Wiley, Prof. G. H. [George]

Submitted by Mike Miller

The oldest professor connected with the Centenary college is Prof. G. H. Wiley. He is a native of Portsmouth, N. H., born in 1825, and was reared in the New England states. He was educated at Wesleyan university, in Middletown, Conn., and graduated there in 1844. He came South, to Louisiana, for the purpose of teaching, and afterward went to Columbia, where his eldest brother, Dr. W. S. Wiley, was engaged in the same calling. He then went to New Orleans, where he read law for a time, then went to Woodville, Miss., where he taught a private school. He also taught the children of Judge Edward McGehee. In 1855 he came to Jackson, La., to accept the position of professor of Latin in Centenary college, and has since been connected with this institution with the exception of the time of the late war. When Dr. T. C. S. Adams resigned our subject was elected president, pro tem., for one year, until Dr. Hunnicutt was made president. Dr. E. E. Wiley, an elder brother of our subject, was president of Emory and Henry College, of Virginia, and is now treasurer there and is engaged in preaching. The subject was the sixth child of a family of nine children born to Rev. Ephraim Wiley, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and a member of the New England conference. He was a native of Lynn, Mass., and followed the ministry until obliged to give it up on account of failing health. He came to Louisiana in 1859, and made his home with Prof. G. H. Wiley until his death in 1864. His first wife was Miss Rebecca Emerson, a native of Massachusetts. She was the mother of eight children, of whom four were daughters: Phebe W. was the wife of Osgood Wright, and both went as missionaries to Liberia, Africa, where they both died; Rebecca E. was the wife of a sea captain, E. Cook; Lucy Ann married another sea captain named Cook; Caroline M. married Reuben Adams, a boat-builder and later a merchant of Boston. The father of our subject married for his third wife Miss Mary Child, of Boston, Mass., and by whom John C. was born. John C. Wiley is the professor of languages in the female college at Waco, Tex. Our subject served for a short time as a volunteer in a cavalry company during the late war. He was captured and taken to New Orleans, where he was kept for three months. He was taken while Sherman was making his raid through the state. Professor Wiley is the president of the board of trustees of Millwood institute, and is regarded very highly by all who know him. He was married to Mrs. Mary S. (Perry) Magruder, the widow of Mr. A. C. Magruder, and to this union one child was born, Lenora H. Magruder, who lives with our subject. Professor and Mrs. Wiley enjoy a pleasant home in Jackson, La. Mrs. Wiley is a native of Louisiana, and her people came from Tennessee. With her husband she is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church south, of which Professor Wiley is a steward. In early life he was a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the I. O. 0. F. Politically he is a democrat and favors anti-lottery. He is held in the highest regard in the parish, both for his profound knowledge and his social qualities. He has done much toward the up-building of the schools with which he is connected, and has the honor of being the oldest member of the faculty, and of having been connected with the institution for the greatest length of time, having been there thirty-six years.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 456-457. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.