John Vestal WHEELER moved with his parents from Wilkes County, N.C. to Gilmer County, Ga. in 1848, where they lived for some three or four years, during which time his mother died. In about 1852, his father moved the family to Jackson County, Al., and settled on Sec. 25, T.3,R.8E. near where Pond Creek runs into Flat Rock Creek.
After his father's (Richard) death in 1856, John Vestal went to live with Benjamin Willis Jones in Coon Valley. He lived with the Jones' until he enlisted in the Army of the Confederacy in 1861.. He went to Fort Donaldson, where his brother, Captain Lindsey WHEELER, was stationed, and joined Co. I of the 42nd Tennessee Infantry C.S.A. on 13 November, 1861. He was captured at Fort Donaldson on 13 February 1862, and sent to Camp Douglas in Chicago, Ill. He was released in a prisoner exchange on 28 September, 1862. He walked back to his home in Alabama. He later joined Co. I 55th Alabama Infantry, C.S.A. and is shown on the muster roll dated 31 October, 1862. His brother, Captain Lindsay WHEELER, was captain of Co. I.

John Vestal WHEELER married Caladonia F. DERRICK, 7 January 1869 and they lived in Jones Cove. The 1870 Census shows John Vestal and Caledonia , along with their one-year old son, William Bethel, living in the household of her father, Isaac Newton DERRICK. Caledonia died 20 January, 1874, giving birth to their third child, Lewis Arthur.

John Vestal married Nancy Elizabeth DODD 31 August 1876. They lived in Jones Cove, Jackson Co. Al. where he homesteaded in Section 27, T 4.S., R.7.E. He built and operated a water powered grist mill and saw mill where he ground corn into meal, and sawed lumber for the people living in the area. He also had a whiskey still which was licensed by the Federal Government. The product produced was shipped in wood barrels by steamboat up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga, where it was bottled under the label of "Four Roses". This is said to have been the best licensed still to operate in Alabama.
John Vestal utilized his large family as a labor force to cultivate some of the rich bottom land along the Tennessee River.

John Vestal WHEELER and his wife, Nancy Elizabeth DODD were members of the Baptist Church. The history of Pisgah Baptist Church lists them as members in 1882. In 1884, the Pisgah Baptist Church helped establish a Baptist church in Jones Cove where the Wheeler family attended.

John Vestal's charitable disposition once got him into trouble with the law. A man came to his place, telling a sad story about his wife being sick and wanting a small amount of whiskey for medical purposes. John Vestal reluctantly let the man have the whiskey after a promise not to tell. Of course, this turned out to be a trick. The man reported the transaction to the Federal authorities with hope of being able to get the Federal license himself.
John Vestal was charged with selling untaxed whiskey, brought to trial, convicted and given a six-month sentence that was served in Huntsville, Alabama in 1894. He moved his family to Huntsville, where he could be with them. He was on a work release program and only had to be in jail at night. While in Huntsville, the older children worked in the Dallas Cotton Mill. John Vestal moved his family back to Jones Cove in 1899, where he resumed the operation of his mills. In 1921, at the age of 76, John Vestal again left Jones Cove and moved with his wife and bachelor son, Emmett, to a small farm in the SW.1/4 of SW.1/4 of Section 13, T.4.S., R.7E .near Pisgah. This is where he died, 4 May, 1924.