William Wheeler

William A. Wheeler (October 3, 1814 – May 5, 1881) was an American millwright, politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was a member of the 5th Wisconsin Territorial Assembly and was a delegate to Wisconsin's second constitutional convention, which produced the current Constitution of Wisconsin. He was an important early settler in Madison, Wisconsin, and was responsible for building most of the mills in the county in those early decades.

Early life Born in Fairfield County, Connecticut, he received a common school and select school education, and was trained as a millwright, machinist, and engineer. In the Summer of 1837, he moved to Madison, Wisconsin Territory, coming by way of Detroit.

Career Wheeler was said to have been the builder of nearly all of the early grist and saw mills in Dane County, Wisconsin.

In the years immediately preceding the American Civil War, Wheeler became involved with the Wisconsin militia and was quartermaster for a Dane County cavalry company, led by Harlow S. Orton. During the war, he received a formal commission from President Abraham Lincoln as a captain in the Army Commissary Department and managed supplies in Tennessee until the end of the war.