USA > Massachusetts > Biographical history of Massachussetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, 1911, vol 1 > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
As an inventor and mechanic, Mr. Wesson took his place among the exceptional men. In him was the unusual union of an inventor who was also a competent manufacturer. Mr. Wesson being of a retiring nature never cared to talk about himself, and it was not easy to get at the facts of his career. The facts of this sketch were obtained from Mr. Wesson and verified by him. They consti- tute a most interesting contribution touching the beginnings and development of an industry of international scope.
JOHN WILSON WHEELER
J OHN WILSON WHEELER is a notable example of what a person endowed with intellect, with good physical equipment and with a high purpose may accomplish in spite of unfavor- able circumstances hampering the beginning of his career. He would probably decline to admit that they were unfavorable cir- cumstances, since the energy employed in overcoming them becomes the most valuable factor in success. Given two boys of equal ability, one furnished with every facility that money, family connections and influence can procure, and the other with only ambition, stead- fastness, and good principles, the odds are that the boy with the handicap of circumstances will come out ahead.
Born of good New England stock - the name of Holmes, Warden, Dexter and Harrington occurring among his immediate ancestry - he typifies that admirable class of the sturdy yeomanry of this coun- try, the fine flower reaching up into an aristocracy of character and dignity and rewarded with all the blessings which abundant means and honors from his fellow men can bestow. The career of such a man is an inspiration.
His father, Wilson Wheeler, whose life covered a good part of the last century, was a carpenter and builder in the town of Orange, in the western part of Massachusetts. In addition to his trade he served as constable and collector of taxes and for many years was deputy sheriff for eastern Franklin County. His wife was Catherine H. Warden, of Worcester. There was no race suicide dreamed of in those days and though a family of nine strained the resources of the parents it was a burden cheerfully borne. Naturally the boys and girls, as they developed, began early to help in the exacting labors of a country home.
John Wilson Wheeler was next to the oldest; he was born Novem- ber 20, 1832. From his father he inherited a well-built figure, a robust constitution and remarkable powers of endurance, but his facial characteristics resembled those of his mother's family. He
John 19the .
JOHN WILSON WHEELER
made the most of the extremely limited educational advantages that the town offered. The terms of the district school were short, but he was an apt scholar and assimiliated the simple but efficient and wholesome instruction there given in the old-fashioned manner by the teacher that boarded around. His formal education, to misuse a term, was polished off with a few weeks at a select school, taught by Beriah W. Fay, of New Salem. The months when school "didn't keep " could be hardly called vacation. Every day and every wak- ing hour was filled with chores and the variegated work required of a healthy boy in such a family. Young Wheeler found time, even when quite young, to earn a little supplementary money by driving the cows of some of the neighbors to and from pasture. Afterwards he obtained chances to work out and was thus enabled to buy his own clothes.
He learned the carpenter's trade, but neither carpentering nor farming was very congenial to him, until two years after he had at- tained his majority did he find any opportunity to exchange the car- penter's bench for commercial life, which seemed to be more in the line of his instincts and tastes. At last, when he was twenty-three, he was offered a position as clerk in a grocery store in Fitchburg, at a salary of one hundred and twenty-five dollars a year and board, but his employer was so well satisfied with his services that he voluntarily gave him an additional twenty-five dollars.
In 1856 he returned to Orange and entered the general store of Daniel Pomeroy with whom he remained three years and whom he succeeded. When his business was settled at the end of another three years he found that he had made but little beyond his living expenses; but he had won a reputation in the community as a young man of ability and unimpeachable integrity, so that when, at the end of a year's service in the Claim Agency office of D. E. Cheney, an opportunity arose for him to purchase a grocery store, fully stocked; three gentlemen, including his employer, advanced him the necessary funds. This venture fully warranted the confidence which his friends had shown and he only relinquished it in 1867 when he en- tered the firm of A. F. Johnson & Company, who had established in a small way the business of manufacturing sewing-machines at Orange.
