Fairfax Henry Wheelan

F.H. Wheelan

Fairfax Henry Wheelan (September 27, 1856 – March 26, 1915) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and political reformer. As the chief complaining witness of voter fraud in 1904, he played a primary role in the eventual downfall of San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz and his attorney and political boss Abe Ruef.[1]

Early life and education

Wheelan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Peter Wheelan and Catherine Frances Baker. Wheelan¹s father built and operated one of the first flour mills in California[2] and was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was member of California State Assembly 11th District, 1883-85.[3] His grandfather, John Henry Baker, was the owner of Golden Gate Ranch, later to be known as Baker Beach in San Francisco.[4]

He was educated McClure Military Academy[5] in Oakland and the Christian Brothers School in Dublin. He entered Harvard College in 1875 and graduated in the Class of 1880, which included classmates of future president Theodore Roosevelt and secretary of state Robert Bacon. Fairfax was also a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals at Harvard.[6]

Career

After college he returned to San Francisco in 1881 and started a new operation for Wheelan's Mills in West Berkeley. During this time, he served as editor for the Berkeley Beacon[7] and was elected School Director for the Town of Berkeley.[8] In 1886, he opened a new flour mill in San Luis Obispo and eventually settled in Santa Barbara. He later sold out to the Central Milling Company in San Jose, but stayed on as general superintendent. By 1888, he had left Central Milling to become general manager of Southern Mill and Warehouse Company in San Francisco.[6]

In 1887, Wheelan married Albertine Soule Randall, daughter attorney of Albert Gallatin Randall, an original San Francisco 49'er,[9] and member of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851 [10] and Anne Soule, in San Francisco May 18, 1887, at Trinity Church.

While in Santa Barbara, Mr. Wheelan was the first president of the Santa Barbara Club in 1892. In 1893 he developed 2 patents[11] related to flour mill operations. He eventually returned to San Francisco in 1894 as vice president of Southern Pacific Milling Company and director of the Salinas Valley Lumber Company.[6]

He and his wife, Albertine, had two sons, Edgar Stow Wheelan, born in San Francisco on April 7, 1888, and Fairfax Randall Wheelan, born in Santa Barbara on August 1, 1891. Wheelan's wife, Albertine Randall Wheelan, began what would be a long career as a fine artist, the costume director for stage producer David Belasco, and book illustrator. She is also considered to be one of first women cartoonists in America.[12]

Political reformer

As a director of the San Francisco Merchants’ Association, Wheelan helped led the organization's efforts to end voter fraud, and in 1904 personally challenged illegal ballot stuffing at San Francisco's Almshouse which had been orchestrated by the then Mayor Schmitz's brother and backed by Ruef. The incident eventually led to the indictment and conviction of several election fraud perpetrators.[13]

In July 1905, Wheelan wrote to President Theodore Roosevelt about political corruption in San Francisco and the effort to defeat Mayor Eugene Schmitz, arguing that “the cause of good government throughout the Union demands that Mr. Schmitz should not be re-elected to office.”[14]

This influence was noted by then Republican leader George Knight when he was quoted in the Oakland Tribune that, "It is funny that Pres. Roosevelt cannot find anyone in California to consult with except Fairfax Wheelan and Benjamin Ide Wheeler. Both are good men, but are they the only honest citizens of California?"[15]

San Francisco Republican League and 1905 Fusion Party

As part of his reform activities, Wheelan helped form and led the San Francisco Republican League which was made up of the city’s more progressive wing of the Republican Party.[16]

The Republican League consequently joined with the Democratic Party, under the leadership of lawyer Gavin McNab, the Southern Pacific Railroad's Republican organization, and other local leaders, including Fremont Older, editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, in 1905 to create a fusion movement which would challenge Union Labor Party’s Eugene Schmidt, to a two-party race rather have the incumbent mayor win in a "three-corner" fight.

Wheelan and McNab led the effort to identify a consensus candidate for the mayoral election which led to the selection of Harry Baer, the then auditor of the city of San Francisco, who was a Republican. They presented their recommendation to Older, a major power broker, for his approval. Older, fearing a railroad-led pushback, and accused both of unstated illegalities, and, according to historian Walton Bean, Older used "blunt political blackmail" to have Baer's nomination withdrawal and endorse his own choice, John Partridge, a young and inexperienced lawyer with strong support from the railroad leaders.[17]

During the 1905 campaign, Wheelan directed that Chinese and Japanese workers not be employed to distribute Republican League campaign literature.[18] The decision came amid intense anti-Asian labor politics in San Francisco. Mayor Eugene Schmitz publicly advocated the exclusion of Japanese laborers, while local labor organizations formed the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League in 1905 to campaign against Asian immigration and employment.[19][20] After the election, Wheelan wrote to President Theodore Roosevelt that much of the difficulty faced by the unsuccessful reform campaign had resulted from tensions with organized labor.[21]

The Partridge selection, as Ruef had predicted, led to the breakdown of the fusion coalition and caused a landslide victory for Schmidt's bid for reelection.[17]

