Author: Don Guenther, edited by Ed Guenther
Photos: by Rebecca Laycock
Written: 2015

Aunt Annie Wiley

Great Great Aunt Annie Wiley in the Guenther Family Tree

Cousin Rebecca Family Tree

Wiley Genealogy & History

Wiley is from Old English “wilig”, meaning willow, and “leah”, meaning either a water meadow or a fenced clearing. Variant spellings include Willey, Wylie, Wyly, and Wylegh. Wiley family history first appears in the Pipe Rolls of Wiltshire with John de Wylegh in 1201. The family motto is succinct: “fides”, meaning “faith”. Members of Wiley genealogy are former Wisconsin Senator Alexander Wiley, blues singer and guitar player Geeshie Wiley, Nazarene theologian H. Orton Wiley, R&B singer, artist, screenwriter, and producer D’Extra Wiley, Wiley College founder Isaac Wiley, and former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Richard E. Wiley.
BackgroundThey came in droves to Oregon. From about 1840 to 1880 tens of thousands of people traveled the Oregon Trail to get to the promised land, where the soil was a mile deep and land was plentiful. Some, like the Baldras, came to Oregon by a different route, coming across Canada via the Hdson Bay Company. Some came by sea. Still others slipped up from a disappointing experience in the California gold fields. 
Richard Wiley came from Ohio in 1845 by the ill famed route of Stephen Meek’s Cut-off. In Hillsboro he became friends with William Baldra. William and Maria had a daughter, Mary Jane. When Mary Jane turned 16 it was time to get hitched, and she did, to 31 year old Richard Wiley in 1855. Of their six children five survived. Aunt Annie Wiley was a survivor.
When early pioneers first reached the Tualatin Valley in the 1840s, they had only an inkling of the agricultural richness of the country. The valley was sparsely settled at the time by retiring mountain trappers and Atfalati Indians. The trackers soon began carving out a burgeoning community and government center. Most residents lived on farms or were engaged in milling and timber work. Soon they founded building, trade and retail businesses. With the arrival of the railroad in 1870s the Tualatin Valley became the breadbasket for the river port city of Portland, supplying dairy products, fruits and vegetables as well as timber products.
In the early days, bartering, or trading with each other, was an important part of their subsistence. In this type of an economy a Depression era is not as severe since they do not depend so much on cash money.
Annie’s Birth, 1858
Annie Wiley was born Apr 1, 1858 in Hillsboro, Oregon. She was the second child born to Richard and Mary Jane Wiley. Annie’s older brother was WIlbur Wiley, our great grandfather. Her dad was 35, born in Ohio, and had decided to settle down and raise a family. Richard was trained in setting type on a printer and was an educated man. With most of the people illiterate, readership was limited and income sparse. He served as sheriff for a few years before Annie was born (1847, 1854-6). He began farming and supplemented his income in any fashion he came across. 

Annie’s mother, Mary Jane, was 18 years old when she had Annie. Mary Jane had attended school and was very sociable. She had married Richard Wiley when she was 15. Mary Jane parents had imigrated from England via Canada, arriving in Oregon in 1839. Mary Jane’s parents were active in church but with the two divorces their oldest son Thomas had gone through they may have become disgruntled with church. They had taken Mary Jane to church with them. Living so close to Mary Jane’s parent Annie was most likely baptized.

The Wiley family continued to grow, with R.E. Wiley unhappy farming and chasing after outside income. He kept an eye out for other opportunities. Maybe he could serve as a sheriff again. Richard and Mary Jane Wiley had 6 children:Wilbur D. Wiley, 1856-1859Annie Maria Wiley, 856-1909William V. Wiley, 1861-1942Dora Alice Wiley, 1863-1930Ella Francis Wiley, 1866-1954
Benema W. Wiley, 1879-1963

His old jailhouse had been replaced. Richard just wasn’t cut out for farming.
Annie on the Home Farm

The Wiley farm was located 3 miles N.E. of present day Hillsboro, Hillsboro having changed it’s name from Columbia the year Annie was born. Mountain man Joseph L. Meek sold R.E. Wiley 160 acres of his 640 acre DLC in 1855 for $800. The map below shows the land described in Meek to Wiley land record.

The 160 acres Richard Wiley purchased from Meek was located next to William Baldra’s Donation Land Claim, on the north side. Annie’s mother Mary Jane Baldra grew up here. When Mary Jane married Richard Wiley she just moved next door. Annie Wiley was born here and grew up here. The Meek’s, Baldras, and Wileys were among the origianl settlers of Oregon, Annie’s mother Mary Jane Baldra being the first white girl born in Oregon. This was part of the wilderness and they rubbed shoulders with the local Indians. William Baldra said the Indians were good folks except for their thievin’ ways. Annie was a country girl, born on the edge of the wilderness.

The Baldras had assisted Joe Meek and his family back in 1840 when they were moving through Oregon, in need. This happened on Sauvie Island in the Columbia River where Mary Jane was born.

