Josiah William Wheeler (1807-1882)

He was an eminent lawyer at New York in partnership with his brother, R.C. Wheeler, who was married to his wife's sister, Theodosia Davenport. His father-in-law (his wife's adoptive father who was also her uncle by marriage), James Boorman, gifted the couple the land on which they built an Italianate villa named "Brierstone" that sits at the core of Springwood, now famous as the country home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In New York, they lived at 25 West 19th Street, a four-story-over-a-basement brownstone which still stands. Josiah and Mary had 5 children.