Family history: John Henry Wheeler
Jul. 6th, 2009 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaUpon learning that my great-great-great-uncle John Henry Wheeler (1850-1887) was a professor of Classics, and having an office hour in the Classics department with no eager questioners, I poked around on the internet to see what more I could learn.
John Henry Wheeler was born to Melancthon Gilbert and Frances Cochran(e) Parkinson Wheeler in 1850. He attended Harvard and got his B.A in 1871 and his A.M. in 1875. He attended the seminar in Classics led by Basil Gildersleeve (my mother remarked that our next cat should be named Basil Gildersleeve) at the newly-founded Johns Hopkins University in 1877-1878. Another sometime attendant was M. Carey Thomas, who helped found Bryn Mawr College; see Ward W. Briggs, "Gildersleeve and M. Carey Thomas," American Journal of Philology, v. 121, n. 4 (2000), p. 629-635. He received his PhD in Bonn, Germany, in 1879. He appears in the Harvard Register for 1880 (courtesy of Google Books), listed as a tutor in Latin and Greek. He was a professor of Latin at Bowdoin College in 1881-1882, and then a Professor of Greek and department head at the University of Virginia from 1882 until his death in 1887. UVA has 4 boxes of his papers in their Small Special Collections Library, consisting of translations, including of Thucydides, and class preparation materials.
He had married Louise Fuller Johnson, of Newbury, VT, at a date I haven't yet discovered, and they had a daughter on July 21, 1885, who grew up to be the famous author Frances Parkinson Keyes, also wife of the governor of and then senator from New Hampshire. (http://www.catholicauthors.com/keyes.html) Apparently the family lived in James Monroe's house in Charlottesville (http://www.ashlawnhighland.org/), where Frances was born, and where John appears to have died on October 10, 1887 of a cause I have not seen mentioned. He was buried in his wife's family plot at The Ox-Bow in Newbury, VT, as was his daughter Frances when she died in 1970.
John Henry Wheeler was born to Melancthon Gilbert and Frances Cochran(e) Parkinson Wheeler in 1850. He attended Harvard and got his B.A in 1871 and his A.M. in 1875. He attended the seminar in Classics led by Basil Gildersleeve (my mother remarked that our next cat should be named Basil Gildersleeve) at the newly-founded Johns Hopkins University in 1877-1878. Another sometime attendant was M. Carey Thomas, who helped found Bryn Mawr College; see Ward W. Briggs, "Gildersleeve and M. Carey Thomas," American Journal of Philology, v. 121, n. 4 (2000), p. 629-635. He received his PhD in Bonn, Germany, in 1879. He appears in the Harvard Register for 1880 (courtesy of Google Books), listed as a tutor in Latin and Greek. He was a professor of Latin at Bowdoin College in 1881-1882, and then a Professor of Greek and department head at the University of Virginia from 1882 until his death in 1887. UVA has 4 boxes of his papers in their Small Special Collections Library, consisting of translations, including of Thucydides, and class preparation materials.
He had married Louise Fuller Johnson, of Newbury, VT, at a date I haven't yet discovered, and they had a daughter on July 21, 1885, who grew up to be the famous author Frances Parkinson Keyes, also wife of the governor of and then senator from New Hampshire. (http://www.catholicauthors.com/keyes.html) Apparently the family lived in James Monroe's house in Charlottesville (http://www.ashlawnhighland.org/), where Frances was born, and where John appears to have died on October 10, 1887 of a cause I have not seen mentioned. He was buried in his wife's family plot at The Ox-Bow in Newbury, VT, as was his daughter Frances when she died in 1970.
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Date: 2009-07-06 04:40 pm (UTC)Basil G. was a Charlestonian - a Southern WASP (maybe partly French - his middle name was Lanneau).
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Date: 2009-07-06 05:17 pm (UTC)