Wagon "Wheelers" to Ohio

      In the year 1817, my newly wed paternal 4th-Great-Grandparents Ezeriah and Rachel (Lyon) Wheeler, ventured from New York to Ohio. Married the previous year, they set out to build a life for themselves in the rolling hills of Athens County, raising a family of seven children: Deborah, Lucinda, Edmund, William, Lois, Charles, and Dorus.  
     Of my direct lineage, the eldest Deborah married Samuel Wright in 1839.   
     Sadly Ezeriah died in 1841, leaving behind his widow Rachel with children still living at home. Four years later Rachel married widower Nicholas Border, who was a father of eleven children. And for the remainder of their days they enjoyed a happy life together with their blended family. 
     An article was written in the The Athens Messenger (2 Oct 1879), reporting detailed events of a family reunion. Here is a vivid excerpt telling how the young Wheelers traveled to Ohio: 

    ...Mrs. Border, whose maiden name was Rachel Lyon, was born in 1800, near Albany, New York. Married Ezekiah Wheeler in 1816 and the following year emigrated to Ohio, (making the trip in a big wagon. They subsequently returned to New York again journeying in a wagon, thus across the mountains three times--not so easy a task in these days of railroads) settling in Alexander Township, Athens County, then a wilderness hitherto undisturbed by sound of ringing ax or echoing shout of the sturdy tiller of the soil, the howling wolves and the mingled cries of the feathered denizens of the forest alone breaking in upon the settler...  
    
     Rachel (Lyon) Wheeler Border died at her residence in New England, Athens County, OH, on February, 1882. By all those who loved and respected her, she was fondly known as Mother Border.