John Hanson
Storyteller John Hanson, USAF, Retired
Email johnandmary@vfwonline.net
Phone 701-739-0454
Will portray Henry M. Wheeler,
Grand Forks Physician
Henry M. Wheeler was born in New Hampshire in 1853. Two years later his family moved to Northfield, Minnesota. He was educated in Northfield including his college days at Carlton College. He began the study of medicine by attending the University of Michigan and became a doctor 1877. While on leave from medical school Henry encountered the Jesse James gang in Northfield when they came to rob the Bank. He attempted a resistance to the robbery but was unsuccessful. In 1879 Dr. Wheeler entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City and became a surgeon. His first two wives both died in childbirth.
Soon after the death of his second wife, he married the nurse who cared for her and they came to Grand Forks in the Dakota Territory. After North Dakota became a state he and other physicians banded together to form the North Dakota Medical Association. Just after the founding of the University of North Dakota he was asked to become the first dean of the medical school. Dr. Wheeler was a close friend of James J. Hill, the railroad magnate. These men hunted together. He retired from his medical practice in 1923 but he retained his membership in the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Elks.
