Wheelwright is a southern Floyd county town along the Right Fork of Otter Creek. It was established in 1916 by the Elk Horn Coal Company and named for Jere H. Wheelwright, president of the Consolidation Coal Company. The Wheelwright post office opened in 1916. The population in 1990 was 721.

Just to the north of Wheelwright, and now mostly within the boundaries of the town, is the community of Bypro or Wheelwright Junction. The site may have been known as Briar Bottom in the nineteenth century. In 1926 the Bypro post office opened, named for the Byproduct Coal Company. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad station at the site was known as Wheelwright Junction.