San Francisco Earthquake

Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Wheelan joined the city's emergency relief effort despite having opposed Mayor Eugene Schmitz politically before the disaster. As a member of the Committee of Fifty, Wheelan chaired the subcommittee on Roofing the Homeless, while Katharine "Kitty" Felton, director of Associated Charities of San Francisco, chaired relief efforts for the sick and wounded.[22] Wheelan, Felton and Schmitz were also among the San Francisco relief leaders who signed an April 24, 1906 telegram to President Theodore Roosevelt concerning care for the city's homeless, sick and destitute.[23] As part of the emergency response, Wheelan also participated in early efforts to assess the disaster's death toll. On April 25, 1906, the Morning Oregonian reported that he estimated the loss of life at fewer than 300, substantially below estimates then being cited by the San Francisco coroner's office.[24] Wheelan continued working with Felton after the disaster, later serving on the board of Associated Charities and chairing its Municipal and Legislative Committee.[25] In 1907, Wheelan and Felton helped establish a program supported by the Native Sons and Native Daughters of the Golden West to place homeless and dependent children in private family homes.[26]

Civic life

Wheelan was also a creative force in San Francisco and a popular public speaker. He was one of the founding members of the University Club of San Francisco[6] and served as a president from 1901 to 1903. He was the primary officer of the city's exclusive literary club, the Chit-Chat Club,[27] for sixteen years, and was its leader at the time of the earthquake in 1906. He reported to members that their monthly meeting would continue nonetheless saying, "We see no reason why geology should be permitted to interfere with literature and the pursuit of truth."[28] He was also a founding board member of the Archaeological Society of San Francisco in 1903 at the invitation of Phoebe Hearst, who was its first president.[29]

In recognition of Mr. Wheelan, the Native Daughters and Native Sons presented the Fairfax H. Wheelan Memorial Fountain to the City of San Francisco on March 4, 1928.[30] The dedication of a children¹s drinking fountain in Jefferson Square, San Francisco, paid tribute to “the late Fairfax Henry Wheelan, originator of an effort which has resulted in those orders finding permanent homes for thousands of homeless children”.

Wheelan died of stomach cancer in San Francisco on March 26, 1915 at the age of 58.

References

  1. ↑ Boss Ruef's San Francisco: Story of the Union Labor Party, Big Business and the Graft Prosecution by Walton Bean. University of California Press. 1952. p. 60. ISBN 0520000935. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  2. ↑ "The Northwestern Miller". Miller Publishing Company. 17 June 2018 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Wheelan, Peter. "Political Graveyard".
  4. ↑ "California Digital Newspaper Collection". San Francisco Call.
  5. ↑ "[McClure's Military Academy, Oakland]". Calisphere.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "In Memoriam: Fairfax Henry Wheelan, 1856-1915". 1915.
  7. ↑ "The Berkeley beacon". Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  8. ↑ Waterman, S.D. (1919). History of the Berkeley Schools. Professional Press.
  9. ↑ Soulé, Frank; Gihon, John H.; Nisbet, James; Nisbet, Jim (1855). "The Annals of San Francisco".
  10. ↑ "Pacific Coast History Papers Committee".
  11. ↑ Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1893.
  12. ↑ "Albertine Randall".
  13. ↑ Wheelan, Fairfax (October 6, 1904). "Wheelan Tells of Rough Work at Polls". The San Francisco Call.
  14. ↑ Wheelan, Fairfax Henry (July 13, 1905). "Letter from Fairfax Henry Wheelan to Theodore Roosevelt". Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  15. ↑ "Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California on December 6, 1905 · Page 13". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  16. ↑ Older, Fremont (1919). My Own Story. Call Publishing Company. wheelan.
  17. 1 2 Bean, Walton (1952). Boss Ruef's San Francisco: The Story of the Union Labor Party, Big Business, and the Graft Prosecution. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520000940. blunt. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  18. ↑ "No Japs Employed". San Francisco Chronicle. August 5, 1905. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  19. ↑ Leffingwell, E. C. (1905). "San Francisco's mayor wants exclusion act to bar the Japs" (PDF). Library of Congress. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  20. ↑ "Asiatic Exclusion League records". Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  21. ↑ Wheelan, Fairfax Henry (November 24, 1905). "Letter from Fairfax Henry Wheelan to Theodore Roosevelt". Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library, Dickinson State University. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  22. ↑ Givens, J. D. (1906). San Francisco in Ruins.
  23. ↑ "Telegram to President Theodore Roosevelt From San Francisco City Officials". Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. April 24, 1906. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  24. ↑ "Loss of Life Less Than 300". The Morning Oregonian. April 25, 1906. p. 4. Retrieved August 14, 2026.
  25. ↑ Associated Charities of San Francisco (1911). The Associated Charities of San Francisco: Annual Reports, 1904–1910. San Francisco: Blair-Murdock Co.
  26. ↑ Brusie, Mary E. (1915). "Child Placing". Proceedings of the Seventh California Conference of Charities & Corrections. p. 51.
  27. ↑ Leonard, John William; Marquis, Albert Nelson (1906). "Who's Who in America Vol 4".
  28. ↑ Francisco, Chit-Chat Club, San (1892). Annual Meeting of the Chit-Chat Club. Chit-Chat Club.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ↑ "Archaeological Society of San Francisco".
  30. ↑ "Fairfax Wheelan Memorial".
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