Wheelock, Alonzo A.

ATLAS MAP
OF
SCOTT COUNTY, ILLINOIS
1873

Andreas, Lyter & Co., Davenport, Iowa

Page 30

ALONZO A. WHEELOCK the subject of this brief sketch, was born at Freedom, Portage county, Ohio, on the 18th day of June, 1834. His father, Amariah Wheelock, was a native of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, from whence he emigrated about the year 1822, and settled on the Western Reserve, at the above mentioned place, where he cleared out a farm in that then wilderness, upon which he resided up to the time of his death, which occurred in the year 1837, at the age of thirty-eight years. He left a wife, formerly Miss Lucetta Earl, daughter of Jacob Earl, Esq., who settled at an early day in Windham, Portage county, Ohio, and in 1849 he emigrated to Marion county, Illinois, to a place called Omega. Here he built a comfortable house, entirely from the timber of a mammoth oak which grew upon his new farm. He died in the spring of 1853, at the age of seventy-two years. Mrs. Lucetta Wheelock was born at Windham, Portage county, Ohio, on the first day of June, 1811, and still resides at Windham Center, near the place of her birth. In 1854 she moved to Omega, Illinois, but returned to Ohio the following year. Amariah Wheelock's mother was a Miss Warren, a near relative of General Warren, who was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. She moved to Ohio with her son, her husband having died in New York state while on the journey to the Western Reserve. She died at Ravenna, Ohio, in the year 1860, at the advanced age of ninety-six years. Amariah Wheelock was the father of four children, three sons and one daughter. Alonzo A. Wheelock, the oldest son, was three years old at the time of his father's death. After he arrived at the age of ten years, he spent the spring, summer, and fall months at work on the farm, which consisted in plowing, hoeing corn, harvesting, haying, dairying, clearing out the timber, and cutting fire wood; he attended district school during the three winter months. In 1851 he determined to quit boyhood farm life and learn a trade. His choice was that of a printer. He therefore sought and found a situation as "printer's devil," in the office of the Portage County Whig, published at Revenna, Ohio, by J. S. Herrick, where he remained until the spring of 1854. His first "jour work" was performed on the Daily Sentinel, at Indianapolis, Indiana. He subsequently worked at the case in printing offices in Chicago and several other western cities, traveling through Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, turning up at Oskaloosa, Iowa, in the spring of 1856, where he took charge, as foreman, in the office of the Oskaloosa Times, and in the following fall purchased the office, and continued to publish the paper, with pecuniary success, until the spring of 1864. In April, 1864, his office was mobbed by a gang of drunken soldiers, at home on furlough. This deed was done by breaking open the office door, and scattering the contents of the office into "pi" upon the floor, at about six and a half p.m. Parties again entered the office about midnight, and carried away everything valuable except the presses and imposing stones. This act was deeply regretted by the best citizens of Oskaloosa, who volunteered to make good the loss; but Mr. Wheelock refused to take one cent of their money, preferring to begin anew, and become master of the situation, in a community where the rights of property were protected by law. The scamps who destroyed his property and stole the remainder fled the country, and again sought safety in the rear of the army - never in front only at the call of rations or pay roll.

In June, 1864, Mr. Wheelock settled in Winchester, and in September, 1865, commenced the publication of the Winchester Times, a democratic paper. In August, 1872, he sold the office to A. W. Tibbetts. Beginning with a mere handful of subscribers, the paper grew in the estimation of the people of the county until it became the leading paper of Scott county. Since its commencement it has witnessed the premature death of two newspapers started in opposition to it. In 1869 Mr. Wheelock became one of the editors and proprietors of the Jerseyville Democrat, with which he remained connected one year, devoting a part of his time to the Jerseyville paper, and the remainder to the Times at Winchester. In the summer of 1870 the democratic party of the county nominated him as their candidate for sheriff, and on the 8th of November of the same year he was elected over James H. Stewart, the republican nominee, and then incumbent of the office, by one hundred and sixty-four majority. In the fall of 1872, being dissatisfied with the action of the democracy in their primary meetings, he announced himself as an independent candidate for re-election, and on the 5th of November was elected over William C. Berry, the regular nominee, by sixty-seven majority. This is said to be the first man elected to office in Scott county since its formation without a party endorsement.

On the 9th of February, 1860, Alonzo A. Wheelock was united in marriage to Miss Virginia A., oldest daughter of Hon. John H. Shoemake, of Oskaloosa, Iowa. This marriage resulted in the birth of three children, the two oldest, a boy and girl, dying at a tender age. The youngest, Maud Wheelock, still living, was born on the 2d of September, 1868. Mr. Wheelock is a self-made man, of Yankee descent, and possesses the will and energy to do things well if worth doing at all. His editorial career has brought him many narrow escapes, having several times been assaulted by parties armed with deadly weapons, because they could not endure the points of his pen. Notwithstanding he has often faces pistils and bludgeons, he yet has faith in the proverb "The pen is mightier than the sword". More fortunate than most "country editors," he has accumulated enough of this world's goods to "keep the wolf from his door", and leaves a competence to his wife and child should he be called in the prime of life to that other and better world.


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