Jefferson County, NY Pioneers


JEFFERSON COUNTY NEW YORK

PIONEER JAMES WHEELER

1. JAMES WHEELER was born 26 Nov 1748 in Greenwich, Massachusetts. He married RACHEL _______. They settled in Chesterfield Twp, New Hampshire where their children were born.

The History of the Wheeler Family in America by Albert G. Wheeler incorrectly asserts that "The History of Chesterfield, N.H., says that his father's name was Joseph, also that he was a brother of Benjamin Wheeler No. 10172." In actuality, The History of Chesterfield, Cheshire County, N.H. (by Oran E. Randall) does not identify James Wheeler's father. It states:

WHEELER, JAMES, said to have been the brother of Ephm., Benjamin, 2nd, and Randall Wheeler (q.v.), may have been in Chfd. in 1773. His wife was RACHEL ______. Selectman 1792 (?), 1800, '01. His name disappears between 1815 and '19.

It is generally accepted that these brothers are the sons of EPHRAIM WHEELER and HANNAH MARKS of Greenwich (Quabbin), Hampshire County, MA.

The majority of JAMES WHEELER'S family had moved to Jefferson County, NY by 1819, settling in Brownville, Henderson, and Ellisburgh. JAMES WHEELER died in Brownville in 1835. Many of his children and grandchildren later moved on to Wisconsin and Minnesota in the mid 1840's. Some remained in Jefferson County.

Children of JAMES and RACHEL WHEELER:

2. HANNAH WHEELER b. 12 Mar 1775

3. JONATHAN WHEELER b. 18 Apr 1777

4. SILAS WHEELER b. 21 May 1780 m. SALLY BISHOP

5. RACHEL WHEELER b. 3 Nov 1782 m. _______ SCOTT

6. EPHRAIM WHEELER b. 26 Jan 1785

7. LEONARD WHEELER b. 14 Jul 1787 m. EUNICE DAGGETT

8. ROSWELL WHEELER b. 11 May 1790

9. LEAH WHEELER b. 23 Jun 1792 m. EATON GROW

10. FANNY WHEELER b. 1 Dec 1794 m. ________ CROSBY

In JAMES WHEELER'S will of 1834, he also named an additional child, probably an adopted orphan:
11. PAUL HILDRETH

References:

1) The History of the Wheeler Family in America, by Albert G. Wheeler, 1914.

2) Will of James Wheeler of Brownville, Jefferson County, NY, probated 1835.

3) History of Chesterfield, Cheshire County, NH, by Oran E. Randall, 1882.

4) "Descendents of Leonard Wheeler" in Lyme Heritage Center Wheeler Family File.

For further information, contact:
Vanessa Herring


Addendum

Submitted by Tim Wheeler 13 Feb 2023

Appendix D
A Research of Wheelers at Greenwich, Hampshire
as a Part of
Evaluating Candidate 1 Moses Wheeler

Sources:

Howe, Donald W. (1951). Quabbin, The Lost Valley. Page 255. Edited by Donald W. Howe and Edited By Roger Nye Lincoln. The Quabbin Press House, Ware, Massachusetts, 1951. The Davis Press, Inc., Worcester, Massachusetts. Available at www.archive.org.

Massachusetts Vital Records (2005). Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850. The Massachusetts Vital Records Project. Slaughter, John, Owner/Administrator. www.ma-vitalrecords.org (free site not using http protocols). Records compiled in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries and transcribed to this Internet site.

NYGenWeb (2016). Pioneer James Wheeler Family. Jefferson.nygenweb.net/wheelerj2.htm. Jefferson County, NY Pioneers, Jefferson County, New York. Copyright 2016. This James Wheeler is Daughters of America Revolution Ancestor # A204420.

Randall, Oren E. (1882). History of Chesterfield, Cheshire County, N.H. From the Incorporation of Township Number One By Massachusetts In 1736 To the Year 1881, Together With Family Histories and Genealogies. Brattleboro, VT: D. Leonard, Printer 1882. Available at www.archive.org.

Wheeler, Albert G. (1914). The Genealogical and Encyclopedic History of The Wheeler Family in America, Compiled by the American College of Genealogy Under the Direction of Albert Gallatin Wheeler, Jr., Boston Mass., American College of Genealogy, 1914. Copyright by Albert G. Wheeler, Jr., Printed by Vail-Ballou Co., Binghamton and New York. Available at www.archive.org and www.babel.hathitrust.org.


