USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V.1 > Part 50
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18.18-36-Buckner Fairfax. 1836-45-John Royse. 1845-58-Reuben Morris. 1858-61-G. M. Michael.
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I SAMUEL T. WILEY* By Oren F. Morton.
Samuel Thomas Wiley was born at Smithfield, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, May 25, 1850. He was reared by his grandfather, Samuel Wiley, a tavern-keeper of that town. H's lineage was Scotch-Irish, and he took a very pardonable pride in this fact. The Wileys of Scottish origin are numerous and prominent. In the intolerant seventeenth century, when the Presbyterians were savagely persecuted, some of the Wileys are said to have signed with their own blood the famous Covenant by the adherents of that Church. Many of the Wileys in America have distinguished themselves in professional life, and have proved themselves worthy representatives of the sturdy, forceful stock from which they are derived.
At the age of fourteen young Wiley entered George's Greek Academy with the design of proceeding to Yale University to complete a full course. He was then to go to Chicago to engage in the practice of criminal law.
But while man may propose, it is God who disposes. When only seventeen years of age, the young man's health became so impaired as to cause him to quit school, and three years later his left shoulder and breast were fearfully injured by the fall of a heavy beam. A hemorrhagic condition of the lungs was thus induced and persistently followed him for ten years. During this period-from 1870 to 1880-he visited in his search for health several sections of the Union, and even Cuba, and finding most relief from pain in the pure and bracing air of that part of his native county lying on the eastern slope of Chestnut Hill, he there settled down for the remaining twenty-five years of his life.
Yet his health was never fully restored. He had already lost the use of his left lung, and the use of the left eye and left ear were simultaneously impaired. Pulmonary hemorrhage continued to recur at intervals, and was the occasion of his untimely demise, at the age of fifty-five. He more than once observed to the writer that he was merely a "patched up" man, and that his powers of accomplishment were thereby very much curtailed, periods of indisposition
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interrupting his labors and rendering the completion of a given task a matter of peculiar uncertainty. He was unable to ride a horse or to endure the weight of an overcoat, and very much of his journeying was done afoot.
As an unavoidable result, his ten years' struggle for improved health banished all hope of a collegiate education or of completing the legal studies begun in 1869. But though sorely handicapped in the battle of life, it was not in Samuel T. Wiley to sit tamely down and bemoan his physical disabilities. The ambition and the grit that came with his Scotch-Irish blood would not permit him to become a drone in the human beehive. If debarred from the prolonged and sedentary labors of the lawyer's office or the professor's chair, he would turn to a vocation that would permit his being much in the open air at all seasons and thus conserve the degree of health remaining to him.
As an educator, but still more as a literateur, Mr. Wiley found his life work Though he taught to a very limited extent in a few academies and small colleges, his labors in the educational field were mainly confined to the rural schools on the eastward side of a radius of a dozen miles from his home, some of his work being north of the Mason and Dixon line, but very much on the equally accessible southern side. In this pursuit he continued not less than twenty winter terms, besides teaching a few summer normals. Knowing much better than his short-sighted critics that he was capable of more advanced pedagogic effort, Samuel T. Wiley never thought of slighting the duties of his humble schoolroom. He labored with fidelity and success, and the influence of his broad and rich fund of experience has been built into the lives of many hundreds of the citizens of Fayette and Preston counties.
But his first and best love was the literary field, and it was here that he bestowed his best efforts and gained the highest results. In the domain of history his knowledge was deep, comprehensive, and discriminating, and it brought him a renown most justly deserved. His patient, analytical mind with its exceedingly retentive memory rendered him peculiarly fit to grope result- fully among the multitudinous facts of local history, for it was local history that he wrote. These are qualifications of very high worth, yet in the case of the subject of this memoir there were other qualifications of even higher value.
While his knowledge of American history was almost cyclopedic, Mr. Wiley specialized on the prehistoric phase of the subject and on the general history of the transalleghany region. In the last named province he was an un. doubted authority. In his local histories he made only a minor use of second- hand data. To a greater extent he depended on personal contact with his materials, and his field work made him an extensive traveler in several states. Com sidering the hopeless curb on his productivity, his output of published volumes was very large.
