Oliver III and Hannah Ashby Wheeler

Granny Hepzibah Munroe and her Revolutionary soldier husband, Oliver Wheeler II, started their family in Oliver’s home town of Acton, Massachusetts, about a mile from her Billerica birthplace. By the time they joined the extended Munroe family’s pioneering project in New Hampshire, the first two, (5GA Abi and 5GU Louis) of their dozen children had already arrived.

Born in Hillsborough Center in 1782, our great-great-great-great grandfather Oliver Wheeler III (1782-1854) grew up there as the namesake, third son, and fifth child of Oliver II. In 1802 (a bit young for his time and place: age 25 would have been more typical), he married 4GGM Hannah Ashby, (b 1782) of the Salem, Massachusetts, Ashbys. If the records speak truly, their first child, Hepzibah’s most famous grandchild by far, our great-great-great grandmother, the inimitable, indomitable, and peripatetic Harriet Page Wheeler, came along the next year.

• 1782-1805—Hillsborough Center, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
• 1805-1815—Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts
• 1815-1827—Farmington, Ontario County, New York
• 1827-1854—Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York

I’ve researched their story in some detail and include it in this collection as a presentation entitled “Oliver and Hannah.” PDF and print versions are also available.