Daniel Wheeler

Daniel Wheeler (27 November 1771 – 12 June 1840) was a prominent English Quaker, minister, teacher and missionary in Russia and in the South Pacific.

As an agriculturalist, Wheeler played an important role in the history of St. Petersburg; he spent 14 years (1817–1832) draining the St Petersburg marshes of Okhta, Volkovka and Shushary. Thanks to him, land there became suitable for agriculture and development.

According to the society's Russian-language website, Daniel Wheeler and his family were one of the first Quakers in Russia.

Biography

Early life Daniel Wheeler was born on 27 November 1771 in London, to William and Sarah Wheeler, members of a well-to-do wine merchant family. Before his death in 1777, Daniel's father, William Wheeler, was attended by John Fothergill. This was Daniel's first encounter with Quakerism.

He was first educated at a boarding school at Parson's Green.

Conversion to Quakerism However, in autumn 1795, as he was on his way to the West Indies with his regiment under Sir. Ralph Abercrombie, an epidemic broke out on the ship, and it was caught in a severe hurricane. Of his youngest daughter, Jane (d. 15 July 1837, Shushary), a short account was published in London and Bristol in 1841.

Work with the Russian Marshes Daniel Wheeler had been unlikely to speak in meeting, but gradually this changed. In 1816, he was accepted as a Quaker minister

Meanwhile, during the war against Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I of Russia visited England and met the Quakers. Christoph von Lieven, the Russian ambassador, received information of the Emperor's desire to reclaim the marshes near St. Petersburg, and he was requested to make an inquiry for a suitable person to superintend the work. He wished the entrepreneur to be English and a member of the Society of Friends. Daniel volunteered, for he knew this was something he had to do. The letter from Alexander I concerning the marshes can be found in the Quaker archive in London. They soon began work on a second plot of land, in Volkova, south of St. Petersburg.

From 1826 to 1832, Daniel led work on the third plot, in Shushary, on the road to the Imperial summer residence at Tsarskoe Selo. Daniel Wheeler returned to England in 1838, where he met Joseph John Gurney at the Yearly Meeting. He then travelled to Russia to visit his family and the graves of his wife and daughter. After that, he sailed alone to North America (his son Charles being too ill), and spent most of 1839 in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New England, Ohio and New York. Soon after his return to London, Charles died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Daniel then made one last journey across the Atlantic, but fell ill on the voyage. Upon his arrival on 28 April 1840, he was nursed by a good friend John Olapp. On his tombstone it is written that he was from Shushary near Petersburg in Russia. and the graves of his family members have been preserved.

A portion of the Quaker Tapestry is dedicated to Daniel Wheeler. The panel depicts his draining of the marshes in St. Petersburg as well as an incident on Daniel's later voyage to the South Seas. It is said that a pod of large fish surrounded his ship during rough weather and broke the force of the waves until a storm abated. Wheeler's famous words inscribed on the tapestry "God's love enableth me to call every country my country and every man my brother" were written in 1818 in Okhta.