As the chief complaining witness of voter fraud in 1904, he played a primary role in the eventual downfall of San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz and his attorney and political boss Abe Ruef.
He entered Harvard College in 1875 and graduated in the Class of 1880, which included classmates of future president Theodore Roosevelt and secretary of state Robert Bacon.
Wheelan¹s wife, Albertine Randall Wheelan, began what would be a long career as a fine artist, the costume director for stage producer David Belasco, and book illustrator.
[13] During this period of turmoil in San Francisco, Wheelan became an important advisor to his former classmate and then United States president Theodore Roosevelt on California party politics.
Wheelan warned Roosevelt in the summer of 1905 that, “The cause of good government thought out the Union demands that Mr. Schmitz should not be re-elected to office.”[citation needed] This influence was noted by then Republican leader George Knight when he was quoted in the Oakland Tribune that, "It is funny that Pres.
[15] The Republican League consequently joined with the Democratic Party, under the leadership of lawyer Gavin McNab, the Southern Pacific Railroad's Republican organization, and other local leaders, including Fremont Older, editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, in 1905 to create a fusion movement which would challenge Union Labor Party’s Eugene Schmidt, to a two-party race rather have the incumbent mayor win in a "three-corner" fight.
[17] The Partridge selection, as Ruef had predicted, led to the breakdown of the fusion coalition, and caused a landslide victory for Schmidt's bid for reelection.
[21] The dedication of a children¹s drinking fountain in Jefferson Square, San Francisco, paid tribute to “the late Fairfax Henry Wheelan, originator of an effort which has resulted in those orders finding permanent homes for thousands of homeless children”.