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Believed to have been born in North Carolina between 1770 and 1780, William is the "brick wall" in my Wheeler lineage. He was first encountered in the late 1700's in a portion of Henderson County that later became Union County in Western Kentucky.

David was born about 1772 in Ireland, and came to America, settling in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania as a young man sometime between 1790 and 1800.. He is found living in Nippenose Township, near Williamsport, in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the censuses for 1800 through 1830. Lycoming County was formed from Northumberland in 1795. David and Elizabeth were married there.

In 1838, David, a widower, moved to Richland County, Ohio where he is found in the 1850 census, living in Madison Township with the family of his son, Nathaniel Hetherington, aged 29. David's age at the time was given as 78. He died there at the reported age of eighty-four. He was a farmer throughout life. His wife, Elizabeth, a native of New Jersey, died while the family was residing in Lycoming County in 1835 at the age of sixty.

Little information has surfaced regarding James O'Donnell, born about 1835. It appears he came to Philadelphia from Ireland, possibly with his mother and other relatives, arriving from Londonderry on the Barque AFFGHAN on June 1, 1849.

James is then found in the 1860 census of Hazleton, Hazle Township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The record says James was aged 20, and his wife, Anna, was 30; however, this may have been an error by the census recorder as her age was closer to 20, in keeping with her 1841 birth date, and James was about 25.

James, along with his family, is last found in the 1880 Iowa Federal census, living in Grant Township, Buena Vista County. They must have relocated there from Wisconsin sometime after June 1878 following daughter Celia's birth in Gratiot, WI and June 1880 when the census was enumerated. This is the last record of James, and Nancy died the following year and was buried in Gratiot.

A family story says James got tired of living in America, and returned to Ireland, but this has not been proven.

This couple is said to be a part of our Simpson ancestry; however, they have yet to be otherwise identified