In 1876 he published without copyright the first "brace outline" of history that was ever issued. Three years later he wrote the "Legends of Fayette County," and the "Story of the Catawba Warpath." A year later still he contributed several chapters to a history of his native Fayette. In 1881, with Aaron W. Frederick as co-laborer, he produced the only history of Preston county, West Virginia, that has yet been issued. This was followed in 1884 by a history of Monongalia, the parent county of Preston.
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Continuous labor in this field was soon open to him. In 1889 he became historian for the firm of John M. Gresham and Company of Philadelphia, and also of Richmond, Indiana. With these people he remained five years, writing the historical portions and otherwise assisting in the preparation of biographical cyclopedias for the counties of Armstrong, Blair, Chester, Delaware, Fayette, Indiana, and Westmoreland in Pennsylvania, and Chautauqua, Niagara, Saratoga, and other counties of New York. . All these are large volumes of from six hun- dred to nine hundred pages each. After the Greshams went out of this business in 1894, Mr. Wiley was employed by several other houses engaged in the same line. Altogether, he took part in the preparation of about thirty his- tories of counties, cities, congressional districts, and states.
But Samuel T. Wiley was not one of those who follow a single well-worn rut. He was not only an interested student of various scientific questions, but he was a connoisseur in fiction, and during his earlier years he wrote a num- ber of works in light literature. The opening page of a very popular romance is the work of his own pen while he was yet scarcely more than a schoolboy.
In 1878 he wrote "A Plea for Practical Mathematics," and "The Tinsel Chain of Evolution." In the following year he contributed to the Wheeling Register "The Theory of the West Virginia Ice Mountain," the article being copied by the leading papers of the United States. In 1883 he published "A Criticism on History," and in 1883 "The Geography of Fayette County." In 1884 he brought out "The Possibilities of Aerial Navigation," and in 1886 the "True Fundamental Principles of Arithmetic." He had already in 1878 begun the preparation of an elaborate text book on arithmetic, but this was still incomplete at the time of his death. From- 1882 to 1887 he devoted his spare time to a "History of the United States," but neither had this been put into the hands of a pub- lisher. During his last years he had in preparation a text-book on "Ortho- graphy, and Etymology," and yet another on physiology. He had some very decided opinions as to the proper method of teaching this latter subject.
Mr. Wiley had also, as he expressed it, the "running gears" of several more literary productions, including at least one work in the line of historical fiction. But the palsying touch of death came all too soon to permit the completion of these. Had firmer health afforded more time and freedom for work, his mature years and his wealth of observation and reflection would have given the world something well worth its while.
Though not an orator, Mr. Wiley had considerable merit as a public speaker and often addressed audiences in towns and villages, especially during the ses- sions of teachers' institutes. His most famous lecture, "The Monongahela Valley," delighted his hearers with his intimate knowledge of his subject matter and his entire harmony with his theme.
Whether in writing or in public speaking, Mr. Wiley was in full command of a fluent, luminous style adorned with brilliant imagery. He neither fired entirely over the heads of his auditors, nor showed a contempt of their capacity by lowering to the earth the character of his diction.
As a specimen of his style we quote the following:
"By persecution the Ulsterman was made ready for his mission in the new World, where, settling on the western frontier of the thirteen colonies, he be- came the Scotch-Irishman of history, so named from the dominating strain of
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his blood and the land from which he had come. He protected the settlements from the Indians; he bore an important part in the Revolutionary struggle for independence, and he was mainly instrumental in winning all of the territory of the United States north of the Ohio and west of the Mississippi river. The Scotch-Irish is a grand race, whose great characteristics are independence, edu- cation, and scriptural faith. The Scotch-Irish have always borne a prominent and distinguished part in the progress of the Union, from its establishment down to the present time, and being the 'first to start and the last to quit,' can proudly say: 'My past is my pledge to the future.'"
