People Australia

Moses Wheeler (1855-1933) carter and trade union official

Birth: 11 June 1855 at Camden, New South Wales, and baptised 8 July 1855 at St John’s Anglican Church there, son of English-born parents from Bisley, Stroud, Gloucestershire, Samuel Wheeler (1820-1909), a sawyer, later farmer, and his first wife Selina Anne, née Butt (1832-1862). Marriages: (1) 9 May 1877 at Redfern, Sydney, New South Wales, to native-born Annetta Ferguson (1855-1882). They had one son who died in infancy and one daughter. (2) 1883 at Waterloo, Sydney, to native-born Mary Grumley (1858-1960). They had six daughters and five sons; three of the sons were triplets born in 1897; one of the triplets died the following year. Death: 5 April 1933 in his usual residence at Merton Street, Sutherland, NSW. Religion: buried in Catholic Cemetery, Woronora. 

• His grandfather Jonathon (1791-1885) and father Samuel were craftsmen, brought out aboard the Layton in January 1838 by the James Macarthur family of Camden Park “for the purpose of preparing the timber for the building” of St John’s, the church in which Moses was baptised.
• Moses was founding secretary of the Sydney Trolley and Draymen's Union in 1888; held office to 1892.
• Delegate to Maritime Council and active in 1890 Maritime Strike.
• Lived at Waterloo, Sydney, for many years until he moved to Sutherland later in life.
• Was a PG [past grand] of the Loyal Eureka Lodge No. 53, Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows.
• Wheeler was an Old Age Pensioner in his later years. Cause of death: arteriosclerosis (10 years) and Parkinson’s disease (2 years).

Sources
Mark Bray and Andrew Rimmer, Delivering the Goods; the Transport Workers’ Union in New South Wales 1888-1986 (Sydney, 1987).