Person:Rufus Wheelock (1)

Name	Rufus Wheelock
Gender	Male
Birth^[1]	Abt 1771	Milford, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Marriage	Bef 1816	Based on birth of eldest known child to Unknown
Marriage	12 Apr 1821	Warwick, Franklin, Massachusetts, United Statesto Polly Conant
Death^[2]	26 Jan 1853	North Brookfield, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

References

↑ Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. 1850 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration Publication M432)
line 17.
↑ Massachusetts, United States. Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915
[1].

Deaths registered in the Town of North Brookfield for the year, 1853
No.: 4
Date of Death: January 26 1853
Name Rufus Wheelock
Age: 74 y. 3 m. 1 d. [note: calculates to about 25 Oct 1768, but that conflicts with brother Noah's recorded birth, so defer to 1850 census which shows him as 79, born about 1771.]
Place of Death: N Brookfield
Sex: Male
Occupation: Farmer
Place of Birth: Milford
Parents: Timothy & Joanna Wheelock
Cause: Old age
This family may have lived in Ervins Grant which has no records, so details are sparse, and no probate for Rufus has been found to provide clues. The wife of Hamilton Steele, Lydia, died Worcester 1901, naming father Rufus Wheelock and mother Polly Conant. Her birth, as indicated in both this death record and the 1900 census, is January 1816. Clearly, since this precedes the marriage in 1821 of Rufus to Polly, there is a problem. It is assumed Rufus had an earlier wife, and Polly was named since she became step-mother when Lydia was only five, and the death record informed by survivors rather than Lydia herself, the survivors apparently unaware of the earlier wife.