Wilbur Fiske Wheadon was born on May 19, 1843, in St. Charles, Illinois, to Edward Wheadon. His father was a farmer who owned $6,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Maine, Illinois, and by 1860, he was working as a farmer.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on July 26, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 88^th Illinois Infantry on August 27. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 5 inches tall, with brown hair and grey eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of Missionary Ridge, and the Atlanta campaign. Confederate forces captured him at some point during the war. He eventually earned a promotion to corporal, and he mustered out on June 9, 1865.

 

He returned to Illinois after the war, and he married Mary Hall on June 5, 1867. They had at least five children: May, born around 1868; Albert, born around 1870; Alice, born around 1877; Grace, born around 1883; and Abigail, born around 1889. They lived in Ross, Indiana, and Wheadon worked as a farmer. He applied for a federal pension in May 1875 and eventually secured one. By 1900, they were living in Van Buren, Indiana. They moved to Rochester, Indiana, in the early 1900s. His wife died on December 2, 1927. By 1930, he was living in his daughter Grace’s household in Rochester. He died there on October 27, 1930.

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