WILLIAM D. WHEELER is a son of W. W. Wheeler, who was born in Tennessee in 1809, and died in April, 1855. His mother was a Mrs. White; she was born in 1811 and died November 7,1857. William D. was the eldest of their seven children. He was born in Rutherford County March 12, 1836, and assisted his father on his farm until twenty-one years of age. He followed farming up to the date of the late war. He enlisted in Company G, Forty fourth Tennessee Infantry in 1861, but owing to ill health only remained in the service three months.
After his return home he engaged in farming, and has been a fairly prosperous “tiller of the soil.” Martha L. Maxwell became his wife January 22, 1861. She was born August 21, 1840, and is the mother of the following family: Mary Ann, Etta Valonie, Malissa Alice and John Watson. Our subject received a common school education and is a supporter of Democratic principles.
Transcribed by Kathryn Hopkins
Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Reminescences [Sic], Observations, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1988.