Ezekiel Wheatley, farmer and stock-raiser, of Blue River Township, was born in the eastern part of Maryland, November 30, 1817, son of William and Rebecca (Tull) Wheatley. William Wheatley was a soldier in the War of 1812. He left Maryland in 1823, emigrating to Ohio and renting on the Big Miami fourteen miles north of Cincinnati, where his death occurred the year following. He was a farmer by occupation, and the father of six children, two of whom are now living, viz.: the subject of this biography and Mrs. Celia McHenry, of Hamilton County, Ohio. Mrs. Wheatley afterward married a Mr. Van Sickle, by whom she had two children, both deceased. By the death of his father, Ezekiel Wheatley early in life was thrown upon his own resources, and for some years worked as a common laborer, contributing his earning to the support of his widowed mother and six orphan children. At the age of twenty-three, he married Miss Mary Cone, of Franklin County, Ind., and for one year thereafter farmed in that county, and then moved to Hamilton County, Ohio, which was his home for four years. At the end of that time he returned to Franklin County, this state, and three years later moved to Nineveh Township, Bartholomew County, where he resided for a period of thirty years. His wife died March 5, 1877. She was the mother of fourteen children, all of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. Their names are as follows: Martha Ann, Charles H. (deceased), William H., Rebecca, John N., George W., Joseph F., Adelia, Lizzie A., Joseph E., Alice M., Maggie, Kate and Mollie. Charles H. was a member of Company I, Seventy-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and died from exposure while in the service, July 3, 1863. Of the other children, nine are married, and all but one, George W., whose home is in Kansas, live in this state. Mr. Wheatley’s home farm consists of 150 acres of finely improved land in the southwestern part of Blue River Township. He is one of the old and substantial citizens of the community, and for a number of years has been an ardent supporter of the republican party.