Neighbors on the Farm
The Richard Wiley family appear to have had hand chosen neighbors. There was the William Baldra family on their south side. They were westerners to the max, having come west across Canada with The Hudson Bay Company. Their daughter was Mary Jane, who would marry Richard Wiley. The Baldras brought with them an English background, while the Wileys chipped in with Irish blood. Then there was Joe Meek on their north side. Joe’s wife was a Nez Perce Indian, their children considered half breeds. Joe was a mountain man come to rest in Hillsboro. These people were true westerners, original pioneers.

Meek, Joseph Lafayette, mountain man, pioneer (Feb. 7, 1810-June 20, 1875). Born in Virginia, he went to Lexington, Missouri, and left for the Rocky Mountains with William Sublette March 17, 1829. He spent 11 years in the mountains, becoming an outstanding trapper and rover, taking part in countless adventures with a rollicking good humor that built a lasting reputation. He took part in the celebrated battle of Pierre’s Hole in July 1832, and the next year became a free trapper. Meek accompanied Joe Walker on his California expedition of 1833-1834, in the summer of 1834 returning to take part in the final Green River’s Ham Fork rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. After countless adventures during the waning days of the trapping industry, Meek and his third Indian wife reached the Willamette Valley, Oregon, on December 15, 1840. Despite the astonishing originality of his spelling, Meek was not an unintelligent man and was widely read among the classics of the day; his sense of humor and braggadocio made him outstanding and, being empty of vanity, endeared him to many, missionaries as well as less-refined characters. He worked for various farms in the Oregon country, then became sheriff, a popular choice. by 1845 he was a prosperous farmer himself, won a seat in the Legislature and, having been converted at a Methodist meeting in 1847 emerged as a strong temperance man. When he learned of the massacre of his friends, the Whitmans, he and others took news of the disaster to the states, reaching St. Joseph May 11, 1848, and Washington May 28 where Meek greeted his cousin, Mrs. James Polk and the President. Oregon was quickly made a Territory, and Meek its marshal; he picked up the new governor, Joseph Lane, in Indiana, and accompanied him back to Oregon City which they reached March 2, 1849. Meek became deeply involved in political affairs in the Territory, complicated by anti-Indian hysteria and complex cross-currents which he had neither the training nor the sophistication to handle, and with a change of administration was swept from office. He served in the Yakima Indian war in the Oregon Volunteers, emerging as major. A democrat from Virginia by tradition, he still was strongly pro-Union and helped found the Oregon republican Party. Meek’s children, of mixed ancestry, came afoul of the unreasonable anti-Indian emotionalism of the time and place, but Joe weathered it all, remaining himself to the end, a man of great potential and unusual accomplishment, and withal one of integrity, judgment, courage and great magnetism, a born leader.
The Wiley family lived right across the road from the Meek family. We know the Wiley’s lived there from at least 1855 to 1861 when William Wiley was born. William was proud to say he was born on the Joe Meek DLC in a Log House. R.E. Wiley had purchased a portion of the Meek DLC in 1855.

 Virginia Meek was an Indian and some would like to have us believe the Meek children were not treated well after their father Joe died in 1875. If you read the obit below for their son Stephen nothing could be further from the truth. He was honored. In 1869 Courtney Meek killed a man in the Wiley saloon. R.E.Wiley may rallied in the 1872 trial in support of Courtney. Seems Courtney was provoked by some disparaging anti-half breed remarks. When tried the sheriff couldn’t find enough evidence to find Courtney guilty. A saloon full of people including Wiley bartenders and there wasn’t enough evidence. No outrage from the community. People loved Joe and his family.

Joe and Virginia Meek had at least 10 children. Courtney in 1838, Hiram 1842, Olive 1844, Josephine 1845, Atchinson 1847, Mary 1850, Joseph 1855, Stephen 1857, William 1860, and Lizzie 1861. All but Courtney were born on the Hillsboro DLC. Annie Wiley probably held little Lizzie as a baby, and played with these children as she grew up. In 1861 Annie was 3 years old and a daring man by the name of Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States of America. The Civil War was beginning. Oregon sided with the Union.The Democrats at the time were pro slavery and Joe Meek helped initiate the Oregon Republican party. R.E. Wiley was a Republican too. Both Baldras and the Meeks were Methodists. It is a good possibility that the Wileys were Methodist as well. Annie’s Dad was an old newspaperman and no doubt kept the family up to date with the latest news. Would America be divided? By the time Annie was 7 it was decided, in that year of 1865 the family feud of America ended. The North won, the Union stayed in tact.

