Wiley, Charles, Dd

Wiley, Charles, D.D.

a Presbyterian minister, was born at Flatbush, L. I., May 30, 1810. He was the second son of Charles Wiley, bookseller and publisher in New York City. After the usual school preparation, he entered Columbia College in 1825, and remained as a student there until the death of his father, in 1826. He then entered the law-office of Griffen and Strong, a well-known law firm in Wall Street, and pursued the study of the law with ardor and much promise of success. During the religious revival of 1828-29 he joined Dr. Joel Parker's Church, and resolved to become a minister of the Gospel. In 1831 he entered Princeton College, and in 1832:went to the Theological Seminary at Auburn, N.Y., graduating in 1835 after a full course of three years. He became a resident licentiate there, and after spending a short time at New Haven, Conn., was in 1837 ordained and installed as pastor of the Congregational Church at Northampton, Mass., where he remained eight years. In 1845 he was installed over the Reformed Dutch Church at Utica, N.Y., where he remained until 1855. In that year he was appointed president of Milwaukee University, and held that position for several years; but the financial crisis of 1857 made it impossible for that institution to sustain competition with others earlier in the field, and the effort to build it up was discontinued. In 1858 he supplied the Presbyterian Church at Lafayette, Ind., and was rector of the high school there. In 1859 he supplied the Congregational Church at Birmingham, Conn. In 1860 he was settled 'over the Reformed Dutch Church at Geneva, N.Y., where he preached until 1866, when he removed to Hackensack, N. J., and engaged in teaching a private school. In 1871 he removed to Orange, and up to the period of his fatal illness was engaged in that region in conducting a private school, and in editing some text-books of Virgil and Caesar for school use. Dr. Wiley was a fine classical scholar. His death occurred Dec. 21,1878, at East Orange, N. J. (W. P. S.)