[Joseph]:  He was born in Morgan County, Illinois on 12 December 1833.  In the 1850 
census he was referred to as Jacob.  It is not known whether changed his name later 
or, more likely, it was just an error on the part of the census taker.  He moved 
with his parents to Hancock County, Illinois when he was 12 and then moved with them 
again to Schuyler County, Missouri in 1855. He enlisted in the army during the Civil 
War at Memphis, Missouri on 18 October 1861 in Co. B, 21st Regiment of Missouri 
Infantry. He served 4 years and 7 months, taking part in a number of battles, 
including the battle of Shiloh under General Sherman where he was wounded. 

In a later Declaration for Original Invalid Pension, he stated that "in the line of 
his duty at Shiloh and in the siege of Corinth, Mississippi on or about April 1862, 
he contracted lung fever and chronic diarrhea" which had troubled him since. He was 
discharged on 19 April 1866 at Ft. Morgan, Alabama.

He returned to Missouri where he married Sarah (London) Wheeler on 14 February 1867. 
Sarah had first married to Isaac Newton Wheeler in Missouri in 1863.  He died 6 
months later of an illness or "epidemic" as it was called in those days. Her son, 
Isaac Newton Wheeler Jr.., was born 25 February 1865, after his father's death, in 
Schuyler County, Missouri, and Joseph raised "Ike" Wheeler as his own son.

According to family tradition, Joseph's brother, Devrix, and his stepson, "Ike" 
Wheeler, along with Henderson Legrand [Henderson may have come earlier] and others 
from Schuyler County, Missouri were the first to come to Kansas in the year 1877. It 
is more likely that he came in 1878, and later brought his family by covered wagon 
train, using a team of oxen, to the Alcona area in Rooks County, Kansas.

He homesteaded a mile strip of ground rather than what was considered a quarter, to 
be sure he had water on his land as this strip went to the river. His homestead 
comprised 40 acres in Section 4 and 160 acres in Section 3 of Richland Township 
close to the Alcona school. The family first lived in a combination dugout and sod 
house. It was one big room divided off into smaller rooms with pieces of muslin 
cloth. 
Later he built a three-room stone house, a few remains of which stand today. Sarah 
and Joseph lived on their farm until he passed away there about midnight on 1 
September 1925.

Charlotte Curlee Ramsey
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cramsey/index.html