Author: Ed Guenther
Research: Don Guenther
Written: May, 2014

Wiley’s Place
Hillsboro, Oregon, 1870

In the West of 1870 one of the meeting places for men to impart and gather news was the local saloon. In Hillsboro that would be Wiley’s Place. Great Grampa Richard Wiley was a traveler of the Oregon Trail, a real pioneer. He was a newspaperman, a sheriff, and a business man. One of his businesses was Wiley’s Place.

Hillsboro 1892 on 2nd street original R.E. Wiley saloon. Blue arrow points to saloon.

Wiley’s Place was not a rowdy place, although there was that murder thing by Joe Meek’s son that occurred right here. It was a meeting place for men like William Baldra and Joe Meek, famous pioneers. The building still stands at 134 E. 2nd street, 2nd and Main. Now it is called Wilson’s Sports Bar and Cafe.

SMITH Jacob C. 3/11/1835 – 12/6/1869 Carrie M. Johnson / George Smith 052 MIn memory of. Born in Fulton Co., Ill. Aged 34 yr 8 mo 25 da.
[During a brawl in Wiley’s Saloon in Hillsboro, 12/6/1869, Jacob Smith (aggressor) was stabbed with a small knife in the hands of Courtney Meek.Two doctors arrived too late to stop the arterial flow of blood, from which Jacob died. At a trial Meek was found not guilty. Ref. No Man Like Joe by Harvey Tobie.]
I got it into my head that I was going to visit Wiley’s Place. I took my wife Debbie and son Jereme along, both avid ancestry buffs. In my mind I had it all pictured. Classy sports bar with a giant screen, tiled floor all buffed beautifully, and food that was indescribably good. We would build a memory, see how Grampa’s place had fared. It was, after all, the place that Wiley built.

We arrived near the lunch hour and I was surprised to note that the exterior was not original like Wiley had built it.  The window and door had been redone also, no longer the old bat wing flapping doors. The paint job changed the color. Well, we would see. No doubt the interior was immaculate and well maintained in its original integrity.

Stepping timidly inside, even with trepidation, I was shocked. Only the shape of the room remained of the original Wiley’s Place. 

History of Wiley’s Place
By 1869 Richard Wiley had tried everything he could think of for income, from sheriffing to farming to mail delivery to cutting shingles… he tried it all. There was one more thing he might try, a saloon. His recent venture of a grocery had failed, but there seemed to be a niche for drink. Plus, his father-in-law William Baldra, was noted for his monnshine whiskey. Richard had all his ducks in a row.
By about 1880 the main street of Hillsboro boasted 4 saloons, giving it the nickname of Sin City. They would have horse races down the main street and there was betting. These were wild west times. There were guns and knives. In Wiley’s Place Joe Meek’s half breed son knifed a man to death. These were not tame men. They were the pioneers and trappers and mountain men come to roost in Oregon’s promised land.
Saloons were plentiful across the wild west. Many famous men owned saloons including Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickock, and Ben Thompson. Doc Holiday was a noted dealer in saloons. The saloon was reflective of a rough western man and some rough western women. Contrary to common belief the women in the bars were mostly bar maids and they looked down on common prostitutes. Farmer’s wives looked down on bar maids. Everybody wanted to be better then somebody.
Hillsboro Sin City
There was competition in Hillsboro for Richard Wiley’s Saloon. Here is how they lined up:
Wiley’s Place

Comparing Wiley’s Saloon with these other Saloons in the Hillsboro area Wiley’s Place may have been the nicest place, with carpet, cherry bar shipped around the horn, gas lights, no spittoons, and it is believed that there was no prostitution and no gambling. Aside from the scarcity of women in the west, it is doubtful if Gramma, Richard Wiley’s wife Mary Jane, would have stood for it. The absence of bar stools also cuts down on the bar flies. Smart businessmen. Refrigeration did not come in until the 1880’s so these folks were not drinking ice cold beer. Nor was the beer pasteurized. 

Not all saloons employed saloon girls, such as in Dodge City’s north side of Front Street, which was the “respectable” side, where guns, saloon girls and gambling were barred. Instead, music and billiards were featured as the chief amusements to accompany drinking.
Ed Lyon’s Saloon

At Ed Lyon’s Saloon it is noted that one of the two men at the bar is holding a pool cue. There is a brass boot rail down low and spittoons throughout. There are gas lights with a wood stove in the back. In those hard scrabble days, the whiskey served in many of the saloons was some pretty nasty stuff made with raw alcohol, burnt sugar and a little chewing tobacco. The whiskey took on names such as Tanglefoot, Forty-Rod, Tarantula Juice, Taos Lightning, Red Eye, and Coffin Varnish. It was killer stuff for sure. Some believe that Wiley’s Place served top of the line liquor possibly made by noted whiskey maker William Baldra.

