HENRY H. WILEY

Henry Harrison Wiley is one of the venerable citizens of Worth county and is still giving active supervision to the development of his farm, which comprises forty acres of land on section 13, Deer Creek township. His has been an active and useful life and his substantial qualities of manhood and of citizenship have brought to him the high regard in which he has been uniformly held. He was born in Otsego county, New York, April 12, 1839, his parents being John and Charlotte (Boardman) Wiley. They were natives of New York and were married there. The father was a dyer and cloth dresser, devoting his earlier years to business interests of that character, while in his later life he gave his attention to farming. He always remained a resident of the Empire state, but after his death his widow removed westward and spent her last days in Otranto, Mitchell county, Iowa, where she died at the age of seventy-six years. Both were loyal members of the Methodist Episcopal church, guiding their lives according to its teachings, and Mr. Wiley was a stalwart republican in his political views.

Henry H. Wiley spent the period of his boyhood in the Empire state until he reached the age of seventeen, when in 1856 he came to the west and was engaged in operating a stage line between Footville, Wisconsin, and Albany, that state. He was also employed at farm labor and later he rented land, which he cultivated on his own account. He continued to rent land in all for ten years and then removed to Mitchell, Iowa, where he was employed in a brickyard. Later he took up his abode in Otranto, in the fall of 1866, and there operated a sawmill for three years. He later spent one year in farming in Freeborn county, Minnesota, and in 1869 he purchased eighty acres of land on section 13, Deer Creek township, Worth county. He afterward sold forty acres of that tract and still later added to it eighty acres. At a subsequent period he sold his last purchase and is now residing upon and farming the remaining forty acres of land. He has carefully and systematically cultivated his farm and a substantial measure of success has resulted, so that he is now, in the evening of life, able to enjoy all of the comforts and many of the luxuries which go to make life worth living.

On the. 20th of November, 1865, Mr. Wiley was united in marriage to Miss Helen Gault, a daughter of John and Jennett (Wiley) Gault. Mrs. Henry H. Wiley was born in Philadelphia, while her father was a native of Marock and her mother of Paisley, Scotland. In the land of hills and heather they were reared and married and on crossing the Atlantic to the United States settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the father engaged in business as a florist for three years. He afterward went to New Jersey, where he continued in the same line, and at a subsequent period he removed westward to Rock county, Wisconsin, where he purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, continuing its cultivation until 1850. In that year he went to California, attracted by the opportunities for mining and prospecting. He made the trip by way of New York and thence by boat to the Isthmus. He crossed Panama by wagon and thence proceeded by boat to San Francisco, California, where he remained for three years. On the expiration of that period he returned to Rock county, Wisconsin, where he followed farming, and in 1862 he put aside all business and personal considerations, responding to the country's call for troops as a defender of the Union cause. He joined Company F, Thirteenth Wisconsin Infantry, with which he became a corporal, and served to the end of the war. He was afterward on guard duty at Nashville, Tennessee, for six months, on the expiration of which period he returned to Mitchell county. He next went to Myrtle, in London township, Freeborn county, Minnesota, where he resided until his death, which occurred when he was sixty-five years of age. His wife died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Leedle, in Otranto, Iowa. To Mr. and Mrs. Wiley were born six children, Henry Eugene, Jennett, Irene, Nellie, Leona and Leon.

Mr. Wiley's place is known as the Bonnie View Farm and is one of the attractive properties of his section of the county. Upon the lawn is a beautiful maple tree, three feet in diameter, which he set out about forty-five years ago when it was a mere sapling. Under its spreading branches he now spends many a pleasant hour throughout the summer: His political endorsement is given to the republican party, and while he has never sought or desired office, he has always kept well informed on the questions and issues of the day and has willingly and heartily cooperated in all well defined plans and measures for the upbuilding of the community and the promotion of the public good. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and their lives have been guided by its teachings. All who know them esteem them highly and they are today one of the most respected as well as one of the most venerable couples of Deer Creek township.

SOURCE: HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918, VOL. II; Pages 532-535

Transcribed by Gordon Felland, October 5, 2006

Henry H. Wiley and Family