Amos Dean WHEELER

Notes:

Name:
His father dying when he was three years old, he was adopted by James Udall, Esquire, of Hartland, Vt., with whom he lived until seventeen yeas of age, receiving instruction in the common schools and at Thetford Academy. In 1820 he went to Leicester, Mass., where his relatives resided, and attended Leicester Academy for a while, subsequently teaching school until he entered Williams College, from which he graduated in 1827. he then taught the academy at Marlboro for two years, at the expiration of which time he was elected principal of the Latin Grammar School in Salem, He remained in that position for three years, studying theology, meantime, with the Reverend Charles Upham, D.D., who was then pastor of the First Church in Salem. Resigning his school in 1832, he spent a year at Harvard Divinity School, graduating therefrom in 1833. From Cambridge he went to Meadville, Pa., to supply the pulpit of the unitarian Society, and remained there seven or eight months. While at Meadville he received a call to settle over that parish, but declined on account of the distance from his relatives and friends. In 1834 he was invited to and was settled over the unitarian Society in Standish, Me. He continued in that place until 1839, when he received a call to settle in Topsham, Me., where he ever after lived. For fourteen years he preached in the Unitarian Meeting-house in Topsham. At the end of that time the Unitarian Society of Topsham and the universalist Society of Brunswick were united under the name of "The Mason Street Religious Society," in Brunswick, and Mr. Wheeler was invited to become pastor of the new organization. He preached to this society until 1865, when he resigned and was soon after appointed missionary for The American unitarian Association to the State of Maine.

In 1860 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Bowdoin College. He was a member of the Maine Historical Society and for many years was a member of its standing committee. Soon after coming to Topsham he was elected a member of the superintending school committee of the town and held the position until within a few years of his death. He was also for many years on the committee of examination of Bowdoin College. "He was a man of unquestioned ability, of cultivated, and literary tastes, an easy graceful writer and ready in extempore address. Few of his contemporaries excelled him in mathematical scholarship. He kept well up with the college curriculum in all its departments. He had a poetic taste and faculty beyond the average of cultivated men. Of clear mental vision and acute argumentative powers, he was strong as he was also fair and good-natured in general debate."

"Calm habitually, even to sedateness, self-governed and judicious, he could yet make merry with the gayest within the bounds of right and reason. Of singular purity of life and conversation, possessing a heart as tender and true as that of a child, scorning all equivocations, pursuing the right with unflinching purpose, leading the life of the humble and devoted Christian he won the love and esteem of all who knew him."

His wife, now eighty-four years of age, is living with her son Henry in Brunswick, Maine.

Amos married Louisa Amelia WARREN on 25 Aug 1830. Louisa (daughter of Elijah WARREN and Mary Belcher WHEELER) was born on 18 Aug 1807. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
It is said of Amos Wheeler that he was naturally active and energetic, but that early cares and disappointments discouraged him and he became somewhat shiftless, or at least lost some of his energy and perseverance. Among other causes was his early marriage. His first 2wife was an intellectual woman, of excellent moral character, but she was extravagant in the management of her household affairs and she was, besides, somewhat of an invalid, which necessitated the employment of hired help and this, with their rapidly increasing family, made his expenses lager than he could easily meet.

In early life he lived with his father on the farm in Worcester. Later he was employed in a neighboring town as a cabinet-maker and was esteemed a good workman. Subsequently he removed to Woodstock, Vt., where he lived at the time of his death. His moral character is said to have been without reproach.

His second wife was a smart, active woman who was a real help to him during the few years of their married life.

Amos married Lydia RANDALL on 18 Jun 1803. Lydia (daughter of Capt Benjamin RANDALL and Hannah DEAN) was born on 14 Sep 1767 in Scituate, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts; died on 29 Sep 1856. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]