[1] He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and practiced in Jamaica from 1859 to 1867, first in partnership with John E. Butler, then as senior partner with Lavant M.

[1][3] Wheeler was nominated by President Rutherford B. Hayes on March 15, 1877, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Vermont vacated by Judge David Allen Smalley.

[5]) He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 16, 1877, and received his commission the same day.

[6] He retired in October 1906, following the confirmation of James Loren Martin as his successor.

[1] They had no children, but raised as their own a nephew, John Knowlton, the son of Mrs. Wheeler's sister Elizabeth and her husband Benjamin L.