1	Biographical miscellany, 1843-1951
Box   1 Folder   2	Documents, 1858-1935
Box   1 Folder   3	Genealogical material, undated
Box   9 Folder   1	Harriet Wood Wheeler memorial drafts, 1894
Box   9 Folder   2	Wheeler family histories, 1889, , undated
Box   9 Folder   3	“The Wheelers at Chemequon,” undated
Box   1 Folder   4	Histories, 1994, , undated
	Series: Photographs, 1904-1907, undated	⇧
Box   1 Folder   5	Photocopies
Box   9 Folder   4	Photocopies
PH Northland Mss 14	Original prints in Visual Materials Archive in Madison
	Wheeler-Spooner Family and friends
Box   1 Folder   1	English, Mary Warren, Odanah resident
Box   1 Folder   2-3	Phillips, Dorothy and Flora, nieces of Rosa Phillips Wheeler
Box   1 Folder   4-5	Phillips Family relatives
Box   1 Folder   6	Spooner, Abbie, teacher at Odanah
Box   1 Folder   7	Wheeler, Charles B.
Box   1 Folder   8	Wheeler, Charles E.
Box   1 Folder   9	Wheeler, Edward P., and family
Box   1 Folder   10	Wheeler, Emily and Horace Leonard
Box   1 Folder   11	Wheeler, Fred, and Family
Box   1 Folder   12	Wheeler, Hattie
Box   1 Folder   13	Wheeler, Harriet
Box   1 Folder   14	Wheeler, Leonard
Box   1 Folder   15	Wheeler, Walter, and Family
Box   1 Folder   16	Wheeler, William H., and Family
Box   1 Folder   17	Wheeler/Wood Family group
Box   1 Folder   18	Wheeler Family members? from Abbie Spooner album
Box   1 Folder   19	Wood, Hannah, sister of Harriet Wheeler
Box   1 Folder   20	Odanah
Box   1 Folder   21	La Pointe
Box   1 Folder   22	Unidentified buildings
Northland Mss 14	Series: Correspondence	⇧
	Personal
Box   1 Folder   6	1836-1842
Box   9 Folder   5-10	1836-1867, 1872-1920
Oversize Folder   3	1841
Oversize Folder   1	1842
Box   1 Folder   7-11	1843-1865
Box   2 Folder   1-5	1866-1965, , undated
Box   10 Folder   1-2	1921-1933, , undated
	Professional
Box   2 Folder   6-11	1833-1873
Box   10 Folder   3-5	1841-1949, , undated
Box   2 Folder   12-13	1890-1953, , undated
Box   3 Folder   1	Letter book, 1842-1844
Box   3 Folder   2	Transcriptions, 1829-1864, , undated Note: Used by John Nelson Davidson; originals not included in collection.
Box   12 Folder   2	Correspondence and receipts, 1891-1911, 1922
	Series: Writings	⇧
Box   3 Folder   3	Autobiography by Samuel Wood, undated
	Diaries
Box   3 Folder   4	Leonard H. Wheeler, 1835, 1843-1844
Box   3 Folder   5	R.W. Wheeler, 1895, undated
Box   3 Folder   6	Essays and speeches, William H. Wheeler, 1931, undated
	Fiction by Hattie Wheeler, 1892-1925, undated
Box   10 Folder   6	“Battling the Equinox”
Box   10 Folder   7	“Fasting of Shortfoot”
Box   10 Folder   8	“Heart Affairs of Aunt Abigal”
Box   10 Folder   9	“In the Ojibwa Custom”
Box   10 Folder   10	“Indian's Tribute”
Box   10 Folder   11	“Italy's Gift to English Drama,” 1924
Box   10 Folder   12	“Nick in the Plane”
Box   10 Folder   12A	“Nokomis,” 1902
Box   10 Folder   13-14	“On Blackhawk's Trail,” manuscript and serialization, 1925
Box   10 Folder   15	“One Little Injun”
Box   10 Folder   16	“Saved by a Miracle,” 1892
Box   10 Folder   17	“Trail of the Savage”
Box   10 Folder   18	“Wigwam Slumber Stories”
Box   10 Folder   19	“Woman in Stone”
Box   3 Folder   7	Personal recollection, Charles E. Wheeler, undated
Box   3 Folder   8	Sermons by Leonard H. Wheeler, and others, 1841-1897, undated
Box   11 Folder   1	Sermon, unidentified, undated
Box   3 Folder   9	Writings, undated
Box   11 Folder   2	Writings, undated
	Series: Other Collected Materials	⇧
Box   3 Folder   10	Ashland County records, 1863-1872
Box   11 Folder   3	Church and Sunday school reports, 1886-1918, undated
	Eclipse windmill business
Box   11 Folder   4	Correspondence, 1893-1916, undated
Box   11 Folder   5	Sales and financial records, 1887-1916
Box   11 Folder   6	Expense book, Charles E. Wheeler, 1914-1915
Box   11 Folder   7	Financial records, 1869-1919
