Old Wheeler House
Concord Enterprise, December 16, 1937
This house [the present 99 Sudbury Road] is one of the oldest houses in town. It was built, at least in part, by John Scotchford and his wife Susanna Meriam, and was mentioned in the first list of estates made in 1653. The old road which antedates Main Street led from behind the Burying Ground past John Scotchford’s house so [i.e. to] back to the river ford near the present day 88 Main Street; and later, when a more direct road was laid out to the South Bridge, this curving remnant was called Scotchford’s Lane. John Scotchford was town clerk from 1668 to 1679.
In January 1696, John and Susanna Scotchford sold to Edward Wheeler the house and barn with six acres of land and a lot of sixteen acres near Nine Acre Corner for 45 pounds. The original deed is owned by Edward’s fourth great grandson, Thomas Todd. The original will, in which Edward Wheeler left the house to his son David, is in the possession of another descendant, Mrs. Henry F. Smith. Witnesses to the first deed were Edward Wheeler’s father, John Wheeler Sr., his wife’s father Samuel Meriam and kinsman John Meriam, Jr.
David Wheeler was Deacon of the church and turned out with the militia on April 19, 1775, at the age of 68. He left the house to his son Ephraim, who married Sarah Heywood, sister of Dr. Abiel Heywood. Provincial stores of tents, axes, spades, wooden spoons, dishes and canteens were stored here. Ephraim was a Lieutenant in the Continental army. Ephraim, Jr., born in 1773, often told the story that his mother took him to the woods to hide on April 19, but he lost his shoe and cried so loudly that she had to take him back for it. He inherited the house in turn. He married Sarah Parkman and twelve years later his widowed mother became the third wife of Deacon William Parkman, his wife’s father. Abiel Wheeler, Ephraim, Jr’s son, had the unusual experience of attending, in 1811, this wedding of his grandfather and grandmother. Two or three years before this, Mrs. Wheeler had called Judge Wood and the widow Barrett a couple of old fools for getting married at their age, so when her daughter reminded her of this, she just replied tartly, “I never expected to be the third old fool!” Deacon Parkman probably never lived in this house, but after his death in 1832, his widow returned and lived here until her death in 1837 at the age of 92.
Ephraim Wheeler, Jr. died in 1848, his widow in 1856. Each of his three sons built a house; Henry Adams Wheeler, across the street, Abiel Wheeler on Sudbury Road near the corner of Fairhaven Road, and Jonathan, in 1850, next door. Before Jonathan built his house, the barns and out buildings formed a hollow square to the south of the house. They included two barns, a pig sty, cider mill, slaughter house and wood sheds. Jonathan’s son Frank was the next owner, and his daughter Miss Isabelle Wheeler is the present owner. Mrs. Harriet Whitcomb, daughter of Abiel Wheeler, was a tenant in half of the house for many years and her daughter and granddaughter Mrs. S. Ripley Bartlett and Miss Sarah R. Bartlett, now occupy it. Thus, the house has been owned and occupied by Wheelers since 1696, and, because Mrs. Scotchford and Mrs. Edward Wheeler were both Meriams, it may even be said to have been in one family since it was built prior to 1653. The Scotchford house may have had only one or two rooms, like the houses of the other first settlers. Its present form with the long roof, small windows and hallway is similar to other Concord houses built or enlarged about 1690.