While staying with Erastus Gary in Illinois, Wheaton experienced a conversion to Christianity, as did his brother, Jesse, and they both eventually became members of the Methodist church.

Jesse Childs Wheaton later made claim to 300 acres (1.2 km2) of land just west of Warren's.

In 1848, Warren Wheaton married Harriet E. Rickard (1826-1863) of Pomfret, Connecticut and had six children before she died after giving birth to their last child in 1863.

[5] The Shugg family emigrated from Cornwall to North America on the ship Margaret Evans, docking on November 21, 1846, at New York City Port.

Prior to her marriage, Christiana Shugg was a milliner and business-woman, advertising her shop on Fifth Avenue in The New York Times.

Christiana's obituary (published Friday September 8, 1899) noted "Her parents were members of the Baptist church and reared their children in the habits of prayer and the study of God's word," and "when twenty-three or twenty-four years of age she came to New York where for many years she made her home."

"[6] Brother Jesse Childs Wheaton (1813-1895), a carpenter, married Orinda Gary (1813-1882), and they operated an Underground Railroad depot on their 300-acre farm, which adjoined Warren's claim.