Raised by his grandmother from age 3 on (doesn’t specify which grandmother)128

Family “tradition” says he was a chaplain to George Washington. This “cannot be verified, but it is a fact that he spent several weeks at Washington’s headquarters in Cambridge.”128

Another tradition is that he assisted in the laying out of the fortifications at Bunker Hill. There is no proof of this, but a cannon ball now in the possession of one of his descendants, and a cane in that of another, are tangible witnesses to the probability of the story. The ball was fired from one of the British vessels at a group of gentlemen on the slope of the Hill; it passed over their heads and lodged in the earth nearby. In its passage a sucker from an apple tree under which the group was standing was cut off and fell at Mr Wheeler’s feet, who secured both the ball and the stick. One source of the tradition is the wife of one of Mr Wheeler’s sons, Joseph, who lived to the great age of 90 years. Others of the next generation now living at advanced ages recall hearing the story when they were children, and their vain attempts to life the ball which was too heavy for them.”128

Widowed when she married Joseph128