In the appendix discussing the search for any Moses Wheeler of Worcester County, Massachusetts other than candidate 1 Moses Wheeler of Petersham who could be the father of the six sons raised in Herkimer County, New York and for any line of Wheelers other than the line from John of Newbury through James of Rowley that could be the ancestors of James Wheeler of Petersham I mention the son, James, of James Wheeler of Stow. James Wheeler of Stow was not addressed by Wheeler (1914). My study of his son James born in 1682 lead to research of Wheelers at Greenwich, Hampshire, Massachusetts and Wheelers descendants that would be at Chesterfield, Cheshire, New Hampshire within the lifetimes of 5 James and 6 Moses Wheeler at Petersham. This study was completed as a part of evaluating candidate 1 Moses Wheeler as my ancestor.

A James and Mary Wheeler and a John and Hannah Wheeler had children born in Littleton in the early 18th century, and these parents appear very likely to be the two sons of James of Stow. An image available at Ancestry.com shows that James at Littleton had at least two children born there, James born in 1716 and Mary born in 1719. One image provides four children born to John and Hannah at Littleton, but another image that summarizes the children of this couple includes 6 entries. The images of these vital records are available by searching the birth in 1716 of James Wheeler at Littleton, Middlesex, Massachusetts and the birth of James Wheeler at Littleton in 1725 in the “Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988” source (database) at Ancestry.com.

The results presented by other researchers and available on the Internet indicate that James born in 1682 married a Mary Randall. They may have been first cousins because his father married Sarah Randall. The marriage of James and Mary is not in the vital records of Stow, but the birth records make it quite clear that they had their first child, Sarah, born there on 11 August 1714 before having two children born at Littleton. Their son, James, was born on 25 September 1716, and their daughter, Mary, was born in 1719 at Littlefield. The son, James, born to John (John probably the brother of the parent James at Littlefield) and Hannah Wheeler was born at Littlefield on 12 March 1725.

An Ephraim Wheeler of Greenwich married Hannah Marks at Pelham, Hampshire, Massachusetts on 10 November 1746. He probably was a brother, not a son, of the James Wheeler born at Littlefield in 1716 because his marriage in 1746 would indicate he could not have been of marriage age if he was the son of the James born at Littlefield in 1716. He of course could have been related in some other way to the James Wheeler born at Stow in 1682 and the James Wheeler born at Littlefield in 1716. It does make sense, however, that he was related in some way to the Wheelers of Stow and Littlefield because he named a son Randall.

His children born at Greenwich are said to include the four Wheeler brothers (James, Ephraim, Benjamin and Randall) that were later in Chesterfield, Cheshire, New Hampshire during the Revolutionary War (Randall, 1882). It is only generally accepted, not known definitely, that Ephraim is the father of these brothers. The father could have been a relative, possibly a James Wheeler of Quabbin (Greenwich). I have no facts, however, to counter the generally accepted position that Ephraim was the father. The son, James, of Ephraim was born on 26 November 1748 (NYGenWeb, 2016). I don’t know how this date was determined. It may be from family history or legal records such as the Will of James.

There was also a James, Jr. at Chesterfield at that time, and I will address this person. As I have already stated, it makes sense that Ephraim was related to the James born in 1682 at Stow and James born in 1716 at Littlefield because he named a son Randall. An Ephraim with the surname Randall on the maternal side is also supported by the vital records of Stow that include the death of an Ephraim Wheeler in 1808 with the mother given as Mary. This record is obviously the source of the year of death 1808 assigned by researchers to the Ephraim of Greenwich.

Some researchers suggest that James and Mary (Randall) Wheeler moved to Greenwich, Hampshire and that one of their children born there was an Ephraim. In this case he would be a younger brother of the James born in 1716 at Littlefield. In order to survive until 1808 he could not have been of the same generation as the James born in 1682 at Stow. Based on the date of this Ephraim’s marriage and the grant of land to a James Wheeler at Greenwich (to be discussed next), in this scenario he probably was also born at Littlefield or maybe at Watertown where Mary Randall was from.

