Howells, William Dean. Sketch of the Life and Character of Rutherford B. Hayes: Also a Biographical Sketch of William A. Wheeler, with Portraits of Both Candidates. 1876. Reprint, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1978.
WHEELER, William Almon
1819–1887
Biography
WHEELER, William Almon, a Representative from New York and a Vice President of the United States; born in Malone, Franklin County, N.Y., June 30, 1819; completed preparatory studies; attended the Franklin Academy at Malone and the University of Vermont at Burlington; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1845 and practiced in Malone, N.Y.; district attorney for Franklin County, N.Y., 1846-1849; member, State assembly 1850-1851; member, State senate 1858-1860; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863); chair, Committee on Expenditures in the War Department (Thirty-seventh Congress); delegate to the State constitutional conventions in 1867 and 1868; elected to the Forty-first and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1869-March 3, 1877); chair, Committee on Commerce (Forty-third Congress); was not a candidate for reelection to the Forty-fifth Congress, having been nominated in 1876 as the Republican candidate for Vice President; elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with Rutherford Hayes in 1876; inaugurated in March 1877 and served until March 1881; retired from public life and active business pursuits because of ill health; died in Malone, N.Y., June 4, 1887; interment in Morningside Cemetery.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]External Research Collections
Brown University
John Hay Library
Providence, RI
Papers:
1828-1927, 24 items.
Includes documents signed by William A. Wheeler.
St. Lawrence University
Special Collections
Canton, NY
Papers:
In Miscellaneous Manuscripts, 1789-1981, ca. 1.8 cubic feet.
Includes notes and letters of William A. Wheeler about political appointments, military issues, and St. Regis Indians.
State University of New York
College at Plattsburgh Feinberg Library
Plattsburgh, NY
Papers:
1849-1884, 6 items.
Includes letters written when William Wheeler was agent of the St. Regis Indians. The letter includes discussions of annuities, hostility between Catholic and Protestant Indians, and charges against William Wheeler by the chiefs. Another letter concerns politics and a mortgage discharge.
Papers:
In the Robert F. Hale Papers, 1812-1963, 2 volumes.
Includes a lengthy obituary of William A. Wheeler from the Malone Palladium.
University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library
Santa Barbara, CA
Papers:
1861, 1 item.
A letter of recommendation for R.A. Sorelund to be in charge of purchasing horses in Northern New York. The letter is from William Wheeler to Montgomery C. Meigs.
University of Pennsylvania
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Philadelphia, PA
Papers:
1873, 1 item.
A postcard addressed to Horace Howard Furness which originally accompanied a copy of the Boston Daily Advertiser. The newspaper contains a notice of the transfer of the Barton Library to Boston, however, the clipping is not included with the postcard.
Wisconsin Historical Society
Archives Division
Madison, WI
Papers:
1866-1883, 3 items.
Includes an army commission naming William Wheeler as major by brevet, August 9, 1865; a printed advertisement concerning "Wheeler's Novelty Carpet Cleaner" patented by J.W. and William A. Wheeler, Madison, Wisconsin, 1871; a statement signed by voters of Dodge County in support of the Presidential ticket of Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler; and a letter from William Wheeler, Vice-President of the United States, to a relative including comments on the importance of education for both men and women.
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Bibliography / Further Reading
Otten, James T. "Grand Old Partyman: William A. Wheeler and the Republican Party, 1850-1880." Ph.D. diss., University of South Carolina, 1976.
Vazzano, Frank P. "Who Was William A. Wheeler?" Hayes Historical Journal 9 (Summer 1990): 5-23.