George F. Wheeler

George Foster Wheeler (December 23, 1824 – April 25, 1903) was an American businessman, politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He served as prison commissioner of Wisconsin from 1870 to 1874. He also served four years in the Wisconsin State Senate, and was sheriff of Fond du Lac County.

Biography George Wheeler was born in New Haven, Vermont, on December 23, 1824. He was educated in the common schools of that area and attended the Middlebury Academy in Middlebury, Vermont. As a young man, he went to work at a wool mill in Middlebury, working his way up from laboring to become a partner in the ownership of the mill.

In 1854, he decided to move west to the new state of Wisconsin. He traveled there and purchased a farm in Springvale, Fond du Lac County.

In 1869, he was appointed deputy U.S. marshal for Wisconsin, and later that year he was elected state prison commissioner. He was re-elected to another two-year term in 1871.

After an illness, Wheeler took a trip to California to try to improve his health. He died in Los Angeles, California, on April 25, 1903.