A James Wheeler was one of twelve men granted 1200 acres in the Quabbin territory by the General Court on 14 January 1736 (Howe, 1951). This man is probably either the James Wheeler who married Mary Randall or their son born on 25 September 1716 at Littleton, Middlesex. The former would be 53 years old in January 1736, and the latter would be only 19 years old. It therefore is reasonable to think that the older James was the grantee and subsequently went to Quabbin (the name later changed to Greenwich), and the son, James, may have also moved there. It is likely that a descendant of the first James Wheeler at Stow went to Quabbin because people with the surname of Randall (probably relatives of Mary) were also early settlers there (Howe, 1951) and because Ephraim of Greenwich named one of his sons Randall.

Some researchers suggest that the father of the four brothers at Chesterfield was an Oliver Wheeler, rather than Ephraim. I am not aware of why an Oliver is suggested as the father. Since a James and Mary (Randall) Wheeler couple apparently moved to the Quabbin territory, it appears unlikely that an Oliver Wheeler is the parent of the four brothers at Chesterfield. Unfortunately, the vital records of Greenwich and neighboring towns are not available to study this further because these towns were removed in the twentieth century (apparently the records not saved while clearing the towns) to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.

In an effort to pursue where this suggested Oliver came from, some researchers incorrectly choose some persons who cannot be this parent of the four sons at Greenwich. These persons include an Oliver Wheeler in Connecticut and an Oliver Wheeler at Acton, Middlesex. Other researchers have amply disproved the assertion that this latter Oliver was ever in Greenwich. This Oliver married Abigail Wood at Acton, had children there, and died at North Acton.

Some family researchers have attempted to name this person Ephraim Oliver Wheeler, but this is an obvious “fabrication” because second (middle) given names were not used in New England until the very late part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century. One person even submitted an entry to FindAGrave.com for Ephraim Oliver Wheeler, including a photograph of the gravestone. The inscription is “Oliver Wheeler”, however, not “Ephraim Wheeler” or “Ephraim Oliver Wheeler”. Applying a second given name to a person of the early eighteenth century is probably the easiest type of fabrication by impatient researchers to detect.

It is reasonable, based on the factors I present here, that the James Wheeler at Chesterfield married a Rachel Hildreth of Petersham, and this James Wheeler probably is the son of Ephraim Wheeler of Greenwich.. Like other families of Petersham, Worcester and Chelmsford, Middlesex, some of the Hildreths moved on to Chesterfield before the Revolutionary War. The presence of Hildreth family members at these locations would result in Wheelers and Hildreths in one location being familiar with those at the other locations. In addition to James Wheeler possibly marrying Rachel Hildreth, daughter of the widow Esther Hildreth, at Petersham (or at Chesterfield since Esther moved there after re-marrying), the Petersham records include the marriage of an Isaac Hildreth of Chesterfield to a Sarah Wheeler at Petersham on 11 December 1773. I have determined that this Isaac must be the son of the widow Esther Hildreth of Petersham.

James Wheeler’s brother, Ephraim (speaking here of the four Wheelers in Chesterfield said to be brothers and said to be born at Greenwich per Randall, 1882), married Susanna Wheeler of Chesterfield, and brother Randall is said to have married a woman of Greenwich. Therefore, it is likely that James married at Petersham, Chesterfield or Greenwich. Based only on persons buried at the Quabbin Park Cemetery as found on FindAGrave.com, there probably was not a Rachel at Greenwich who could have married James. There is not a record in the Petersham vital records of a Rachel that could have married James before the birth of James’ first child, Hannah, except the daughter of widow Esther Hildreth. Randall (1882) does not list a Rachel born at Chesterfield who was of marriageable age in 1774.

Isaac (III) and Esther (Snow) Hildreth had children born at Chelmsford, Middlesex followed by two children born at Petersham. I use the roman numeral III here because this Isaac was the third consecutive Isaac Hildreth of three consecutive generations at Chelmsford. The children born in Petersham are Joshua born 4 July 1759 and Rachel born 11 May 17__. The blank was necessary because the original record page was torn. Some family research apparently just assumes that she was born after Joshua and use the year 1760. She could have been in born in the second half of 1757 or in 1758, however, because the last child born in Chelmsford, Jesse, was born on 30 September 1756. The Will of James Wheeler, written and probated at Brownville, Jefferson County, New York is mentioned below. Since James and Rachel resided in Jefferson County, I searched on the Internet for their graves there and the inscriptions on the gravestones in the hope that the inscription would reflect a birth of Rachel in 1757 or 1758. The search was not successful in that regard.

