The Birth of William L Wheeler

As late as the early 1800’s, with Mississippi not yet a state, Indian tribes controlled almost two thirds of the territory. By the early 1830’s, they had turned their land over to the U.S. Government and moved to what would become Oklahoma. Many settlers from the East come to farm these newly opened, fertile regions. Cotton quickly became their cash crop, pushed along by the rich soil and the invention of the Cotton Gin.

Farmland was expanded in the 1850’s by building levees to hold back the Mississippi and Yazoo River’s. Then, as the Civil War approached, large areas of swampland were drained and also opened for farming.

In this environment the Civil War was about to explode. Although public opinion in the state initially supported the Federal Government, Mississippi became the second Confederate State on 9 January 1861. Key to this action were South Carolina's succession; violations of the Fugitive Slave Law; and the impossible task of reaching a workable compromise on the issue of slavery in Kansas and other expansion states.

Six months later, in this turbulent place in history, William L Wheeler was born to parents who have not yet been identified (unknown day in June of 1850).


Map of Mississippi in 1850