Background
David Wiley was probably a native of Pennsylvania.
David Wiley was probably a native of Pennsylvania.
He was graduated from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) with distinction in 1788. He studied for the Presbyterian ministry. It seems probable that he resigned his pastorate to study at Princeton, for he took the degree of M. A. there in 1801.
He was a tutor at Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, from November 1788 to April 1790. He was a licentiate of the Presbytery of New Castle, and was first called by Cedar Creek and Spring Creek Churches, Huntington Presbytery, in April 1793. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Carlisle, Pa. , April 9, 1794. Later he was called for half his time to the Sinking Creek Church, serving as pastor for one year. In October 1797 he resigned this charge, retaining, however, the charge of Spring Creek until June 12, 1799. He continued within the bounds of the Huntington Presbytery about a year longer. In 1801 he moved to Georgetown, D. C. , called there by Dr. Stephen Bloomer Balch, a prominent Presbyterian minister and principal of the Columbian Academy, as his successor at the academy. Wiley was a good mathematician, but he was apparently more interested in science itself than in teaching, for it was said of him that "he did not seem to care whether the school kept or not, when he went surveying". For a time he served also as librarian of the Columbian Library, but these duties did not weigh heavily upon him. Under his régime the books were scattered and never regathered, "for the principal and librarian had more than even his mighty mind could manipulate successfully, " being at the same time "the superintendent of a turnpike, the editor of an agricultural paper, the postmaster, a merchant, a miller, and a minister". He also served as major of Georgetown from 1811 to 1812. He is said to have died in 1813 in North Carolina, where he had gone on a government survey. He was secretary of the Columbian Agricultural Society for the Promotion of Rural and Domestic Economy, organized in 1809 by a number of gentlemen residing in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Embracing as it did several states, it was the germ of a national organization. The Agricultural Museum, edited by Wiley in connection with the society, was probably the first agricultural journal published in the United States. The first number appeared from the printing press of W. A. Rind in Georgetown in July 1810, nearly nine years before the first number of the American Farmer. The magazine was well edited and contained a considerable amount of original material written especially for it; among its contributors were Joel Barlow, John Taylor (1753 - 1824), and Benjamin Franklin. It probably never attained a large circulation, and may not have continued after May 1812. A small octavo, it was issued semi-monthly during the first year but later became a monthly.
The variety and number of his activities may have been due to the fact that he was at times harassed by financial difficulties; it seems clear, however, that he was a man of great public spirit and energy, and of remarkable versatility.
He was married and had a large family.