The youngest sibling of Isaac (III), John, and his wife, Elizabeth, had a Rachel born in Petersham on 21 November 1775. James Wheeler and the Rachel of unknown maiden surname must have married no later than in 1774 because their first child, Hannah, was born in 1775. The Rachel born in 1775 therefore could not have married James Wheeler. Her marriage in the Petersham vital records would be the marriage of Rachel Hildreth to Howlan Clark in 1797. If Rachel, the daughter of Isaac and Esther, was born in 1757 or 1758, however, she would have been about 16 or 17 years old and could have married James Wheeler. I checked all Rachels at Chesterfield (Randall 1882) and did not find one, if old enough, that married a James Wheeler, and most Rachels there were born much too late to have married James Wheeler. Unfortunately, I have not found a marriage record for Rachel, the daughter of Esther, but the surviving records of Petersham are incomplete.

I researched the Hildreths of early Chelmsford, Middlesex and of Petersham, Worcester. There is a death record for an Isaac in the Chelmsford vital records said to have died at his mother Snow’s place (that would be in Petersham) in 1764 and buried at Chelmsford. This record is problematic. There is no death record at Petersham or Chelmsford for Isaac, the husband of Esther, if the 1764 death record actually is of the Esther’s son, Isaac. There is no other death record for the husband at either town. Esther was listed as a widow when she married a James Wheeler of Chesterfield in 1768. The widow Esther who married James Wheeler must have been the wife of the older Isaac because her daughter, Esther, at Petersham was born in 1755 at Chelmsford and therefore was born too late to have married by 1768, let alone marry and be widowed by that time.

My review of Randall (1882) and research of other Isaac Hildreths (cousins of the son Isaac, etc.) at Petersham and Chelmsford that could be the Isaac Hildreth, other than the son of Esther Hildreth born in Chelmsford in 1750, who filed/published intentions at Petersham on 11 Dec 1773 to marry Sarah Wheeler did not identify any such persons. The “Isaac Hildreth (abt. 1750-1804)” Wikitree profile, Profile Manager Margaret Jones, Profile Last Modified 22 May 2019, uses the son of Esther as the person who married Sarah Wheeler, and I think that the profile is probably correct. Whatever Sarah Wheeler the son of Isaac (III) or an unidentified Isaac Hildreth married, he probably was the Private Isaac Hildreth in the list of Chesterfield men who went to Ticonderoga in 1777 where James Wheeler (the one who married a Rachel) was a Sergeant (Randall,1882).

Isaac, the son of Esther, was of an expected age range for such a role during the War. I conclude that the clerk who recorded the death entry at Chelmsford was mistaken about which Isaac was the deceased and that 1764 record actually is of the death of the first husband of Esther, not of her son. I have found a number of other cases where the same vital record was made in two towns, not just one. In this case the death happened at Petersham but the source for the clerk at Chelmsford apparently was mistaken as to which Isaac was the deceased. A death record at Petersham, if ever recorded there, is missing.

It might be good to interject a point here about the Hildreths at Chesterfield before and during the Revolutionary War. Randall (1882) mentions Captain Jonathan Hildreth and Samuel Hildreth and states that family traditions are that they removed to Chesterfield from Petersham. This could very well be right; however, a review of vital records suggests that they were born at Chelmsford and were close relatives of Isaac

I also cannot identify a Sarah with the Wheeler maiden or widow surname at Chesterfield or Petersham (checking the line of Wheelers in this book plus the Wheelers of the Concord and Stow lines) that Isaac might have married other than the older sister of 6 Moses Wheeler, although she would be only 14 years of age when the intentions were published.

I have considered who the James Wheeler Jr. of Chesterfield who married the widow Esther Hildreth may have been. One candidate is James Wheeler (5ii James) in the Wheeler genealogy in this book and the older brother of 6 Moses of Peterham. This James is problematic because he would have been only 16 years old and Esther 40 years old in 1768. The James and Esther Wheeler who later lived at Chesterfield named their first of only two children Lucy, however, and this James’ father also named a child Lucy. I looked for a second candidate who might have come from Hollis, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. In the 100 George Wheeler line of Wheelers from Concord (Wheeler, 1914) is the following line: 100 George, 101 William, 115 George, 142 James, and 202 James who moved from Bedford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, to Hollis. The son of 202 James named James was born in 1753, even one year younger than the James of Petersham born in 1752. I found no other James there who could be the person who married the widow, Esther Hildreth.

