Sources: 'History of the Wheeler Family in America', 1914, Albert Gallatin Wheeler, Jr., page 501.210

In 1790 Living in Cheshire County, NH (Sullivan Township). 213

On the Alarm List of Keene, NH, 1773214

Selectman at Keene, NH 1769 and 1775215


Col. Abraham Wheeler, son of Abraham and Hannah Wheeler of Keene, was born in 1743; married Mary; had seven children, born in Keene between 1769 and 1779; member of the militia company here in 1773, and his father was at the same time on the alarm list; was a private in Col. Ashley's regiment that marched to the relief of Ticonderoga in 1776; a private in the company of Capt. Davis Howlett of Keene, Ashley's regiment, that marched from Keene to oppose Burgoyne in June, 1777; afterwards a colonel in the militia.



A reflection to the Luther Nourse place in Keene
This property, on what was formally known as Proprietors Road, was originally purchased by Jacob Stiles in 1771. It was not until two years later, after the land was sold to the prominent militia Colonel Abraham Wheeler Jr., that the historic farmhouse was constructed. He designed the house with its large oak timbers and huge central chimney.

In the original plan the back five rooms served as a carriage shed for decades. Two years later, in 1775, on the day of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the massive barn was raised. Certainly not all of Keene's men found their way to Boston that day. According to Marjorie Whalen Smith, who has written about this home, in 1823 the antiquated farmhouse was conveyed to its most prominent owners, who occupied the house for nearly half a century.

The lengthy occupation resulted in the property being known forever after as the Luther Nourse Place. The Nourses were relatives of Rebecca Towne, (Sister to Mary Towne) a 71-year-old woman accused and hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts on July 19, 1692. It was not until days later that her family was able to salvage her body that was brutally thrown among nearby rocks. Our area today knows that there was a "Keene connection" to the tragic event in the early history of Massachusetts. See Francis Nourse, Luther Nourse and Benjamin Nourse.