Charles A. Wheaton, a man to be known
Wheaton’s story starts in 1810, in Pompey, New York. He was the son of Augustus Wheaton. He married Ellen Birdseye, his neighbor in 1834. They had twelve children. Wheaton and his family owned a hardware store until it burned in 1851. He then went on to found C.A. Wheaton & Co. Later on he sold his stakes in the hardware store and other assets, and invested in a printing foundry and a project to build a railroad from South Carolina to Tennessee. However, because of the banking crisis and the economic depression of 1855 he was bankrupted. In addition, in 1858, Wheaton’s wife suddenly died at the age of 42.
After his wife died Wheaton’s life change dramatically, and in 1859 his friends John and Ann North wrote to him and encouraged him to come to the town they had founded in 1855, Northfield Minnesota. By 1860, Wheaton left Syracuse and came to Northfield. When North suffered in the Panic of 1857 Wheaton bought out North’s assets in the flour mills and other properties, which gave the properties some financial security and without it they may not have survived. In 1861 Wheaton married Mary Archibald Wagner, whose husband had died of illness, and the Norths left Northfield. Mary was part of the family that owned the four mills in Dundas. With the two families together they produced what later was to be recognized as the best flour in the nation at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Furthermore, Charles and Mary had five children together. Wheaton later sold the mill he bought from North to Jesse Ames and his sons in 1864. In 1867, Wheaton was elected to the Minnesota Legislature and that same year, along with Charles M. Goodsell, they each gave 10 acres of land to the newly formed
Northfield College, which later became Carleton College. The land from both men was used to help found the college. At the age of 63 Wheaton sold the mills and became the editor of the Northfield Standard which later became the Rice County Journal. It was considered one of the finest weekly papers in the Midwest in the 1870s.
Wheaton died in 1882 at the age of 72 and the stores in Northfield closed on the day of his funeral out of respect for a man that could be considered one of the best influences on the town.
Charles A. Wheaton, was a man of many talents and a leader in abolitionism, milling, and newspaper editing. It is my belief that Wheaton should have a bigger spotlight in Northfield history.
If you want to learn more about Charles A. Wheaton or if you have any more information on Wheaton contact me at the Northfield Historical Society. 507-645-9268 or scriven@northfieldhistory.org
