The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-02-02

are the excellent ana interesting article
On the common schools of North Caro-
lima, by DR.. Stephens b. Weeks, the re-
ports of DR. Wiley. extracts from his
scrap book and from his diary and in
formation obtained from his daughter,
Miss Mary Wiley. of the Winston city
schools, to whom the writer is indebted
for the above nancd articles and re-
portsl
CALVIN HENDERSON, WILEY.
tBy r. d. W. Coanor, Winston Public
Schools.)
Calvin Henderson Wiley. the son of
David l.. and Anne WOODBURY. Wiley. was
born in Guilford county, North Carolina,
February 8. 1919. The family originally
came from Pennsylvania, his great grand
father, William Wiley, having removed
in 1854 to North Carolina, where he
bought land from Lord Granville in the
Almance section of Guilford. Calvin H.
Wiley came from patriotic Scotch Irish
stock His grandfather David Wiley,
then boy, was present at the battle of
Alamance and later became a soldier in
the Revolutionary army
1t was the wish of Mrs Wiley that her
son become a Presbyterian minister, and
as a step in this direction she bestowed
on him the names of two Presbyterian
divines-that of John Calvin and that of
the Rev. DR.. Henderson, her old pastor.
in furtherance of these wishes young
Wiley was sent to Caldwell Institute in
Greensboro, at that time the most cele-
brated classical school in North Caro-
lima, conducted under the auspices of the
Orange Presbytery. Here he was pre-
pared for college, and entering the Uni
versity of North Carolina was graduated
in 1910 with highest honors.
Not feeling called upon for the sacred
work so much desired by his mother, he
chose the law for hts profession was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1871 and settled at
Oxford. In addition to his practice of the
law he edited from 1S41 to 1S43 the
Oxford Mercury Besides this he
found time to indulge his tastes for lit
eIaturc and in 1S47 published novel,
"Alamance, or the Great and Final Ex-
pertinent" In 1Sf9 appeared a second
novel, Roanoke, or Where is Utopia"
These books were both well received and
gave ample promise of still better work
But DR.. Wiley found graver work
awaiting him than the writing of ro-
mances He was a close student of the
conditions of North Carolina and in his
later work wrote feelingIy and eloquently
OF what he saw. North Carolinians fail
ing to realize the immense resources of
their native State, had fallen into the
inveterate habit of deserving their
homes to seek in other regions fields for
imagined advantages. He had noticed
with no little solicitude that "our State
has long been regarded by it's own cti-
zens as a mere nursery to grow up in
He declares that the State became
great camping ground the inha bitants
considering themselves tenanted here for
while. Hundreds sought homes else
where, whose sacrifices in moving would
have paid fer twerty years of their share
of taxation. sufficient to have given to
their homes all the fancied advantages
of those regions whittier they went to
be taxed with disease and suffering. The
melancholy sign For Sale seemed
TO be plowed in deep. black characters on
The whole State. Even the flag that
waved from the capitol indicating the
sessions of the General Assembly was re-
carded by our neighbors of Virginia and
South Carolina as an auctioneer's sign.
THE ruinous effects" he writes. "are
eloauently recorded in deserted farms. in
neglected resources in wide wastes Of
filtered sedge- fields in the ahsance OF
improvements and III the hardsNiI,s. sac
rifices and sorrows of CONSTANT emigra-
ton"
In addition to this deplorable condi-
tion Dr. Wiley had noticed that North
Carolina was regarded by Northern puh
fishers as 1.-THE best mart in the world
for the sale of trashy ard uncurrent pro
auctions and the very refuse of literary
guackery was sent out and circulated
among our people. They were thus
dragged with foreign narcotics and heav-
ily taxed for the benefits of fabrics that
would not sell and could not be sold
who're they were published
These two evils caused DIR. Wiley no
little anxiety for the welfare of his ma
tive State. He carefully sought the
causes that he might know how to apply
a remedy. There was one remedy, and
but one--universal education. Year by
year the conviction steadily grew upon
him that the field fer his greatest use
fGlness to his State lay in the educa-
tional work He determined to take upon
himself the patriotic task of bringing
about the necessary reforms. With this
liz view he decided to become candidate
for the Legislature. Seeing that there
VAS no chance of election in Granville
county he returned to his native Gull
ford. arriving in the COUNTY ON the pre-
else day prescribed by law for him 10 be
there in order TO become a candidate.
He Immediately began his canvass as a
Wing. and WAS elected to a seat in the
Legislature of lS50-51. From this time o.
DR.. Wiley's name is so closely connected
with the educational work of the State
that it Is impossible to think of one
without the ether. proper appreca-
ton of his work, therefore, requires an
understanding of the origin and deyel-
opment OF public education up to the
time OF his connection with the work.
The first step towards public schools