Horace Wheeler~Timbuctoo

This telegraph key and receiver was used between 1860 and 1870 by Mrs. Horace Niles Wheeler at Timbuctoo California.  Horace and Margaret (Havens) Wheeler spent nearly 20 years there mining for gold.  She used this device to communicate with her husband, Horace N. Wheeler (My great, great grandfather) at the office of a water company ten miles away.  Mrs. Wheeler became quite proficient at it's use.
This is the actual box on which the accompanying telegraph equipment was mounted.  It is basically untouched and the original pencil marks used to install the set can still be seen after a little over 150 years!

Jack and Anna Wheeler, October 5, 1935

This picture of my grandmother, Anna (Rippel) Wheeler was taken on the back porch of their home at 10 Godfrey Street, Mystic in the 1950s.
Jack and Anna Wheeler were married on October 5, 1935 in the house of Anna's mother on Church Street in Mystic.  My Uncle, Robert Wheeler and Father Richard just recently told me the story of how Jack and Anna met.

**Jack was the manager of the Socony Gas Station on East Main Street in Mystic.  (This was diagonally across from the Catholic Church.) He worked for a Mr. Len Hermes.  One day he noticed a beautiful girl walking with Charlie Rippel.  Jack was curious and thought how pretty she was.  Another time he had seen Anna walking by alone.  Jack got the nerve up to ask Charlie Rippel one time who the girl was.  Charlie told him that she was his sister.  One thing lead to another and they began a courtship that lead to a wonderful and loving relationship.  I have never met someone as kind, generous, and loving as my grandmother, Anna Wheeler was.  I miss her.