Mr. Wiley lived in a very humble house surrounded by a few acres of land. It lies on a broad, elevated spur of Chestnut Ridge and only the fourth of a mile beyond the confine of Preston county. From his door he could survey a wide prospect over the valley of the Sandy and the mountain ridge beyond, and in the pastoral beauty of the scene he found an inspiration to effort. Here he lived a plain, simple life, happy in his domestic relations, on familiar terms with his neighbors, and delighting to entertain a congenial and appreciative friend. He possessed a very prominent vein of humor, and was fond of a dry joke that would give no real cause for offense. Among his nearer friends he was well known as a ready raconteur and his fund of anecdote and reminiscence seemed almost without limit.
Mr. Wiley did not possess that aloofness with respect to social intercourse which turns many a gifted intellect into a recluse and mars the freedom and value of his efforts. He was companionable and sympathetic toward his fellows, and possessing a very keen insight into human nature, he had a rare knowledge of men. He was further gifted with the invaluable attribute of quickly pene- trating to the heart of a question. Though such a person might delve only in the realm of local history, he could scarcely fail to be broader than his own corner of that realm, and incidentally to gather a fund of knowledge which would find its proper expression in literary result of much importance.
In appearance, habits, and costume, Mr. Wiley was very plain and unassum- ing; so much so, that the casual glance would discern little of what lay beneath the commonplace exterior. No one was more alive to this fact than Mr. Wiley himself. He took a quiet yet thoroughly concealed delight in witnessing how he was habitually underrated, and sometimes he would confound a stranger by an unexpected display of his powers. In fact, it was his humorous whim rather to encourage the impression that he was eccentric, indifferent to fine clothes, and hardly more than an average person after all. Nevertheless he was not lacking in dignity and in some respects was very proud. Affable to all, he yet revealed himself to very few, and held no grievance against those who failed to understand him. He was too philosophical in temper and too little in the grasp of a sour cynicism, to take it much to heart that the crowd is ever inclined to bestow its smiles upon the well groomed visitor whose pretentious presence and obtrusive thirst for recognition and applause may overlay a com- parative vacuity of real attainment or sterling character.
Mr. Wiley took a vivid interest in the problems of civil government. The intrigues and the subterfuges of partisan politics would merely amuse him or else evoke a caustic comment. To the extent of the writer's knowledge, he never held a public office, nor with one exception did he ever stand for one.
السعد مه
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In deference to the request of his friends, he ran in 1870 as an independent candidate for the sunerintendency of free schools in Preston county. Though the normal Republican majority was then about 1500, his popularity, especially in the north was such that he was defeated by only 356 votes. In early life Mr. Wiley was a Democrat, but in later years his political sympathies under- went a change.
Mr. Wiley was a Master Mason, an Encampment Odd Fellow, and a Knight of the Golden Eagle. Though not an actual member of any church organization, and holding in light esteem the creeds formulated by man, he was a firm believer in the essence of Christianity and he told the writer that there was nothing skeptical in his attitude toward revealed religion. A deep thinker, yet in touch with the world as he found it, he tested many human institutions as the geologist tests rocks with his hammer. If he often found hollowness in them, he called no one to share his discovery, but cared less in the future for the conventionality of the world.
In his speech he was not coarse or profane. He was a teetotaler both by belief and practice, and he detested the tobacco habit.
In the same locality where he made his home, Mr. Wiley found his life companion in the person of Miss Ella Wirsing. They were married in 1880. Their children have been three sons and three daughters, one of the latter being called away in childhood.
During eight years it was the good fortune of the writer to hold acquaintance with this original and gifted man, and to profit very greatly thereby. Many are the hours we have conversed in his "workshop," or elsewhere, and many are the miles we have trudged together on the roads and paths of the West Virginia hills. A sense of indebtedness to the departed friend, whom after the lapse of seven years he continues very sensibly to miss, has put the prep- eration of this sketch in the light of a most welcome duty.
