Harry C. Wheeler | |
---|---|
Birth name | Harry Cornwall Wheeler |
Born |
Jacksonville, Florida, United States |
June 23, 1875
Died | December 17, 1925 Bisbee, Arizona, United States |
(aged 50)
Allegiance | United States of America |
Service/ |
United States Army |
Battles/wars | |
Other work | Arizona Ranger, Sheriff |
Harry Cornwall Wheeler (July 23, 1875 – December 17, 1925) was an Arizona lawman who was the third captain of the Arizona Rangers, as well as the sheriff of Cochise County, serving from 1912 into 1918. He is known as the lead figure in the illegal mass kidnapping and deportation of some 1200 miners and family members, many of them immigrants, from Bisbee, Arizona to New Mexico in 1917. Beginning on July 12, 1917, he took total control of the town of Bisbee, controlling access and running kangaroo courts that deported numerous people.
He was born and raised in Florida and was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and World War I. He served in the Arizona Rangers from 1903 to its disbanding in 1909.
Harry Wheeler, the son of Colonel William B. Wheeler of the United States Army and his wife, was born in 1875 in Jacksonville, Florida. After some local schooling, in 1897, the 22-year-old Wheeler enlisted in the 1st Cavalry and fought in the Spanish–American War. He was given a medical discharge at the rank of sergeant in 1902.
A crack shot with a rifle or pistol, Wheeler joined the Arizona Rangers in 1903 and was promoted to sergeant four months later. In October 1904, Wheeler killed an outlaw at the Palace Saloon in Tucson. He was later involved in a shootout in Benson, where he killed a second man. In 1907, Wheeler replaced Thomas H. Rynning as captain of the Arizona Rangers, and served as the agency's leader until its disbanding in 1909.