I'd like to nominate William A. Wheeler (1819-1887) for the NNYHF. He
was a Franklin County attorney who is best known for having been Vice
President of the United States in the Rutherford B. Hayes administration
(1877-1881). He also representated Northern New York in the New York
Assembly, the New York Senate, and the U. S. House of representatives.
In the latter, he chaired the Congressional Committee on the Pacific
Railroads, which spent four difficult years dealing with the sticky mess
of the Union Pacific scandal in 1872, and he also devised and negotiated
the Wheeler Compromise to resolve the chaotic conflict of rival
governments in Louisiana.

Wheeler was a man of unchallenged integrity in public service as well as
devotion to his hometown, Malone, where his memory is revered and is
celebrated annually by the Franklin House of History.

                                                Ted Mills, for the
                                                Franklin County Historical and Museum Society