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Kinyon Digital Library

History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

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C. I. Wiley.

C. I. Wiley is one of the leading business men of Orient, where he is now conducting a hardware store, carrying a line of shelf and heavy hardware.  He was born in Scott county, Iowa, near Davenport, on the 27th of October, 1848, and is a son of Sylvester F. and Maria (Metteer) Wiley, the former a native of New York and the latter of Pennsylvania.  The father came to Iowa as a young man in the year 1836when this state was still a part of the territory of Wisconsin and the work of civilization and improvement seemed scarcely begun save in a few settlements which bordered the Mississippi.  He preempted government land in Scott county and began its development.  The lady whom  he afterward married went to Scott as a maiden of fifteen or sixteen years with her parents in 1837.  Her father, Charles Metteer, built the first house ever erected out on the prairie in the section of the country, the few who had preceded him having built in the timber.  His wife, the grandmother of C. I. Wiley, died in Orient about 1905, at the very advanced age of ninety-seven years.  From Scott county Sylvester F. Wiley removed to Jasper county about 1872 and there his wife afterward passed away and later he took up his abode in the home of a daughter in Union county, where his death occurred about 1903, when he was eighty-three years of age.

C. I. Wiley is indebted to the public-school system of the state for the educational privileges which he enjoyed.  He mastered his lessons while living with his parents during the period of his minority and at the age of twenty-three years he started out independently in life as a farmer.  For two years he cultivated rented land, after which he went to Davenport, where he worked in a flour mill for two years.  In 1876 he arrived in Adair county, where he remained from March until October, devoting that period to farming.  He then returned to Davenport and spent three years in the mill and in a grocery store.  In 1879 he removed to Jasper county, where he was engaged in farming for four years and in the spring of 1883 he again came to Adair county and for three years carried on farming as a renter.  In December, 1885, he took up his abode in Orient and formed a partnership with C. H. Slocum under the firm style of Wiley & Slocum.  They conducted a creamery business for five years, at the end of which time Mr. Wiley entered the employ of B. F. Shreves & Company, hardware dealers of Orient, with whom he was associated for nine years.  In August, 1897, he was appointed postmaster of Orient and occupied that position for seventeen years, retiring from the office in July, 1914.  He had made a most creditable record as is indicated by his long incumbency in the position, to which he was appointed again and again,  his public service receiving the indorsement of his fellow townsmen.  In 1910 he established his present hardware and implement business in connection with which he also engages in the manufacture of harness and he is today recognized as one of the prominent business men of Orient.  He is energetic, forms his plans readily and his persistency of purpose and reliability have brought him well merited success.

Mr. Wiley was married in 1873 to Miss Samantha J. Coyle, of Muscatine county, Iowa, and this union has been blessed with three children:  Albert C., who is associated with his father in business;  Dudley G., who is vice president of the State Bank at Orient;  and Blanche C., the wife of Bert Cozad, a traveling salesman.

Politically Mr. Wiley is a republican and is prominent in the local ranks of the party.  He has served for two terms as mayor of Orient and for two or three terms as street commissioner.  He also acted as assessor for two terms and for several years as town marshal, and for a considerable period was a member of the town board.  In his public duties he has proven himself most capable and his official record is one over which there falls no shadow of wrong nor suspicion of evil.  Fraternally he is associated with Cypress Lodge, No. 539, F. & A. M.  He is a member of Wiley Homestead, Yeomen of America, the lodge being named in his honor.  He and his wife are members of the Congregational church and they are prominent and highly respected people, the hospitality of the best homes of this locality being cordially extended to them.  Good traits of heart and mind endear him to those with whom he has been brought in contact and his worth places him with the substantial business men and residents of the town.

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