David Wiley
Charles Peale Polk, David Wiley, c. 1801, in the National Portrait Gallery
Born1768
Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedOctober 14, 1812(1812-10-14) (aged 43–44)
Fayetteville, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation(s)Surveyor, minister
Known forMayor of Georgetown

Rev. David Wiley (1768 – October 14, 1812) was an American surveyor, politician, writer, scientist, and Presbyterian minister who served as postmaster and mayor of Georgetown, District of Columbia.[1]

Biography

Early life and ministry

David Wiley was born in 1768 in Pennsylvania. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) in 1788. From 1788 to 1789, Wiley was a tutor at Hampden Sidney College in Virginia.[2] Wiley married Susan Wynnkoop and they had four children.[3][4]

Wiley was ordained as a Presbyterian minister by the Presbytery of Huntingdon on April 9, 1794, and installed as pastor of two congregations in Centre County, Cedar Creek and Spring Creek.[2]

During this period, Wiley also served as the first stated clerk of the Presbytery.[2] He served subsequent congregations and in temporary vacancies until April 1801, when he requested and obtained permission to move to the Presbytery of Baltimore, which covered a wide region that included Virginia.[5]

Academic and political career

In 1801, Wiley was requested by Stephen Bloomer Balch to move to Georgetown to succeed him[6] as the principal and headmaster of a private school, the Columbian Academy.[7] Wiley also taught several subjects at the academy, including philosophy, mathematics, geography, and Greek.[8][9] His pupils included Thomas Bloomer Balch.[10]

In 1802, Wiley wrote to President Thomas Jefferson encouraging the appointment of his friend William R. Cozens to be the first Librarian of Congress.[11]

1st Volume of the Agricultural Museum

According to The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, in October 1804, Wiley, along with Abraham Bradley Jr., made a series of astronomical observations near the White House to determine its longitude and latitude.[12]

In 1805, President Jefferson considered appointing Wiley as a leader of the Red River Expedition of the Southwestern United States.[13]

Wiley served as the secretary of the Columbian Agricultural Society.[14]

In 1806, Wiley was elected as a trustee of the Presbyterian Church in Georgetown. He also served as a voting member of the Presbyterian General Assembly.[15]

From 1810 to 1813, Wiley was the first editor of the Agricultural Museum, the first agricultural periodical magazine published in the United States.[16][17] The magazine discouraged excessive importation in the United States and included Thomas Jefferson among its readers.[18][19][20][21]

Wiley served as Georgetown's postmaster[22] and was appointed by the United States Congress to serve as Turnpike commissioner from 1809 to 1811.[15] From 1811 to 1812, served a one-year term as mayor of Georgetown, succeeding Thomas Corcoran.[23]

Death

Wiley died on October 14, 1812, while staying at Jordan's Inn in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He had been traveling to the region on a government survey.[24]

Legacy

An 1801 painting of Wiley by Charles Peale Polk is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.[25][26]

References

  1. ↑ "Franklin and His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth-Century America"". npg.si.edu. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Gibson, William J. (1874). History of the Presbytery of Huntingdon. Bellefonte Press Company Print. pp. 234–235.
  3. ↑ Wynkoop, Richard (1904). Wynkoop Genealogy in the United States of America. Knickerbocker Press.
  4. ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. R.R. Bowker Company. 1916.
  5. ↑ "History". Presbytery of Baltimore. July 1, 2019. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  6. ↑ Ecker, Grace Dunlop (1933). A Portrait of Old Georgetown. Garrett & Massie, Inc. pp. 41–43.
  7. ↑ Ruth L. Woodward and Wesley Frank Craven, Princetonians, 1784–1790: A Biographical Dictionary [Princeton, 1991], 313–16)
  8. ↑ Fortune, Brandon Brame; Warner, Deborah Jean (1999). Franklin and His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth-century America. Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-8122-1701-8.
  9. ↑ Crew, Harvey W. (1892). Centennial History of the City of Washington, D. C.: With Full Outline of the Natural Advantages, Accounts of the Indian Tribes, Selection of the Site, Founding of the City ... to the Present Time. H. W. Crew.
  10. ↑ McClintock, John (1889). Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Harper & brothers. p. 312.
  11. ↑ "Founders Online: To Thomas Jefferson from David Stone, 26 January 1802". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  12. ↑ "To Thomas Jefferson from William Lambert, 15 December 1804," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-45-02-0193 . [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 45, November 11, 1804, to March 8, 1805, ed. James P. McClure et al. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021, pp. 175–176.]
  13. ↑ "Founders Online: From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Dearborn, 29 March 1805". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  14. ↑ Pinkett, Harold T. (1951). "Early Agricultural Societies in the District of Columbia". Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 51/52: 32–45. ISSN 0897-9049. JSTOR 40067295.
  15. 1 2 The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3,1845 by Authority of Congress. 1845.
  16. ↑ Corral, Westerners Chicago (1944). The Westerners Brand Book. The Westerners.
  17. ↑ Kane, Joseph Nathan, Famous First Facts. A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries and Inventions in the United States, H.W. Wilson Company, 1950
  18. ↑ Demaree, Albert Lowther (1941). The American Agricultural Press, 1819–1860. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-93058-1.
  19. ↑ The Agricultural Museum. published. 1811.
  20. ↑ Nettels, Curtis P. (July 28, 2017). The Emergence of a National Economy, 1775–1815. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-49675-7.
  21. ↑ "Founders Online: John Mason to Thomas Jefferson, 18 July 1810". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  22. ↑ Meeting, American Library Association General (1920). Papers and Proceedings of the ... General Meeting of the American Library Association Held at ... The Association.
  23. ↑ D.C.), Columbia Historical Society (Washington (1920). Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. The Society.
  24. ↑ Abstracts of Vital Records from Raleigh, North Carolina, Newspapers: 1799–1819. Reprint Company. 1979. p. 533. ISBN 9780871522979.
  25. ↑ "David Wiley". npg.si.edu. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  26. ↑ Schwarz, Robert D. (1987). A Gallery Collects Peales. F.S. Schwarz.

Bibliography

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