Jaynes Bailey Wheeler (1853-1910)

From the Men of Progress, Wisconsin, 1897.

  The Strangest Names In American Political History makes its first stop in Wisconsin for 2020 to highlight the life of Jaynes Bailey Wheeler. So far the only "Jaynes" discovered by this author, Wheeler was a transplant to Wisconsin from Vermont, and after being admitted to practice law established himself in Walworth County. He would win a term as District Attorney for Walworth County in the early 1880s and later served thirteen years as county judge. The son of Lyman Blandin (1825-1870) and Sally (Johnson) Wheeler (1826-1878), Jaynes Bailey Wheeler was born in Pawlet, Vermont on February 28, 1853.

  A student in schools local to Pawlet, Wheeler pursued a career in law at an early age, enrolling at the Albany Law School in late 1873. He graduated in 1875 and shortly thereafter relocated to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, where he was admitted to the state bar. In 1877 he formed a law practice with H.E. Smith, which extended nearly a decade, and on April 24, 1879, married Ella Shaw (1857-1899). The couple were wed until Ella's death and had two children, Margaret (1880-1948) and James Blaine (1883-1933).

   Active in several fraternal organizations in Walworth County, Wheeler was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the International Order of Oddfellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Knights Templar Masons. In 1879 he entered politics with his successful run for district attorney of Walworth County, serving from 1880-1882. In 1885 he was elected as county judge on the non-partisan ticket, succeeding Peter Golder, who had served nearly thirty years in office. Wheeler took his seat on the bench in January 1886 and won a second term in 1889. In 1893 the voters returned him for a third term, and in 1897 won a fourth term, this win being "a most conclusive evidence of Judge Wheeler's efficiency in office, and of his personal popularity."

  Jaynes Wheeler resigned the judgeship in January 1899, and by February had removed back to Vermont. Settling in Rutland, Wheeler assumed the post of associate director of his family's fertilizer business, the M.E. Wheeler and Co. Headed by his brother Marcellus Edgar (1850-1927), the company was remarked as one of the largest fertilizer dealers in the United States, with "over five thousand agents" scattered throughout the country. 

  Several months following his return to Vermont Wheeler suffered the loss of his wife of twenty years, Ella. Two years after her death he remarried to Elizabeth J. Murray (1872-1958), with who he had one son, Murray Jaynes Bailey Wheeler (1902-1984). The couple was wed until Wheeler's death from pneumonia on April 14, 1910, aged 57. Following his death, he was entombed in the Wheeler family mausoleum at the Evergreen Cemetery in Rutland, Vermont.

From the Bennington Evening Banner, April 16, 1910.