Burton K. Wheeler House - Butte, MT - Montana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

During the 1920s and 1930s, Burton K. Wheeler, according to distinguished historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., became recognized nationally as the "most formidable of the Senate radicals."

Burton Kendall Wheeler was born February 27, 1882, in Hudson, Mass.
...by the time he graduated from high school in 1900, he had decided to become a lawyer...
...in 1910 he was elected to the Montana House of Representatives on a slate endorsed by the Anaconda Copper Company, the dominant force in the State's political life.
[as] chairman of the judiciary committee Wheeler tried to push a liberalized workmen's compensation law [without success]. Wheeler most clearly showed his defiance of Anaconda in his leadership of the forces in the House that were trying to elect the company's enemy Thomas J. Walsh to the U.S. Senate. This fight, says historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., turned Wheeler into a "rough-and-ready alley fighter who had to learn to bite and kick and gouge in order to save his political life."

In 1913 ..., Wheeler was appointed U.S. District Attorney for Montana. Montana had one of the worst outbreaks of anti-German and anti-radical hysteria in the country partly due to the Anaconda Copper Company, who hoped to use it to break the power of the State's labor unions. Despite demands that he make wholesale arrests, Wheeler refused. "He was assiduous in handling what he considered genuine sedition cases," says New York reporter Alden Whitman, "but equally diligent in refusing to prosecute what he regarded as unworthy ones."

In 1922 depressed economic conditions enabled Wheeler to handily win election to the U.S. Senate on a platform of aid to agriculture, the right of labor to organize, and passage of the soldiers' bonus. Wheeler first attracted national attention in February 1924, when he introduced a resolution to investigate Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty for his failure to prosecute law violators, particularly those in the Teapot Dome scandal being uncovered by his friend and colleague Senator Walsh. Wheeler produced a number of sensational witnesses like the ex-wife of Daugherty crony Jess Smith, and within 2 weeks, President Coolidge asked for the Attorney General's resignation. Before quitting, however, Daugherty started proceedings which eventually led to Wheeler's indictment for improperly using his influence to get oil leases for a law client. At his trial, it soon became apparent that the charges were patently political, and the jury quickly returned a verdict of not guilty.

In 1932 Wheeler was one of the first nationally prominent Democrats to support Franklin D. Roosevelt for the party's nomination. After 1933, however, Wheeler, who was personally close to Huey Long, came to believe that Roosevelt was too conservative... In 1937 Wheeler led the successful fight against Roosevelt's "court packing" scheme.

In the late 1930 s and early 1940s Wheeler became one of the bitterest critics of Roosevelt's foreign policies, which the Senator believed were calculated to get the Nation into war... In 1938 he helped author the law which gave the Federal Trade Commission authority to regulate drug advertising, and in 1939 he was responsible for the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. In 1940 he played a significant role in the passage of the Wheeler-Lea Transportation Act which coordinated the regulation of all forms of transportation under the auspices of the Interstate Commerce Commission. In 1946, largely because of his opposition to Roosevelt and Truman's foreign policy, he was defeated for reelection in the Montana Democratic primary.
From the Butte Anaconda Historic District Blog

Wheeler bought this dwelling, which was situated in a miners' neighborhood, soon after opening his first law practice, and although he eventually earned sufficient money to move to a more expensive residential section, he preferred to remain here. "My choice . . . was worth extra votes every time I ran for office," he recalled later. "But in truth this was not my motive in refusing to move. I simply enjoyed associating with these hard-working, fun loving Irish, Welsh, and Cornish families. There was no pretension and there was plenty of merriment."
From the National Landmark Nomination Form

BURTON K. WHEELER HOUSE
In 1905, young New England attorney Burton Wheeler stepped off the train at Butte to stretch his legs, lost his money in a poker game, and decided to stay. Courtroom success quickly earned Wheeler a solid reputation. In 1908, Wheeler and his wife, Lulu, purchased this home, built in 1897 by Canadian warehouseman Herbert Carmichael. The Wheelers chose working-class South Butte as their home despite financial and political success, delighting in their unpretentious, hard-working and fun-loving Irish, Cornish, and Welsh neighbors. While in residence here, Wheeler served as state legislator and federal district attorney. The family moved to Washington, D.C., after Wheeler’s election to the U.S. Senate in 1922. Although a Democrat, Wheeler ran for vice president on the Progressive Party ticket in 1924 and was a controversial figure throughout his long political career. The well-kept brick and frame residence, nestled close between its neighbors, retains its original turn-of-the-twentieth-century appearance. For this reason and for its important historical associations, the home merits a place of honor in this South Butte neighborhood.
From the NRHP plaque at the building