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Treasure Chest Thursday: The Marriage Certificate of Nellie Call and William Wheeler

William Wheeler residence, Norwich Township, Huron County, Ohio, c1896. Perhaps those are the two oldest girls on the left?
William Wheeler residence, Norwich Township, Huron County, Ohio, c1896. Unknown children-see note 1.

Yesterday we looked at the beautiful record of the marriage of William Wheeler and Nellie Call- antique shops can be such a treasure chest! Today let’s look at their family, and lives after their marriage.

The children of William and Nellie Alberta [see comment for this addition 9/3/2018] (Call) Wheeler were:

Kent C. E. Wheeler, b. 5 Nov 1891 in Ohio.

Achsah M. Wheeler, b. 4 Oct. 1893 and d. 4 Feb 1894; presumably named after her paternal grandmother. [See comment below.]

Elizabeth Call Wheeler, b. 13 Dec. 1894 in Cleveland, Ohio, d. 10 November 1959.

Chrystal Grace Wheeler, b. 26 Nov. 1897 in Alabama.

Willie Nell Wheeler, b. 22 April 1905 in Alabama, d. 15 July 1969.

Mae Irene Wheeler, b. 5 May 1907 in Montgomery, Alabama, d. 25 June 1970 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Some of this information is from Ancestry trees and I have not yet heard back from those tree owners, so please do verify the above information before adding it to your tree.

We do know that the family moved from Ohio to Montgomery, Alabama before the birth of their daughter Chrystal in 1897.

William apparently was an electrical engineer. Interestingly, his headstone states, “He died at the post of duty.” Sounded like a story there. He died 1 July 1921, and Nellie lived 27 years longer, until 8 August 1948.

William M. Wheeler’s final resting place is in Greenwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama; see Find A Grave Memorial #63284383. Nellie C. Wheeler may be alongside him in Greenwood Cemetery- their stones look similar but there is no plot information; see Find A Grave Memorial #90289114.  The image of her headstone on FAG is sweet- a little plastic/magnetic guardian angel like what used to be on people’s dashboards, and possibly an urn holder, engraved “Mama.”

Addendum: OK, could not resist the genealogical muse… I had to find out about “He died at the post of duty.” GenealogyBank.com came to the rescue with a Montgomery, Alabama newspaper.

William Wheeler had worked for the Montgomery Light and Water Power Company for 25 years, 10 of them as Chief Engineer. (So he would have started about 1896, when electricity was still a fairly new source of power.) Apparently there was a short circuit in some wires which caught a switch box on fire. William was notified by the night watchman, and arrived at the plant soon after. He determined where the problem was, and attempted pulling out the switch. Unfortunately two of the terminals in the box came into contact with each other as he pulled, and this caused a short, which then caused a burst of flame which ignited William’s clothes. By the time help arrived to put out the flames, William was already severely burned over his entire upper body. He was coherent enough to explain the accident when he got to the hospital, but he unfortunately died at 4:20 that afternoon.

William was dealing with quite a lot of electricity- the switch was connected to one of the three main lines that powered the city. In fact, William’s funeral notice stated it was “an explosion,” not just a ‘flame.’ The “entire city was put into darkness for a period of about two hours” in order to repair the line. William saved the plant from being severely damaged and compromising the distribution of power to the entire city of Montgomery, Alabama.

The news story gives us a bit more information about the family, too. His wife Nell was still living and they were married, son Kent was living in Galveston, Texas, and daughters Nell and Mae were still single and living in Montgomery. The other two daughters were married: Chrystal was married to Herbert Keister and living in Houston, Texas, Elizabeth was married to S. D. Connor and living in Montgomery. [CORRECTED 9/3/2018]

It must have been comforting to Nell to have three daughters close by when this terrible accident happened. And now we know that William Wheeler was a brave man, who truly  “… died at the post of duty.”

Is this your family? If so, please leave us a comment or use our ‘Contact us’ form.

