Henry Eugene Wiley

Henry Eugene Wiley, who is engaged in the livery and drayage business in Northwood and also has the agency for the Patterson and Chevrolet cars, was born in Otranto township, Mitchell county, May 17, 1869, his parents being Henry Harrison and Ellen Wiley, who are natives of the state of New York and of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, respectively. The father removed westward in young manhood, settling in Janesville, Wisconsin, where he worked with his brother, D. D. Wiley, in the conduct of a wagon shop. About 1865 he left the Badger state and came to Iowa, settling in Mitchell county, where he remained for a time. He lived in Otranto township, where he worked in a sawmill for about two years, and later lie established his home in Deer Creek township, Worth county, Iowa, where he purchased eighty acres of land. He still occupies his home farm of forty acres in Deer Creek township. He has reached the age of seventy-nine years, while his wife is now seventy-eight years of age. His political endorsement has always been given to the republican party and he has served as school supervisor and as road supervisor. His wife came with her parents from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the middle west, the family home being established in Cooksville, Wisconsin, where her father owned and cultivated land until 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Wiley were married in Cooksville, Wisconsin. Her father in 1865 removed to Shell-rock township, Freeborn county, Minnesota', where he bought land which he cultivated and improved, residing thereon until his death, which occurred in 1872, when he was sixty-five years of age. His widow survived him for about two decades and passed away in Otranto township, Mitchell county, in 1802. He was a stalwart champion of republican principles and at the time of the Civil war he responded to the country's call for aid and enlisted in the Union army from Cooksville, Wisconsin, thus giving loyal support to the nation at one of the darkest hours in its history.

Henry Eugene Wiley spent his boyhood in Deer Creek township, where he was educated, the district schools affording him his opportunities in that direction. When not busy with his textbooks he worked in the fields and continued upon the home farm until he reached the age of about twenty-five. In the fall of 1893 he was married and began farming on his own account on rented land in Otranto township, Mitchell county, where he resided until 1902. He then bought a small farm east of Otranto, comprising forty-seven acres of land, which he cultivated and improved. He also had previously purchased a farm of eighty acres while he was still on the old homestead, but he afterward sold that property. Removing to Kensett, Worth county, he there conducted a livery business for a year and on the 6th of February, 1903, came to Northwood, where he opened a livery stable, remaining at the same location for eleven years or until July 15, 1914. He then completed the erection of a large stucco building, two stories in height and seventy-two by one hundred and twenty feet. It is the finest livery barn and most complete establishment of the kind in the district, In addition to conducting a profitable livery and drayage business Mr. Wiley deals in real estate,. He owns forty acres of land in the town of Northwood and seventy-five acres in Grove township, and he also has one hundred and sixty acres in Shellrock township, Freeborn county, Minnesota, and a. half section in Washburn county, Wisconsin. His landed possessions likewise include a quarter section in Sawyer county, Wisconsin, and one hundred and sixty acres of land in Mountrail county, North Dakota. His investments have been judiciously made and bring to him a substantial financial return.

SOURCE: HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918, VOL. II; PAGES 346-349

Transcribed by Gordon Felland, October 5, 2006

HENRY E. WILEY AND FAMILY