Business & brands / Politics
William W. Wheaton
1833–1891 · wholesale grocer, mayor of Detroit
Connecticut-born wholesale grocer who was elected Detroit's mayor twice, serving 1868–1871, and later sat in the Michigan House.
- Born
New Haven, Connecticut- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 58- Detroit years
- 1853–1891
- Field
- Business & brands, Politics
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
William W. Wheaton lost his father at eleven and helped support his mother, starting at sixteen in a New Haven wholesale house where he rose to bookkeeper and confidential clerk. In 1853 he moved to Detroit to join the wholesale grocers Moore, Foote and Company, became a junior partner in Farrand & Wheaton in 1855 and struck out on his own as Wheaton & Company in 1859, trading under a series of partnerships through the 1860s. In 1873 he also became treasurer of the Marquette & Pacific Rolling Mill Company. A Democrat, he lost a state senate race in 1866 by only twelve votes, then won two two-year terms as mayor, serving from 1868 to 1871, a period of rapid postwar growth. He chaired the Democratic State Convention but was soured on politics by the party's 1872 endorsement of Horace Greeley. He returned as a state representative in 1889 and died at Harper Hospital in 1891.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit, 1868–1871 (two terms)
- Founder of the wholesale grocery firm Wheaton & Company (1859)
- Chairman of the Michigan Democratic State Convention
- Michigan state representative elected in 1889
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 1891
Harper University Hospital
He died at Harper Hospital on November 11, 1891.