Box   11 Folder   8	Flora Phillips, Shirland Courier advertising newspaper, undated
	Indian Agency disbursements
Box   3 Folder   13	1861-1866
Oversize Folder   2	1866
Box   3 Folder   19	Lake Superior Congregational Club program, 1893
Box   3 Folder   11-12	La Pointe (Bayfield) County, 1849-1862
Box   11 Folder   9	Legal documents, 1857-1888, undated
Box   3 Folder   14	Manual Labor Boarding School, 1858-1859, undated
Box   11 Folder   10	Map, Kendrick, Montana area, undated
Oversize Folder   3	Maps, Beloit and South Beloit, 1887-1905
Box   11 Folder   11	Native American research materials, 1903-1923
Box   11 Folder   12	News clippings regarding Native Americans, Odanah, 1889-1933
	Northland College
Box   3 Folder   17	Helping Hand newspaper, 1900-1901
Box   3 Folder   18	Northern Light journal, 1908
Box   11 Folder   13	Odanah area genealogical research, Charles E. Wheeler, undated
Box   11 Folder   14	Ojibwa/English, English/Ojibwa lexicon, undated
Box   11 Folder   15	Ojibwa Indian account of conversion, undated
Box   3 Folder   15	Ojibwa miscellany, 1856-1865
Box   3 Folder   20	“Old Mission,” Christian Workers' Retreat brochures, undated
Box   11 Folder   16	South Beloit housing development, William H. Wheeler, 1931, undated
Box   3 Folder   16	Treaty of 1854, 1854-1861
	Series: Library	⇧
Box   4 Folder   1	Annual Report of the Massachusetts Indian Association, 1885
Box   4 Folder   2	Bible (miniature), undated
Box   4 Folder   3	Elements of History / J. E. Worcester, 1848
Box   4 Folder   4	Fox's Book of Martyrs / John Fox, undated
Box   5 Folder   1	Indian Legends, Nanabush the Ojibway Saviour, 1885
Box   5 Folder   2	Manual of Elementary Chemistry / George Fownes, 1867
Box   5 Folder   3	Memoir and Remains of Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne / Andrew Bonar, circa 1892
Box   5 Folder   4	Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts / E.C. Tracy, 1845
Box   5 Folder   5	Missions on the Chequamegon Bay / John Nelson Davidson, 1892
Box   6 Folder   1	The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: translated into the language of the Ojibwa Indians, 1844
Box   6 Folder   2	Ojibue Spelling Book, 1846
Box   6 Folder   3	Ojibwa Hymns, undated
Box   6 Folder   4	Old Testament Bible Stories (Ojibwa), 1835
Box   6 Folder   5	Philosophy of the Human Voice / James Rush, 1855
Box   6 Folder   6	Plain Words to a Young Communicant, 1856
Box   7 Folder   1	Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes / Henry Ward Beecher, 1855
Box   7 Folder   2	Practical Thoughts / William Nevins, 1836
Box   7 Folder   3	Preliminary Survey of the Remains of the Chippewa Settlements on La Pointe Island, Wisconsin / Philip Means, 1917
Box   7 Folder   4-5	Report of the Centenary Conference on the Protestant Missions of the World / James Johnston, 1888
Box   8 Folder   1	Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book, 1860
Box   8 Folder   2	Sabbath Manual: nos. 1-2 / Justin Edwards, undated
Box   8 Folder   3	Story of the Black Hawk War / Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1892
Box   8 Folder   4	Wrongs of Woman / Charlotte Elizabeth, 1844
	Series: Harriet (Hattie) Wheeler Papers	⇧
Box   12 Folder   1	Certificates, 1877
Box   12 Folder   2	Correspondence and receipts, 1891-1911, 1922
Box   12 Folder   4	Photograph of Harriet Wheeler with a bear cub, undated
	Writings
Box   12 Folder   9	“On Blackhawk's Trail,” 1925
Oversize Folder   4	“On Blackhawk's Trail,” 1925
Box   12 Folder   6-8	Stories, plays and notes, some titles, undated
Box   12 Folder   11	Notes from “Extracts of Hypherion”
Box   12 Folder   12	Notes for “An Imported Maid” and “Life of Charles Summer”
Box   12 Folder   10	Notes for an untitled play
Box   12 Folder   3	Notes and stories, untitled, undated
Box   12 Folder   5	Royalties list, 1902-1903