There is another possibility. The James Wheeler born in 1716 at Littlefield or an unknown James Wheeler of the Stow line at Greenwich had a son, James, that person could be the James Wheeler, Jr. in Chesterfield. In this case he possibly would be a first cousin of the other James Wheeler at Chesterfield.

There of course could have been a James Wheeler at Chesterfield from some other location where I do not have the necessary information to recognize the person as a candidate for James, Jr. of Chesterfield. I leave this issue to other researchers because 6 Moses Wheeler is my direct ancestor, and therefore I do not need to pursue the issue. I undertook the research described in this appendix only as a part of trying to discover what inspired the name Humphrey for one of the sons of 6 Moses.

Addressing the Hildreths in connection with the James Wheelers at Chesterfield has probably been the least satisfying part of this research project. The available records have raised questions that cannot be resolved with clarity. The most satisfying result is that I think with a considerable level of confidence that I have discovered for researchers interested in James and Rachel Wheeler who moved to Brownsville, Jefferson, New York that Rachel very likely was Rachel Hildreth of Petersham.

James Wheeler (probably the brother of Ephraim, Benjamin and Randall) was a Private in Captain William Humphrey’s Company (the men from several New Hampshire towns) in the 1776 expedition of New Hampshire state militia fto reinforce the “Northern Army” in New York (Randall, 1882). There might very well have been more men from Chesterfield than listed in this source and could have included James Wheeler, Jr. In any case, my research did not find any source that would serve to verify which James was in this list of men in Randall (1882).

Randall (1882) is used as the source by the authors of a NYGenWeb article to conclude that the James Wheeler with brothers Ephraim, Benjamin and Randall at Chesterfield and who married Rachel_______ is the James who was on these militia expeditions (NYGenWeb, 2016). As already stated, another source was not found that would serve to clarify which James Wheeler at Chesterfield was on two militia expeditions from Chesterfield, but careful analysis of the content of Randall leads one to conclude that the NYGenWeb article identifies the correct person. This conclusion was arrived at because the suffix “Jr.” is included behind the name of several men in the list of men in Humphrey’s Company in 1776 and also in the list of men of Lt. Cobleigh’s Company in the expedition to Ticonderoga in 1777 where James Wheeler is listed as a Sergeant. Since “James Wheeler, Jr.” is used by Randall in several other places for the other James, but not in these lists of men, it is reasonably safe to conclude that the James Wheeler who married Rachel is the person in these two lists of men.

The Will written in 1834 and probated in 1835 at Jefferson County, New York by James Wheeler of the NYGenWeb article lists a Paul Hildreth as a benefactor. John and Elizabeth Hildreth’s son, Paul, was born at Petersham on 7 January 1773, and this Paul died at Petersham in 1797. As already mentioned, their daughter Rachel, born 21 November 1775, married Howlan Clark of Providence, R.I. on 10 December 1797. Their son, John, married Eunice Clark of Providence, R.I., and they also named a child Paul. He was born at Petersham on 2 March 1800. He married Susan Clark of Providence R.I. on 7 July 1829. It is possible that one of these Paul Hildreths are referred to in the Will.

The NYGenWeb article mistakenly selects for the Paul Hildreth of the Will the son Paul of Samuel Hildreth, born in Chesterfield in 1798 (Randall 1882). Research shows that this Paul and his siblings temporarily moved to Salem, Essex and then to Danvers. Paul married a Jane Morgan in 1821, and this first wife died in 1822 and is buried at Danvers. Paul then married Lucretia Morgan, and they had about 5 children while living at Beverly. Their son, Paul Franklin, was born in 1836, which is after when James Wheeler’s Will was probated. Paul and Lucretia are buried at Beverly.

Another possibility, but purely speculative, is that this Paul Hildreth in the Will was a last child born to James and Rachel born in the nineteenth century. My search was not successful in identifying such a son of James and Rachel. The presence of a son, Paul, (or lack thereof) in the oral tradition of James’ descendants is therefore the only remaining basis upon which to confirm or rule out this possibility. I have made no effort to pursue researching this speculation. In any case, the presence of a Hildreth in James Wheeler’s Will is another factor that indicates it was Rachel Hildreth, daughter of Isaac and Esther Hildreth, who he married.


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