Wheeler's Beginnings

In the last decade of the 19th Century, God used Indianapolis as an incubator, bringing together the right conditions, organizations, and people to make Wheeler Mission possible and indeed, necessary.

Like the swings we're familiar with in today's stock market, there was economic trouble about the time this ministry was conceived. It was dubbed "The Panic of 1893" and in the fall of that year, it left lots of poor people without jobs, without coal or wood for the stove, and without the ability to buy warm clothing for the approaching winter.

Thus it was that members of the Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church and the Meridian chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) initiated what would eventually become our ministry today. The WCTU no longer has any connection to Wheeler, but it still exists today. At its zenith in the 1890s, there were more than 200,000 members with chapters in every state. Members of the WCTU were dedicated to abstinence from alcoholic beverages -- their influence was so strong that it was one of the driving forces behind Prohibition -- but they were also interested in the sanctity of the home, the practice of the golden rule, the protection of women and children from abuse and poverty, and later, in woman's suffrage. More on the WCTU.

The Meridian WCTU felt strongly about "friendless woman" (a euphemism for unwed mothers) and under the urging of member Celia Smock, they began a residence for these unfortunate ladies called The Door of Hope. Smock was superintendent, Mary Howard Wheeler was the Treasurer, and other members, including Mrs. Felix T. McWhirter, and Mary Knode provided the necessary leadership.

The Door of Hope opened in mid-1893 in rented, 2nd-floor accommodations at 57 E. South Street. It comprised five rooms and a lot of compassion and existed to house girls referred by the Marion County Workhouse, the police station, the City Hospital, and girls from houses of prostitution. Within a few months Mary Wheeler's husband, William V. Wheeler, suggested that the ministry expand its scope to include the entire family.

The WCTU countered with a proposal to add a rescue mission and Sunday school to the Door of Hope and offered William Wheeler the responsibility of overseeing the rescue mission, in the lower half of the building.

Rescue ministry was a hot concept in the 1890s and William Wheeler had just returned from a camp meeting on the east coast where he developed an enthusiasm for the idea. The new rescue mission for families that he oversaw was not a residential one. William Wheeler offered Sunday school, gospel services three, and then five nights a week; and he began weekly services in the Marion County Workhouse.

1895 was the first watershed year for the ministry. Although the Door of Hope and the Rescue Mission had coexisted upstairs and downstairs, the WCTU, supporters at Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal, and supporters at Tabernacle Presbyterian came to believe that the compelling work of the rescue mission deserved their entire support and effort.

The Door of Hope -- although it served 108 women in its first year and saw 25 accept Jesus Christ -- would be spun off. It relocated, reorganized, and was renamed as one of the Florence Crittendon Homes. The rescue mission moved to larger quarters across the street at 49 E. South Street, and was incorporated as The Rescue Mission and Home of Indianapolis. And on September 1, 1895, the entire work of the Mission was transferred by unanimous vote from the WCTU to William V. Wheeler, who was then named superintendent and was given full-time responsibilities and a salary.

It should not be forgotten that for the first two years of what would become one of the city's leading charities, its founder had a full-time job selling hardware. At a time when most start to think about retirement, he began 15 years of service to the poor and needy. Wheeler's example is one we hold up to you as a challenge. There are literally tens of thousands of people over the decades whose lives have been redeemed from despair and degradation because one man in 1893 didn't say he was too busy. What will our legacy be a century from now?

The breadth of services grew to include a sewing school, homemaking advice for mothers, distribution of clothing and furniture. Services at the workhouse continued and services at City Hospital (now Wishard) were added. More staff and volunteers were added and the need for an adequate building became obvious to all. In 1901, a building campaign was begun and by 1905, the Rescue Mission had raised enough of the necessary $17,000 to begin construction. The new building, located at 443 East South Street, included a 400-seat chapel on the ground floor and provided the much needed space to shelter the expanding services to the men, women, and children who came to the mission for help. The first services in the new building were held on November 15, 1905. The ministry would occupy this building until 1919.

In the last annual report he would write before he died in 1908, William Wheeler reminisced, "The mission office has always been a dumping ground for trouble. Nearly 4,600 persons have called at the office during the year .... Of this number 43 have professed faith in Jesus. This makes 113 professions (of faith) outside of meetings. Many of them have been men from the prisons."

The Mission's board met shortly after Wheeler's death and resolved to rename the Mission in the founder's honor, and to "pledge themselves to an increasing devotion to make the mission worthy of its name."