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Corrections have been made above, 9/3/2018, per comment below from a family member:

  1. Deleted:Nellie G. Wheeler (possibly her middle name was Grace, as she gave that name to a daughter? Or was the “C” for “Call” accidentally changed to a “G”?)
  2. Deleted:The other two daughters were married, and, if they were listed in birth order, Elizabeth was married to Herbert Keister and living in Houston, Texas, and Chrystal was married to S. D. Connor and living in Montgomery. (If not in birth order, as is customary in obituaries, the spouses would be reversed.)”
  3. Nellie’s middle name of “Alberta” was added.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Leading image, “William Wheeler Residence, Norwich Twp., Huron Co. Ohio” from Picturesque Huron or Huron County Ohio as seen thru a camera. 1896, GoogleBooks. If this book was published in 1896, Kent would have been 5 years old and Elizabeth 1; the other children were not born. So who are the children in the picture? Is William Wheeler on the right?
  2. The genealogical and encyclopedic history of the Wheeler family in America. Compiled by the American College of Genealogy under the direction of Albert Gallatin Wheeler, Jr, Volume 2, pp906-7. https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalency02whee#page/906/mode/2up/search/call
  3. Find A Grave- see above links to memorials.
  4. “William H. Wheeler Dies Friday From Injuries at Power Plant.” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Alabama), Vol. XCII, No. 183, Page 1, Saturday, 2 July 1921, via GenealogyBank.com.
  5. See comment below that was used to correct previously published information. (Thank you, Sylvia!)

 

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Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
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Wedding Wednesday: William Wheeler and Nellie Call

Nellie CALL and William WHEELER Marriage License and Certificate, Huron County, Ohio, November 1889.
Nellie CALL and William WHEELER Marriage License and Certificate, Huron County, Ohio, November 1889. (Click to enlarge.)

There is no family tree link for this post, since the couple listed in this wedding certificate are not related to our family. This was a find in an antique shop many years ago, at least 20 or likely more, and possibly in Florissant, Missouri. (These days, where antiques are found generally tells little of their origin, however, as online sellers, big antique dealers, and family scattered far and wide contributes to a lack of provenance for an item. No so back then for many items.) Anyway, the item begged to be given a home where it would be appreciated. After it was brought home, though, it did not feel right to frame ‘bought ancestors’ and I did not ever want it mixed with the real articles that belong to our family. So it has been only appreciated rarely during the intervening years, but it is time, now, to share it.

According to the above marriage certificate, censuses, and The genealogical and encyclopedic history of the Wheeler family in America, William Wheeler (#15667, page 906-7) married Nellie Call. He was the only child of Edward Wheeler (#15666) and his first wife, Achsah Munger. (William’s second wife was Hattie Herrick.) William was born in October of 1864 in Ohio.

Nellie CALL and William WHEELER Marriage License and Certificate, Huron County, Ohio, November 1889; top section.
Nellie CALL and William WHEELER Marriage License and Certificate, Huron County, Ohio, November 1889; top section.

Nellie Alberta Call most likely was born in March of 1868 in New London, Huron, Ohio, to Charles Call and Mary Ellen Daniels (1835-1921). Her father may have been from Canada per some sources- maybe the origin of her middle name?

Various family trees and other records have two different dates for their marriage, but this record most probably shows why they differ. The 8 November 1889 date is when the marriage license was issued. The actual ceremony to unite the couple occurred on 13 November 1889. The two were combined beautifully in the single certificate.

Nellie CALL and William WHEELER Marriage License and Certificate, Huron County, Ohio, November 1889; bottom section.
Nellie CALL and William WHEELER Marriage License and Certificate, Huron County, Ohio, November 1889; bottom section.

Tomorrow: The Call-Wheeler family.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. The genealogical and encyclopedic history of the Wheeler family in America. Compiled by the American College of Genealogy under the direction of Albert Gallatin Wheeler, Jr, Volume 2, pp906-7. https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalency02whee#page/906/mode/2up/search/call
  2. Marriage License/Certificate owned by author.

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 
Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.