William Rufus Wheaton (May 7, 1814 – September 11, 1888) was an American lawyer and politician. He was also a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pioneer.Nucciarone, Monica
"William Wheaton"
sabr.org. Retrieved June 1, 2012.

Personal life

Wheaton was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on May 7, 1814. He practiced law in New York during the 1830s and 1840s. Wheaton married Elizabeth A. Jennings in 1837. The couple had seven children. Their son George Henry Wheaton served in the Civil War and reached the rank of major.

Gotham and Knickerbocker Base Ball Clubs

During his free time, William Wheaton played base ball (as it was called in its developmental years). He was a founding member and the vice president of the

Knickerbocker Base Ball Club The New York Knickerbockers were one of the first organized baseball teams which played under a set of rules similar to the game today. Founded as the "Knickerbocker Base Ball Club" by Alexander Cartwright in 1845, the team remained active unt ...

in 1845. He served on the Committee of By-Laws with

William H. Tucker William Tucker may refer to: * William Tooker or Tucker (1557/58–1621), English churchman * William Tucker (musician) (1961–1999), guitar player * William Tucker (politician) (1843–1919), member of the New Zealand Legislative Council * Will ...

and helped draft the game's first formal set of rules, which were adopted in September 1845.Nash, Peter J. (2003).
Baseball Legends of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery
'. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 11-29. Wheaton also served as one of the sport's first

umpires An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

. In 1887, Wheaton gave an interview to ''The San Francisco Daily Examiner'', describing the early days of baseball in New York. He recalled that:

We played no exhibition or match games, but often our families would come over and look on with much enjoyment. Then we used to have dinner in the middle of the day, and twice a week we would spend the whole afternoon in ball play. We were all mature men and in business, but we didn't have too much of it as they do nowadays. There was none of that hurry and worry so characteristic of the present New York. We enjoyed life and didn't wear out so fast.

Wheaton also stated that he had drafted the first written code of rules for the Gotham Base Ball Club in 1837. According to author Peter J. Nash, a strong argument could be made that Wheaton is worthy of enshrinement in the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

. Paul Dickson states that Wheaton is among a group of men who could be called the "Father of Baseball"; this is also the stated opinion of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

's official historian,

John Thorn John A. Thorn (born April 17, 1947) is a German-born sports historian, author, publisher, and cultural commentator. Since March 1, 2011, he has been the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball. Personal profile Thorn was born in ...

California

In 1849, Wheaton sailed to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, with a mining company. The mining venture did not last long, and Wheaton soon began practicing law again. Wheaton was also involved in local politics. He was elected City and County Assessor in 1861 and 1863. He served in the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The A ...

in 1862 and 1871."William R. Wheaton"
joincalifornia.com. Retrieved June 2, 2012. In 1876, he was appointed by US president

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

the Register of the General Land Office of the United States, a capacity in which he served until 1886. Wheaton died on September 11, 1888, at the age of 74.

References

External links

William Wheaton's 1887 interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheaton, William 1814 births 1888 deaths 19th-century baseball players Baseball developers Baseball players from New York (state) California lawyers Members of the California State Assembly New York (state) lawyers Politicians from New York City People of the California Gold Rush San Francisco Bay Area politicians 19th-century American politicians Lawyers from New York City 19th-century American lawyers