This was the turning-point of his life. It was no easy position, although the firm at that time employed only about forty workmen.
JOHN WILSON WHEELER
The sewing-machine was as yet only in its experimental stage; there were all kinds of improvements to be made and troubles regarding patents made difficulties. Mr. Wheeler, who was then thirty-five years of age and in the prime of his vigorous manhood, took hold with tremendous energy. For a long time he did the work of several men in the office and when the business was made a corporation in 1869, under the name of "The Gold Medal Sewing Machine Con- pany," he was selected secretary and treasurer. In January, 1882, the name was changed to its present title - "The New Home Sewing Machine Company." Of this, as well as of the previous organiza- tion, Mr. Wheeler has been the secretary and treasurer, and fron 1882 to 1898, vice-president as well as secretary and treasurer. In this latter year he was elected to the presidency, consequently the secretaryship was given to another. He still holds the office of president and treasurer. He has had the satisfaction of seeing the business grow from a limited output to a capacity of not less than six hundred machines a day, employing an army of over eight hun- dred workmen in the various departments. Of late years he has been somewhat relieved of the details of the management which outstripped the energies of any one man and the affairs of the com- pany are now carefully administered by a corps of assistants.
Being somewhat freer he was enabled to take an interest in other enterprises tending to the growth and welfare of his native town. He is president of the Orange National Bank and, until the new State law compelled him to relinquish one or the other, was president of the Orange Savings Bank, of which he still remains a trustee. He is president of the Leavett Machine Company, which has been one of the very successful enterprises of Orange. He has been president of the Orange Board of Trade, and in order to foster industry he himself built a large factory by the railroad and supplied it with steam power. It is rented to the New England Box Company which gives employment to a large number of hands. The suburb where these employees are housed in comfortable dwellings, built especially to accommodate them and in convenient access to the mill, perpetuates the name of the public-spirited citizen who has done so much for them. Another enterprise in which he takes just pride is the laying out of a large tract of land, north of the village, into streets and building lots. This is known as Orange Highlands, and from the advantages of its situation it cannot help becoming the favorite
JOHN WILSON WHEELER
residence portion of the town. Nor have his activities been con- fined to his native Orange. He is president of the Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company which it has been his ambition to make the safest and most reliable in the world, and also he is a director in the Boston Securities Company. He is one of the directors and stockholders in the Athol and Orange Street Railway Company. He was one of the founders of the Orange Lodge of Freemasons in 1869, and was its first secretary and afterwards its treasurer. He is a member of the Crescent Royal Arch Chapter and gave several years service as its treasurer and he is also a member of the Orange Commandery of Knights Templars.
Mr. Wheeler, as might well be supposed, has taken an active interest in politics. Since the organization of the Republican party he has been a consistent upholder of its principles and yet, in spite of his zeal in promoting its welfare and his prominent cooperation in assuring its success, he has in large measure modestly refrained from accepting the high public offices which his fellow townsmen would have been glad to confer upon him. From 1861 until 1867 he served as town clerk. He has been one of the selectmen of Orange and in 1876 was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature from the First Franklin District and on taking his seat was chosen as a member of the committee of finance. In 1888 he was elected as one of the delegates from the Eleventh Massachusetts District to the National Republican Convention at Chicago, where Harrison and Morton received the nomination as presidential candidates. In 1904 he was elected alternate delegate to the National Convention at Chicago, which placed in nomination Roosevelt and Fairbanks. In 1904 Mr. Wheeler was elected one of the governor's council from the Eighth Councilor District, serving with Governor William L. Douglas, and the following year, when Curtis Guild, Jr., was elected governor, he was reelected to the same honorable position and served one year with his administration. In 1908, being the unanimous choice, he was elected delegate from the Second Massachusetts Congres- sional District to the National Republican Convention at Chicago.
