The genealogy is not mine, but ours. All are cordially invited to share the labor of completing it and to participate in the satisfaction and pride which it will afford us. I have but one wish concerning the genealogy--that it shall be worthy of the family.
I take this opportunity to thank the many friends who have so kindly aided me with records and subscriptions. The delay of publication for five years due to insufficient subscriptions has been to me a cause of painful regret., since so many who gave hearty support to the enterprise have passed away without seeing the book in which they were sincerely interested.
2. Birthplace and Kin of the Author.--Captain William Wheat (81) removed from Connecticut after the Embargo of 1807-1809 had ruined the fortunes of New England skippers, and settled among the hills which separate the sources of the Susquehanna from those of the Delaware. Five sons and a daughter, married and made their homes almost within sight of the paternal roof; and their children, with few exceptions, followed the same example.
In 1852, the writer was born within three miles of the old homestead where Captain Wheat was still living, and where his venerable parents, Dr. Solomon and Hannah Wheat (80), had died only eleven years before, having spent the last eight of their seventy-and-two years of wedded life with their son William. I was fourteen years of age when Captain Wheat died and was one of the fifth generation of our family that had lived in the vicinity. Each man in my parental line saw five generations of his line, counting both ancestors and descendants, and two of them saw six generations--a circumstance which greatly favored the handing down of family traditions. Not only my relatives, but the neighbors as well, who were my seniors by half a century, often entertained me with tales of my ancestors.
3. Traditions,--Few and vague were the accounts of an earlier generation than that of Dr. Solomon and Hannah Wheat. However, some hesitatingly said that he was the only son of Dr. Solomon Wheat of Boston whose wife was Peggy Green (79B); son of Dr. Solomon Wheat from England to Boston whose wife was Betsy Sullivan, a sister of the man who settled and gave his name to Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor, S. C.; that a brother of the first Dr. Solomon went from Boston to the South, and another brother returned to England or died young; that the father of these brothers, a London merchant, was the first man to receive the name Wheat, having been found, when an infant, in a wheat field belonging to the Prince of Wales, and was named, brought up and educated by the Prince, but was dismissed from court for claiming to be the son of the Prince; and that this progenitor was a Welshman.
It was generally accepted that we were the only Wheat family in the world, although a Mr. Wheat of Illinois and another of Virginia had been reported to our colony; "but probably they died young or, if married, had left daughters only."
Traditions, even when without foundation, are yet of value to the genealogist. If widely separated families of unknown origin have the same traditions, this fact indicates a common origin of the families and may lead to the discovery of a common ancestor. Traditions are often well founded even when generations covering centuries of time have been dropped from the tale. It often happens that traditions belonging to a maternal ancestor are ascribed to the paternal line.
The tradition that the first Wheat was a Welshman probably arose from ignorance of the application of the title, Prince of Wales.
4. Wheat Reunions.--As our colony gradually spread into the adjoining towns it finally became difficult to keep up even a yearly visit to each of the cousins; so a Wheat picnic, or family reunion, was held at the Captain William Wheat homestead, or more commonly called the Bolles homestead.
The reunion has since become an annual event, and has been held at the
residences of the following members of the family:
| Letter | Aug. 14, 1885 | Abial Drake | Franklin, N. Y. |
| July 29, 1886 | Col. Sylvester Wheat | Franklin, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 11, 1887 | Hartson L. Wheat | Treadwell, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 8, 1888 | Hartson L. Wheat | Treadwell, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 21, 1889 | Hartson L. Wheat | Treadwell, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 7, 1890 | George W. Wheat | Treadwell, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 5, 1891 | Abial Drake | Franklin, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 11, 1892 | Almiron G. Wheat | Sidney Center, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 9, 1893 | Miss Lemira F. Wheat | Franklin, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 9, 1894 | Virgil D. Osborn | Treadwell, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 7, 1895 | Porter A. Wheat | Treadwell, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 13, 1896 | Dwight B. Drake | Franklin, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 19, 1897 | Leroy Evans | Franklin, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 30, 1899 | J. Frank Wheat | Treadwell, N. Y. | |
| Photo | Aug. 10, 1900 | Manzer Smith | Treadwell, N. Y. |
| Aug. 8, 1901 | Almiron G. Wheat | Sidney Center, N. Y. | |
| Aug. 20, 1902 | Porter A. Wheat | Treadwell, N. Y. | |
| Photo | 1905 |