Benjamin Franklin Wheeler, for whom the Ben Wheeler Community was named, helped develop communications across the region through his mail-carrying career and influenced land ownership in the area. Born in 1818 in Adair County, Kentucky, he spent many years as a boatman along the Mississippi River and its tributaries and married his wife, Eliza, in New Orleans. The couple moved to Henderson County, Texas, in 1847, then soon moved to Van Zandt County to own land near his sister’s family. In his first years in Texas, he carried mail between Tyler and communities to its west, becoming one of the first people to carry mail in and through Van Zandt County. He also helped improve part of the Shreveport and Dallas Road in 1853 and carried mail for the Confederacy during the Civil War. After Eliza returned to New Orleans, Wheeler married the widow Caroline Watkins in 1865. In addition to his son James with Eliza, he raised three more children with Caroline. Wheeler and his family lived at Creagleville for most of his life, and for a time he owned and operated a liquor dealership in the county. He carried mail between Edom and Canton and stopped halfway at the home of his friend George W. Clough. In 1876, Clough requested establishment of a post office in the community, and when the request was approved it was named Ben Wheeler and operated from Clough’s home as postmaster. Before his death in 1899, Wheeler sold nearly 300 acres to churches, friends, and family. His life and career helped shape the future of Van Zandt County.