1858-1860 were sad years for the Meek family as death stalked their doorstep. In 1858 typhoid fiver struck down Hiram, age 17, causing fear to sweep the neighborhood and surrounding area. That was in May. In August 11 year old Stephen was helping his father Joe get in hay when he was caught between the wagon and the barn and crushed to death. William died in July of 1860 at age 5 from an unknown brief illness. Then in July of 1860 Josephine died at age 15 from an unknown sickness, possibly small pox. The whole area suffered with the Meeks. At times their farm must have been quarantined. Joe Meek died in 1875 and is buried in The Old Scotch Church Cemetery, not far from his DLC.
Annie Wiley knew what death was. They all did in those days.
The John Pool family lived next to the Wileys. After Mrs. Jane Pool died in 1863 the Pools moved to Idaho. Annie would have been a childhood friend to Cornelia Pool. In Idaho Cornelia married Dr. Pyle. Mrs. Pool died in 1863 when the Pools were Wiley’s neighbors. Death was never far from Annie’s doorstep.
The George Ross family bought a farm just to the west of Wileys. Of their 4 children 2 died in early adulthood.

The Wilcox farm was southwest of the Wiley farm. They had  a son John two years younger then Annie, perhaps a childhood playmate for Annie. Carlos and Sarah Scoggin Wilcox came to Oregon in the 1840s as children. They were part of the original pioneer movement in Oregon. All these folks near the Wiley’s farm were part of the origianl pioneer movement, coming to make Oregon a state. They came by the tens of thousands, by the hundreds of thousands. These Hillsboro people  were amongst the very first. The Donation Land Claim of 1850 gave a man 320 acres and if he had a wife, 640. You will find Wilcox’s buried in the Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery.
Old Scottish Church

Within a mile of Wiley’s farm was the Old Scotch Church. With much labor donated and the lumber from nearby forest, processed by local mills, the building was rapidly completed and dedicated in 1878. This structure is one of the oldest and most beautiful continuously used churches in the state of Oregon. The historic majesty and beauty of the building draws large numbers of artists who each summer capture its charm on canvas and film. The church is listed in many of the tour books of the area and has been featured in other periodicals. On November 5, 1974 the church was honored by being listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Many old and famous pioneers of the Oregon Country lie in this picturesque old cemetery. One of the most famous is the grave of the mountain man, Joseph Meek, who was also the first U.S. Marshall of the Oregon Territory. He died June 20, 1875 and was buried at that time on his home place near the historic marker in his memory on the Sunset Highway 26. When this property was sold, his remains were moved to their present resting place located east of the church.

There weren’t many opportunities other than farming open for Richard. Hillsboro is described in 1852 as a small town with about a dozen houses, a courthouse, and a school.

Wileys Move Into Town

Wilbur was born on the farm in 1858 and William born in town in 1861. Around 1861 R.E. WIley moved into Hillsboro into a log cabin near where the Hillsboro Hotel stood in 1893. The Washington Hillsboro Hotel was on 3rd and Main. Annie’s father Richard started a grocery.

Richard may have sold his farm to finance the grocery. The grocery didn’t  do too well but RE was an astute business man and he noticed the one thing that was profitable was the sale of alcohol. A saloon would better accommodate alcohol sales. Some believe that William Baldra was making moonshine on his farm. Richard could make use of it.  All on the up and up. Wiley’s Place opened up by 1869.

Young Annie Wiley on left with her mother and father

Annie mother, Mary Jane on the right.Richard Wiley, Annie younger brother,  wrote that when he was young he stayed on his grandparents farm. Annie most likely lived there while young at some point too.
In 1869, when Annie was 11, the first transcontinental railroad was completed. Oregon had trains. Annie was 14 year old when the Great Depression of 1873-1879 began. Times were hard. The future was uncertain. Jobs were hard to find. Annie’s father opened a saloon in 1869 to try and pay the bills. He had tried about everything, from running a newspaper to farming to cutting shingles to being sheriff. Times were hard. It is wondered how Annie’s Mom felt about the saloon. Drinking was certainly a problem in the community. With 4 saloons on Main Street the phrase ‘Sin City’ was born.
In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Annie was 18, but it would be many years before a lot of these people actually had their own phone. This same year was the Battle of the Little Bighorn. By 1879 Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb. Many farmers would not see electricity until the 1930s.

Marriage to John Jackson, 1777, at Age 19

Divorced 1880

Marriage to Malcom McDonald 1881

                                                                                                                                            Malcom McDonald

 Inside Malcolm McDonald Shop

Little Richard Dies at age 6

The stone inscription for Annie’s little boy reads: In solitude we see my child and think of thee. the little words thy tongue has spoken shall not be forgotten.

Annie was 56 when WW I started, 83 when America jumped into WW II. Annie did not see the end of this war, dying in 1944 at the age of 86. Annie saw a lot changes. Annie really lived.
By 1900 Annie was 42 years old and automobile was coming out. The Wright brothers were on the verge of air travel. By 1910 moving pictures were coming out. By 1927 Talkies boomed onto the scene. Going to the movies was a big night out.

       Wiley Family, Backyard in Hillsboro

                                                                       Annie and Malcolm

In 1944, the year Annie died, the first television was made.

Credits:

Old Scotch Church: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/washington/cemeteries/old-scotch.txt
Joe Meek: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20314727
Hillsboro history: http://hillsborochamberor.com/history-of-hillsboro.html
Wilcox farm: http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/index.cfm?do=v.dsp_siteSummary&resultDisplay=48526
Lincoln: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
Events: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1873
events: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_television#United_States