Frank Willis Wheeler was a shipbuilder and politician from the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

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Biography

Wheeler was born in Chaumont, New York

Chaumont, New York

Chaumont is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 592 at the 2000 census. The village is named for Jacques-Donatien Le Ray, the Comte de Chaumont in France....

 attended the common school

Common school

A common school was a public school in the United States or Canada in the nineteenth century. The term 'common school' was coined by Horace Mann, and refers to the fact that they were meant to serve individuals of all social classes and religions....

s. In 1864, he moved with his parents to East Saginaw, Michigan

East Saginaw, Michigan

East Saginaw is a defunct city in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan.East Saginaw was founded in 1850, and was incorporated as a village in 1855 and as a city in 1857...

 and attended the Saginaw High School and the Ypsilanti State Normal School (now (Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Ypsilanti is west of Detroit and eight miles east of Ann Arbor. The university was founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School...

). He engaged in boatbuilding and moved to West Bay City

West Bay City, Michigan

West Bay City was a city in the U.S. state of Michigan.In 1905, West Bay City merged with Bay City, Michigan....

 in 1876. He became master of the Saginaw River Tug Association and engaged in shipbuilding at the Bay Cities for many years.

In 1888, Wheeler was the Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 10th congressional district

Michigan's 10th congressional district

Michigan's 10th congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, covering a region known as the Thumb. It consists of all of Huron, Lapeer, St...

 and defeated incumbent Democrat Spencer O. Fisher

Spencer O. Fisher

Spencer Oliver Fisher , was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.-Biography:Fisher was born in Camden, Michigan, where he attended the public schools. He also attended Albion College and Hillsdale College. He engaged in lumbering and banking in West Bay City, where he was mayor, 1881-1884...

 to be elected to the 51st Congress

51st United States Congress

The Fifty-first United States Congress, referred to by some critics as the Billion Dollar Congress, was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C...

. Wheeler served from March 4, 1889 to March 3, 1891 and was not a candidate for reelection in 1890.

After leaving Congress, Wheeler engaged in his former pursuits until 1899, when he moved to Detroit. He returned to Saginaw in 1917 and organized the Saginaw Shipbuilding Co. and was engaged in building boats for the United States Government.

Frank W. Wheeler died in Saginaw and is interred in Elm Lawn Cemetery, Bay City, Michigan

Bay City, Michigan

Bay City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and is the principal city of the Bay City Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Saginaw-Bay City-Saginaw Township North...

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