Sumter County AlArchives Biographies.....Riley, B. F. 1849 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 15, 2011, 9:24 pm

Source: See below
Author: Smith & De Land, publishers

    REV. B. F. RILEY, D. D., the subject of this sketch is a native Alabamian.
He was born near the village of Pineville, Monroe County, July 16, 1849.

    Reared in a country home far in the interior, his early scholastic
advantages were meagre. His early years were chiefly spent laboring on his
father's farm, with occasional alternations of attendance at a country school.
At the age of eighteen he asked permission of his father to leave home, in order
that he might secure an education. Going to Starlington, Butler County, he
taught a primary school, where he made his first money. In his nineteenth year
he went to Erskine College, S. C., and begged that he be taken on trial in the
sophomore class. His training had been so defective that he found it difficult
to retain his place in the class, but, overcoming all barriers, he pushed
through and graduated in 1871.

    His original purpose was to prepare for the bar, but this idea he abandoned
and chose the ministry instead.

    After the completion of his course at Erskine, he entered the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary, then at Greenville, S. C., but his health had been
so impaired by the taxation of his strength in his literary course, that he had
to give up the prosecution of his theological studies. Returning to Alabama, he
engaged in manual labor, in order to recuperate his strength for the further
pursuit of his divinity course.

    After the lapse of a year or more he entered the Crozer Theological
Seminary, near Philadelphia, and returned to Alabama in 1876.

    He has served as pastor of the Baptist Churches at Snow Hill and Opelika,
Ala., and Albany, Ga. At present he is pastor at Livingston, Ala. In 1885 he was
honored with the title of Doctor of Divinity by the State University.

    Dr. .Riley's tastes are decidedly literary. He has accumulated an excellent
library, and is a regular contributor to some of the leading journals of the
country.

    He has written two small works—one a local history, the History of Conecuh
County, Ala., and the Immigrants' and Capitalists' Guide-Book to Alabama. The
latter work was purchased by the State for gratuitous distribution, and is used
in the interest of immigration.

    Dr. Riley has other works in course of preparation, which will be issued as
early as the exactions of his pastoral work will allow.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART III.
HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE.
COTTON BELT.


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