Son of an inventor, William Hemenway Wheeler, resourceful and a businessman of ability, was highly instrumental in laying the foundation of Beloit’s largest industry. He was a pioneer, and until his death on May 5, 1937, his life connected this community with the early days of Wisconsin and the Civil War.

He was born January 1, 1847, on Madeline Island in Lake Superior, and his boyhood was in the north and on Indian reservations. He came here before the Union divided and he attended Beloit Academy. In 1864 he enlisted in Company B, 40th Wisconsin Infantry.

The Rev. Leonard Hemenway Wheeler, his father, came here in 1866. The father invented a self-regulating windmill and soon after his death, development of the machine was completed by the son. A small business, the Eclipse Windmill Company, enlarged and later called the Eclipse Clutch Works, became the Williams Engine and Clutch Works and then Fairbanks, Morse & Company.

Mr. Wheeler organized W.H. Wheeler & Company, a contracting business, also the South Beloit Land Association. He was a charter member of L.H.D. Crane Post, G.A.R., and he was president of the Beloit Business Men’s Association and instrumental in locating the Berlin Machine Works (later to become the Yates-American Machine Company) in Beloit.

He had an unbounded faith in Beloit, and he saw the community grow from approximately 3,000 to nearly 30,000 population.