Though Elmer Wheeler is not immediate family line, I find it often useful with family history to get a better picture when we know not only what was going on with family but with their extended relations and neighbors.
Elmer C. Wheeler married Eva Rogers in 1903, a cousin of Antwine Rodman who married May McCormick in 1898, a niece of our Belle Sparks who was married to George W. McKenney Jr. Elmer was a son of Eliza Loise, whose mother was Mary Jane Barada of the Great Nemaha Reserve, buried in Cedar Vale, Chautauqua, Kansas.
Elmer C. Wheeler. The business enterprise of Elmer C. Wheeler has been an important factor in conserving the property and civic rights of the people of his blood and race in Oklahoma. Mr. Wheeler is descended from two stocks of American Indians, with an important admixture of the French pioneers who first explored and traversed the country west of the Mississippi. He is now the head of a prominent family at Pawhuska in Osage County and is carefully looking after the large interests which are under his supervision as a result of the allotment in severalty of the Indian lands of the Osage Nation.
Mr. Wheeler was born in Thurston County, Nebraska, March 17, 1878, a son of M. P. and Eliza (Loise) Wheeler. His father was born in Wisconsin in 1846, and his mother was born in Nebraska in 1847. These parents were married in Richardson County, Nebraska, and moved from there to the Omaha Indian Reservation, on which they lived until June, 1891, when they came with other members of the tribe to Pawhuska, in Indian Territory. Mr. Wheeler’s mother was a daughter of Edward Paul and Mary Jane (Barada) Loise. They belonged to some of the earliest French families in the vicinity of St. Louis. Mr. Wheeler’s mother first married Antoine Cabaney, and had one son by that union. Mr. Wheeler’s grandfather was half Osage and half French origin, and his grandmother was half French and half Omaha Indian. His grandfather established a trading post at what is now the City of Omaha, where a Frenchman by the name of Edward Sarpy, in the employ of the American Fur Company, had established a post in the early ’40s, this enterprise giving the first distinction to the site now occupied by that flourishing city. Mr. Wheeler’s grandfather lived at Omaha until a short time before his death, when he went to St. Louis and there fell a victim to the cholera. Mr. Wheeler’s great-grandfather on his mother’s side was Mitchell Barada, who was one of the first white men to locate west of the Missouri River. He was with the historic expedition of Lewis and Clarke that explored the Missouri River to its source early in the nineteenth century, and a number of years later he made three trips to California after the discovery of gold, and died in Nebraska. Mr. Wheeler’s parents both reside in Osage County, his father being a retired farmer. They had ten children, five of whom died in infancy, and the five now living are: Paul E., of Cleveland, Oklahoma; Elmer C.; Lovania, wife of L. E. Brock, a rancher in Osage County; Anna, wife of Jack Weinrich, a merchant at Pawhuska; and Alma, living with her parents.
Elmer C. Wheeler lived with his parents until his marriage in 1903, though much of his time was spent awav from home attending different Indian schools. From 1888 to 1890 he was in the Indian School at Genoa, Nebraska, and then spent three years in the Osage Indian Boarding School. From 1896 to 1897 he was in the Chilloco Indian School and graduated in 1897. During 1899-1900 he was in the Indian Training School at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and took his diploma from that institution in the latter year. After leaving school he spent some time in the employ of the United States Government as an engineer at the ice plant in Pawhuska.
On September 23, 1903, Mr. Wheeler was married to Eva E. Rogers. She comes of the noted Rogers family of Oklahoma, and was born in Osage County August 3, 1877, a daughter of Antoine and Elizabeth (Carpenter) Rogers, who are still living and have their home at Wyana. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have one child, Virginia Rogers. They are also rearing five children by Mrs. Wheeler’s sister. Their father was Arthur, a son of Judge Thomas L. Rogers, one of the distinguished citizens of Northeastern Oklahoma whose career will be found sketched on other pages of this work. These five orphan children now in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler are: Joseph L., Ellen Elizabeth, John R., Wil- • liam C. and Isabel Rogers.
In recent years Mr. Wheeler has been busied in supervising the allotment of his family and children, comprising altogether about 6,000 acres. Of this handsome estate about 1,000 acres are already under cultivation as farming land, and the rest is pasture and grazing land. Mr. Wheeler owns two good buildings’in Pawhuska, and occupies a substantial home which is the property of his children.
In polities he is a republican, and is prominent in the Masonic order. He is a Knight Templar Mason and is also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. His local affiliations are with Wahsahshe Lodge No. 110, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Horeb Chapter No. 63, Royal Arch Masons; Omega Council, Royal and Select Masons; Palestine Commandery No. 31, Knights Templar; Oklahoma Consistory of the Scottish Rite; The Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Tulsa. He Is a past master of his lodge and past commander of Palestine Commandery. He is also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
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