Although Mr. Wheeler is extremely social by nature, he has been so absorbed in his great financial undertakings that he has had com- paratively little time to devote to the demands of society. But when he has been able to put aside the cares of business he has taken keen pleasure in intercourse with his friends whom he is fond
JOHN WILSON WHEELER
of meeting in an informal manner. It is the universal verdict that at such times he is a most interesting companion.
One of his strongest traits is his affection for his native town and he is always devising some means of benefiting its citizens in some practical way. Few men of his means and with so many temptations to take up a residence in Boston or some larger city have resided so continuously in their birthplace. His elegant house is one of the finest in western Massachusetts. It has been Mr. Wheeler's boast that never more than twice, and that when he was a mere youth, beginning to make his way, has he been absent from Orange for as much as a twelvemonth. He has never crossed the ocean, but he has traveled extensively in this country, his widely-extended interests taking him to many distant cities.
Mr. Wheeler was married October 9, 1856, to Almira E., one of the seven daughters of Daniel and Almira Porter Johnson, of North Orange, at whose house the ceremony was performed by the Rev. Levi Ballou. Of the three children born of this union only one, the oldest, Marion L., survives, and with her husband, Everett L. Swan, continues to have her home with her parents. The other two, Clara Jane and Rosa A., died in infancy.
Mr. Wheeler has always been temperate and free from the injuri- ous habits that undermine the health and morals of many men. He is fond of saying: "When once a habit is formed it is not an easy matter to relieve yourself of it." "A young man should give thought to what calling in life he is best fitted for, and if it is clear to him and the conditions are favorable he should associate himself with that line of work as early as possible and stick to it. He will then succeed and life will not seem one of slavery; on the contrary, he will enjoy his work."
He fully believes that no great results can be attained by any one without earnest faithful effort in some one direction. He says that a man "must have some laudable aim in life. Strive to make one's self useful. Select good associations, be willing, if congenial em- ployment is offered, to commence the labor, even if it appears near the ground floor, then there will be something to aspire to higher up the ladder. No one needs to expect great lasting success if he waits, expecting to begin at the top without experience. The tongue needs to be guarded in its use; it is not well to divulge to everybody all your thoughts and plans, work them out thoughtfully and silently;
JOHN WILSON WHEELER
if success has attended the efforts you have something of merit to present; boasting of what one is going to do rarely produces any- thing worthy of credit." He realizes that what he has acquired has come through being loyal to the best interests of whatever he under- took. One of his most characteristic qualities has been his power of application, his ability to stick to his purpose through thick and thin, no matter what discouragements may have for the time arisen. When he first began life, the work which was laid out for him was not all congenial. He felt that in such a vital matter his own desires and wishes should prevail and rather than go on in what he knew would prove increasingly distasteful to him, he turned his back on his trade, "burnt his bridges" behind him and without asking any- one's counsel he took up commercial life, knowing in his own heart that he was better fitted for that than for mechanical pursuits or farming. And he was abundantly justified, not only in the success that has attended him, but also in the never-failing pleasure that he has taken in going regularly to the engrossing routine of his busi- ness. Yet it must not be thought that he despises farming. On the contrary, he possesses a large farm, named from the beauty of its location "Grand View," not far from his place of business. He can, from the broad veranda of his home, overlook the business part of his town, and the residence section as well; and here he often re- tires to enjoy the quiet and charm of Nature and the luxuries of a country diet.
When a man has capacity to carry out all the details of vast and complicated enterprises and to win success from all sorts of diffi- culties his methods are worth studying. It will be seen that Mr. Wheeler has had splendid vigor, indefatigable energy, keen insight, a knowledge of men, and above all a sense of honor which coordinated all his dealings with his fellow men. He thus won their respect, their admiration, their hearty cooperation. Strict attention to his duties, perfect faithfulness to every requirement, signal ability, honesty and the courage of his convictions are his distinguishing qualities. Life when properly observed is a great university, and the training that a man receives in such a career as Mr. Wheeler's is the very best kind of education. Happy is the town and the State that can number such men as he among those whom they can honor.
1951
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.