Scope and Contents:
This collection contains the diaries for 1870, 1872-76, and 1876-78, of Christopher August Wheeler (1835-1882), a farmer in Kendall County, Ill. The diaries mainly document Wheeler's farm activities and purchases in town, the life of his family, and the notable speakers and events in the area.
Wheeler's great-granddaughter, Harriet E. Wallace of Urbana, Ill., prepared typescripts of the diaries, indexed them, and gave the entire collection to the Illinois Historical Survey between 1985 and 2001. She was the Geology Librarian of the University of Illinois Library before her death in 2009, at the age of 94.