William Wheelwright (1798-1873) was an American promoter who pioneered South American steamship, railroad, and telegraph construction.

William Wheelwright was born in Newburyport, Mass., on March 18, 1798. After attending Phillips Academy in Andover (1812-1814) he sailed as a cabin boy aboard one of his father's ships trading in the West Indies. In 1817 he captained a family ship to Brazil. When a vessel under his command ran aground off Buenos Aires in 1823, he shipped out as a supercargo on a vessel bound for Chile. He subsequently founded a prosperous mercantile firm and served as U.S. consul in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

In 1828 Wheelwright returned to Newburyport, married Martha Bartlet, and took her on a mule-back honeymoon trip across Panama en route to Ecuador. Finding his enterprise had collapsed, he moved to Valparaiso in Chile and established a coastal shipping business. Several sidelines--development of port facilities and gasworks, mineral explorations, and experimentation with...