[Vol 7, p 564-565]
... 6. Lieutenant Isaac Wheeler, born November 26, 1746. In 1755 he inherited by the will of his grandfather, Captain Thomas Wheeler, the old homestead of his great-grandparents, Isaac and Mary Shepherd Wheeler, and was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Paul Wheeler. He was married on December 31, 1765, when only nineteen years of age, by Rev. Joseph Fish, of North Stonington, to Ruth Swan, daughter of Timothy and Mary Smith Swan,... At the outbreak of the Revolution he enlisted, on May 9, 1775, as a private in Colonel David Waterbury's Regiment, the Fifth Connecticut, a member of the Eighth Company, under Captain Joseph Smith. This regiment was raised on first call for troops by act of Legislature, April-May, 1772. It was recruited mainly in Fairfield County and marched first to New York under General Wooster and with the First Regiment, and then to the Northern Department. He was at the siege of St. John's in October and was discharged November 11, 1775. Term of service expired December, 1772. On account of sickness many men returned in October-November, 1775. He reenlisted and in 1776 was stationed at Newport, Rhode Island, under the command of Colonel Harry Babcock. Here he took with him into service his two slaves, Enoch and Caesar, and his eldest son, Isaac, as a fifer in his company. In 1777 he was in the Pennsylvania campaign and participated in the battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. He rose to the rank of lieutenant and was known as "Leftenant Wheeler" to the day of his death in all the country round. He died December 31, 1831. Ruth, his wife, died December 6, 1834.
The interest which attaches to a story at first hand induces the writer to give the following reminiscences almost verbatim: Well do I [Nancy Lord {Wheeler) Stanton] remember my grandfather, Lieutenant Isaac Wheeler, and my visits to his house. His death occurred shortly after my marriage, and as there was a heavy fall of snow at the time we attended his funeral in sleighs. He died in the old homestead at Togwonk and was buried in the burying place of his ancestors which was on his farm. He was a large, tall man of light complexion and with hair inclining to a sandy hue, very mild in manner, and greatly respected by all who knew him. As the head of a large family his home was ever well filled by children and grandchildren over whom he exercised a parental care. ...