Though Samuel T. Wiley did not live to accomplish the best things he had planned, the following lines may be applied to him:
"I lay my finger on Time's wrist to score The forward-surging moments as they roll; Each pulse seems quicker than the one before, And lo! my days pile up against my soul As clouds pile up against the golden sun; Alas! what have I done? What have I done?
Be still, my soul; restrain thy lips from woe; Cease thy lament; for life is but the flower; The fruit comes after death; how canst thou know The roundness of its form, its grace and power? Death is life's morning; when thy work's begun, Then ask thyself, what yet is to be done?
*NOTE :- For many of the essential facts relating to the career of the subject of this memoir, the writer is indebted to a sketch by Mr. Wiley's friend and co-laborer, W. Scott Garner.
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J
OREN F. MORTON*
The author of the "Pioneer Families of Preston" is no longer in this county, and there will be a natural desire to know more of him than can be found in the impressions of those who knew him best. Mr. Morton is not inclined to talk about his ancestry, or to go into particulars concerning his career before he came among us. He seems to think a person should stand or fall by his individual record, as this record reveals itself year by year. That he is some- what of an enigma to our people has not escaped his observation. And as he has been misunderstood by many of us, this sketch may perhaps reveal him more as he should be known.
I first met Mr. Morton in 1898, at which time I was a young schoolteacher. Since then our relations have been close and cordial, and I esteeem the acquaint- ance as of much personal benefit. I am now trying to express my appreciation of a man who has done no little for Preston county, the last and not the least of his local labors being the present volume; a work which will be read and con- sulted for many years to come.
The ancestry of our author is Norman-English. He is the sixth in descent from Ephraim Morton, who was born on the Atlantic while his parents were on their way to Plymouth in 1623. George, the father of Ephraim. was the London agent of the Pilgrims after the voyage of the Mayflower, and before leaving England he published "Mourt's Relation," a book which describes the founding of their colony. The Mortons have been prominent in the annals of New England. The near relatives of our friend include a vice-president of the United States and two governors and two chief justices of Massachusetts. On the maternal side, Mr. Morton is of Virginia as well as Northern origin. Incidentally, he is a descendant of Miles Standish.
His parents were Harrison G. O., and Helena T. (Gibson) Morton. Both were natives of Maine, where the father was a farmer and shoemaker. The mother possessed much natural ability and force of character. She was a daughter of the Rev. Zachariah Gibson, an early preacher of Methodism in New Hampshire and Maine. Her paternal grandfather, an officer in the army of the Revolution, had a statewide reputation in New Hampshire and was much in public office. Paris Gibson, recently Senator from Montana, is her first cousin. One of her brothers was the Rev. Luther S. Gibson, a graduate from Princeton, and for several years a Presbyterian minister at Houston, Texas. Her mother, who
*The first and second paragraphs, and the three preceding the two at the close are based upon a letter of 1908 by Dr. L. George Beerbower. Almost all the rest of the sketch was dictated by the Rev. John L. B. Jones, Ph. D., now of Missouri. Newspaper paragraphs and other mention have been incorporated here and there, as will appear from the quotation marks. The editing of this varied material by the subject of the sketch was not to his desire, although it became unavoidable. Of language strictly his own, he has used as little as could serve the end in view.
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had been a schoolmistress, was of retiring disposition, studious habits, and strong literary turn. The traits of the grandmother, who passed away in the mother's childhood, seem to reappear in the grandson. He himself is very much the youngest of four sons and one daughter.
A man's destiny is largely shaped by the geographic surroundings of his early years. There is something inspiring in dwelling among peaks that raise their heads in lofty splendor toward the sky. A scenic background of such a character tends to elevate thought, inspire ambition, and fire a zeal for the accomplish- ment of high purpose. In an environment of this very nature, Oren F. Morton passed his early childhood. His native village of Fryeburg lies on a small plain encompassed by azure hills. A few miles in the west is Mount Kearsarge, which has given name to two warships of the Federal navy. Immediately beyond are the celebrated White Mountains. The beauty of the situation has moved the pens of Longfellow and Whittier, and the novelist Howells chose the village as the scene of the opening chapters of "A Modern Instance."
