Benjamin Franklin Wheeler

The Handbook of Texas says the settlement was first called Clough, for George Washington Clough, whose home held the post office when it opened in 1876. Wheeler carried mail from Tyler to Buffalo and stayed overnight with Clough, and the community took Wheeler's name in 1878. In the early 1880s Clough applied to rename the place Georgetown, but another Georgetown already existed in Texas, so Ben Wheeler stuck. The Handbook describes Wheeler as a Kentucky native who came from New Orleans around 1847 and held a 640-acre grant at Creagleville.

What the plaque says

Benjamin Franklin Wheeler Benjamin Franklin Wheeler, namesake for the Ben Wheeler Community, contributed to the development of communications across the region in his mail-carrying career and influenced land ownership in the area. He was born in 1818, in Adair County, Kentucky. He went on to spend many years as a boatman along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, finally marrying his wife, Eliza, in New Orleans. The couple moved to Henderson County, Texas in 1847, but soon moved to Van Zandt County to own land near his sister's family. During his first years in Texas, he carried mail between Tyler and communities to its west, making him one of the first people to carry mail in and through Van Zandt county. He also had a hand in improving a portion of the Shreveport and Dallas Road in 1853, and carried mail for the Confederacy during the Civil War. After his wife returned to New Orleans, Wheeler married the widow Caroline Watkins in 1865. In addition to his son, James, whom he had with Eliza, he also raised three more children with his new wife. Ben Wheeler and his family lived at Creagleville for most of his life. For a time he owned and operated a liquor dealership in the county. He carried mail between Edom and Canton, and would stop halfway at the home of his friend George W. Clough. In 1876, George Clough made a request for the establishment of a post office in the community. The request was approved and was named Ben Wheeler. The office was operated out of postmaster Clough's home. Before his death in 1899, Wheeler sold nearly 300 of his acres to churches, friends and family. Benjamin Wheeler's life and career helped shape the future of Van Zandt county. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Governor Hogg Shrine — 20 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.
• Purtis Creek State Park — 26 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 34 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 34 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• Mercer's Colony Eastern Boundary — steps away
• Poletown and Rhodesburg — 1.5 mi
• Wiley Hardeman Post — 2.9 mi
• Grand Saline C.S.A. — 3.4 mi