William Almon WHEELER, Congress, NY (1819-1887)

WHEELER William Almon , a Representative from New York and a Vice President of the United States; born in Malone, Franklin County, N.Y., June 30, 1819; completed preparatory studies; attended the Franklin Academy at Malone and the University of Vermont at Burlington; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1845 and practiced in Malone, N.Y.; district attorney for Franklin County, N.Y., 1846-1849; member, State assembly 1850-1851; member, State senate 1858-1860; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863); chair, Committee on Expenditures in the War Department (Thirty-seventh Congress); delegate to the State constitutional conventions in 1867 and 1868; elected to the Forty-first and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1869-March 3, 1877); chair, Committee on Commerce (Forty-third Congress); was not a candidate for reelection to the Forty-fifth Congress, having been nominated in 1876 as the Republican candidate for Vice President; elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with Rutherford Hayes in 1876; inaugurated in March 1877 and served until March 1881; retired from public life and active business pursuits because of ill health; died in Malone, N.Y., June 4, 1887; interment in Morningside Cemetery.

Bibliography

Otten, James T. "Grand Old Party Man: William A. Wheeler and the Republican Party, 1850-1880." Ph.D. diss., University of South Carolina, 1976; Vazzano, Frank P. "Who Was William A. Wheeler?" Hayes Historical Journal 9 (Summer 1990): 5-23.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present