But while the scenery of a man's birthplace has much to do with the forma- tion of character and the trend of aspiration, the social atmosphere wields an influence even greater. Fryeburg, occupying the site of the Indian village Pequawket, possessing a battlefield of 1725, and abounding in legends of the vanished red man, was founded by Joseph Frye, a general in the French and Indian war. The town was settled in 1763 by a sturdy type of manhood and womanhood. It soon became a center of much influence, and is the birthplace of a number of persons of unusual accomplishment. Several of its sons attained prominence in public life, and several of its sons and daughters became poets of much more than local renown. The village academy has been a center of culture to a wide radius. Daniel Webster was its principal for a year, and he contributed somewhat of his magnetic personal force in influencing the life of the community.
Mr. Morton's childhood included the four years of civil war. The father was above military age. The three brothers and the future brother-in-law all went to the front, and served in the Army of the Potomac. Though very young, the boy listened with deep interest to what he heard concerning the terrific struggle.
The return of peace was a time of heavy emigration to the West. Indeed, the best blood of New England had already begun to drift heavily toward the setting sun, and the magnitude of the movement accounts in great measure for the rapid unfolding of our great Western Empire. The traits developed in the strenuous task of winning a livelihood from an infertile soil are reflected in the resourcefulness and the intellectual and directive ability of the New England people.
Within a year after the surrender at Appomattox, the Morton family ex- changed Maine for Iowa. Few adult people can adaquately imagine what is in the mind of a boy, nor estimate the contribution to new life and new activity that may come with an utter change in his surroundings. Those of us who have come up from boyhood have the results of any such change worked into our lives. Rarely do we pause to think whence the influences came, or to reflect as to the tendencies which have developed the new characteristics in our
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٨ ٠ صوكر
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nature. Then imagine a young boy, fresh from his mountain-horizoned home, taking a journey of twelve hundred miles, which to him would be a rapid suc- cession of novel and exciting things, and then put down at a hamlet in the midst of a boundless prairie, almost as unlike the early home as day contrasts with night. The coming into immediate contact with the vigorous hustling Western life, a far remove from that of the cultured, easy-going New England village, at once set in motion new streams of influence, the new surroundings bring a powerful stimulus to broader effort.
After two and a half years, which with Mr. Morton is a period of sunny remembrance, the family joined in the active outflow to the great state of Nebraska, a commonwealth only one year old, but a land of promise to the homeseeker. The journey of three hundred miles, taking fourteen days to accomplish, was made in a "prairie schooner," bearing the household goods, a quartette of cattle striding in the rear. It was a journey to fire the heart of any American boy, and would never be forgotten by any American adult. There was camping out at night with the canopy of heaven overhead for a covering. There was the encompassing prairie, the vastness of which brings to mind the interminable expanse of God's out-of-doors. Gazing by day on the everchanging landscape, and gazing by night on the stars twinkling in the clear Western sky, there were set in motion thoughts that only a boy can think and inspiring ideals that it would require a century to overtake.
Energetic life and severe toil were the portion of the men who were settling the virgin wild. The prairie was being dotted with the little huts of the home- steader, and the rich soil was being upturned by his plow. For a half dozen years Mr. Morton was a growing youth on one of these developing farms. As a child he had not been robust. But the tonic air and the outdoor life improved his physique, and he has never since had any illness at all severe.
Until now his educational privileges had been good, although there was perhaps even more than the average boy's disinclination to put up with the restraints of the schoolroom. The first five years in the new state were years of an almost total lack of schoolhouse acquaintance. Yet he was an omnivorous reader of such books as he could lay hands upon. Exhausting the not meager collection in the home, he borrowed in every direction from the neighboring families.
Lincoln, the capital of the state and the seat of its university, was only twenty-six miles distant. At the age of seventeen he went there as a student, and was able to take a standing somewhat above the threshold. In five years he was graduated from the state university with the degree of Bachelor of Letters. The expense of his student life came in great part from his own earnings, and did not aggregate more than six hundred dollars.
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