George
Washington Wheland
George
Washington Wheland is one of the solid citizens who have made Chattanooga the
city she is. Actively and success fully engaged in manufacturing, he has done
much to build up our material interests, while by his personal life he has set a
good example to his contemporaries and to those who shall come after us. He was
born, 15 August, 1843, in Center County, Pennsylvania, and was raised on a farm
in Hancock County, Ohio, receiving a common school education. He served thru the
Civil War in the One Hundred and Eighteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and has
ever since been in the machine and foundry business.
He
came to Chattanooga from Athens, Tenn., in 1874. He is president of the Wheland
Machine Works, vice-president of the Chattanooga Plow Company, and one of the
principal stockholders of the Chattanooga Machinery Company. These facts alone
indicate how large a factor he has been in our industrial progress.
Mr.
Wheland was on the first police commission of Chattanooga. He is a member of the
First Methodist Church, of this city.
On
October 9, 1872, he married at
Grand Haven, Mich., Miss Emily L. Winsor, who died, 12 February, 1895. There are
two children of the marriage, Z. W. Wheland and E. F. Wheland. On 20 November,
1901, Mr. Wheland married, at Hagerstown, Ind., Mrs. Sara J. Greenleaf.
He
is still in full business activity, with, probably, many years of active
usefulness yet before him.