Sampson’s Saloon

Sampson’s Place shows a dog, spitoons, and an ice box. Popular in the west was Cactus Wine, made from a mix of tequila and peyote tea, and Mule Skinner, made with whiskey and blackberry liquor. The house rotgot whiskey was often 100 proof, though it was sometimes cut by the barkeep with turpentine, ammonia, gun powder or cayenne.
Firewater was the preferred libation of the old west. It acquired its name Firewater because the Indians wanted to see if it was good or not by how much the fire flared when the poisonous liquor was dumped on the fire. Big flame, good stuff.
J Ryan’s Thirst Parlor

J. Ryan’s Thirst Parlor boasted two pictures on the wall of bare chested women, denoting it as a dive, a real low life place. Signs advertised alcoholic drinks including Buchu Gin, El Rey Whiskey, and the Albany Brewing Company. The majority of western saloons drank straight liquor, rye or bourbon.
 A typical saloon was Nuttal and Man’s,  where Wild Bill Hickock was  killed. It was in Deadwood, South Dakota and the year was 1876.  Bill was nervous about that card game, too, at the time. He had had a premonition. He always kept his back to the wall, but this time he did not. He felt he was safe in such an upscale place.  Wild Bill was shot in the back by an unlucky poker player. The poker hand Bill was holding at the time was aces and eights, to become known as The Dead Man’s Hand. It was the Wild West, and saloons were part of it, maybe even at the center.
Some say that Wiley’s Place was a cut above the ordinary western saloons. Uncle Ron says he doesn’t believe that. He says it was like the dives of the fifties that he knew about… that is, he heard about them, not actually visiting such low life places. Oh, pooh pooh.
Knife Fight of 1869 Reenacted

Uncle Don and his niece Amy Crowell,  with her husband Jeff Schillereff, visited Wiley’s old place in December of 2014. While there, they reenacted the knifing of 1869. Jeff is half Sioux Indian so he played the part of half breed Courtney Walker Meek. Jeff has family on the Rez in North Dakota. He grew up in Oregon. Uncle Don played the murdered Jake Smith, a no-good.

Courtney was the oldest son of Joseph Meek, the bigger-than-life mountain man who in 1872 promised to lecture at the Portland Court House about early times in Oregon. Colonel Meek said that the public was mistaken about who was the earliest settler in Oregon. Colonel Meek “was here when Mount Hood was a hole in the ground, and the Columbia River was a trout pond in said hole “. 
Eleven years before, Courtney Meek had been tried for the murder of a man named Jake Smith in Wiley’s Saloon in Hillsboro. Courtney and his father were both drinking, as was Smith, when Smith made a slurring remark about half breeds. Courtney’s mother was a Nez Perce. It was December 6, 1869 and Courtney was whittling with a small pearl handled knife by the wood stove. Smith received a small cut on his shoulder during the scuffle which proved fatal, for he died the following morning. One source says he bled to death, apparently from a gaping gash through an artery. Courtney fled, figuring he wouldn’t get a fair trial since he was half Indian. When the trial was held three years later, fifty extra jurors were called to ensure a fair trial. Newspapers reported the state’s case weak and Courtney was acquitted. It is thought that Richard Wiley, owner of Wiley’s Place, had a good word for the Meeks.

Another source suggested they had been drinking Firewater, a known precursor to a fighting man. Also, some believe Courtney Meek was packing an Arkansas Toothpick or a Bowie knife, not a small pocket knife. Three years before the trial would have been a long time for Joe Meek’s drinking buddies to remember stuff like that. It boggles this writer’s mind to think that Jake could have bled out in a few hours with a small cut. It had to have been a good size slash all right, little question about that.
Another thought on the trial. It has been suggested that this Jake Smith was a known troublemaker. Joe Meek was a famous mountain man. The jury had to be considering this. The no-good slurred the meaning of half breeds, probably slandered Courtney’s Nez Perce Mom as well. Uncle Don says Amy’s husband Jeff, being half Sioux, got all worked up just hearing the story.
Wiley’s Place was in a little corner of the Wild West. Grampa owned it. He still had it when he died in 1889. Remember, this is the Richard Wiley who was sheriff for a number of years in Hillsboro and practically arrested the young U.S. Grant. Grampa really lived.

 Credits:
Guenther, Ed. (Nov, 2014). Wilson’s Cafe. [image], Retrieved from Ed Guenther’s personal collection on Jan 2015

Guenther, Ed. (Nov, 2014). Wilson’s Cafe, waiting for food. [image], Retrieved from Ed Guenther’s personal collection on Jan 2015

Guenther, Ed. (Nov, 2014). Wilson’s Cafe, waiting for Jereme. [image], Retrieved from Ed Guenther’s personal collection on Jan 2015

Guenther, Don. (Dec, 2014).  Wilson’s Cafe, knife fight. [image], Retrieved from Don Guenther’s personal collection on Jan 2015

Washington County Historical Society

Western Saloons: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-saloons2.html