Chapter 2 - Northumberland, Pennsylvania

The Wheatleys settled in Point Township, Northumberland Co., Pennsylvania, and later moved into Northumberland town, where John Wheatley and his son John Wright Wheatley after him ran a shoe shop. Some background on the Withington, McCoy and Thornton families will be needed.

• Land records.
• In 1839, John Wright Wheatley made a trip to Illinois by steamboat on the Ohio and the Mississippi to homestead some land at Kishwaukee, and returned through Chicago and the Great Lakes. On the trip he kept a diary in a small notebook. For some reason, nothing came of the homesteading venture.
• John Wheatley’s will (1840).
• John’s son William McCoy Wheatley (who is one of the central figures of this history, his wife Mildred the other) studied trigonometry in about 1843 as part of his surveyor’s training. His notebook contains many personal notes and verses, and two false starts on a journal.

• Graves in Riverview Cemetery, Northumberland, Pennsylvania
  • John Wheatley (1758-1840) : picture
  • Elizabeth Wright Wheatley (1763-1828) : picture
  • John Wright Wheatley (1797-1873) : picture
  • Harriet Withington Wheatley (1803-1882) : picture
• John Wright Wheatley’s signature (from his ledger): picture
• The Priestley House, Northumberland, probably 1890: picture
• Wheatley Home: Front St and Wheatley Ave, Northumberland, PA: