Cumberland County NJ Archives Biographies..... Charles Rockus WILEY, 1844 - 1897
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 August 12, 2015, 10:20 pm

Source: See Below
Author: E. H. Bidwell

             CHARLES ROCKUS WILEY, M. D.

                 Communicated by E. H. Bidwell, M. D.

     Charles Rockus Wiley, M. D., was born at Goshen, Cape May County, N. J.,
November 2, 1844. His father came to Vineland in the early sixties, established
himself in business as one of the firm of Hartson & Wiley, general merchants,
and built a residence on the lot next west to that on which the Baker Home now
stands. The mother, Mrs. Rebecca Wiley, still living at Cape May with her
son-in-law Mr. Elbridge Doughty, brought from the old home, in her hands, some
little poplar twigs or cuttings, which she set out around the new house in the
ground just cleared of scrub oak and stunted pine. They are now among the
largest of the many fine shade trees growing along the Avenue.

     Dr. Wiley graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1865,
and after a short term of service in military hospital, settled down to his life
work in Vineland, where he practiced continuously, scarcely ceasing for a single
day except when compelled by serious illness, until he died, April 2, 1897.

     Although a general practitioner in the most literal sense he found his
favorite specialty in the treatment of diseases of the nose and throat. For ten
or twelve years of his later life he did a great deal of this work, drew many
patients from distant points and had many brilliantly successful results beyond
the ordinary routine. In this as in everything else, he was always abreast of
the times, fully conversant with the latest methods and equipped with the most
improved instruments and appliances.

     During the most active period of his outside practice, he did an
exceptionally large obstetric business, and later was frequently called as
consultant in difficult cases. He often said that the worse they were the better
he liked them. As a general surgeon, within, of course, the limits imposed upon
practitioners so near a great city, he also ranked high.

     Personally Dr. Wiley was a whole-souled, open-hearted man, generous to a
fault, a hard fighter and a strong friend. His mild eccentricities, of which he
had, perhaps, no more than other physicians, never prevented, him from being
kindly and considerate in the sick room or in social intercourse. In everything
he did he was enthusiastic, and was until ill health overtook him, wonderfully
full of life and vigor and with a tremendous capacity for, and love of, his
work. In spite of his busy life as a physician he found time and strength for
many other things. He was a Democrat, heart and soul, and every campaign,
national or local, brought out real earnestness and often active participation.

     In the early days of the First M. E. church of Vineland, with its
membership and financial resources limited by the pioneer conditions under which
it struggled, Dr. Wiley was one of its most energetic supporters, putting money,
labor and enthusiasm into the work at the time when it most needed them all.

     He remained a trustee of the church until his death.

     Later, he was elected to Borough Council at almost the very dawn of
municipal improvement, and here too he "put his heart in it." To him more than
any other one man, is due the beginning of sidewalk paving and of many other of
the things which go to make the town what it is. They are now all so familiar as
to be taken as a matter of course but it was not so in Dr. Wiley's term of
service in Council, and it required vigorous and persistent effort then, to
accomplish what no-one would think of objecting to now.

     With the instituting of the Training School for Feeble Minded Children Dr.
Wiley was appointed its physician, which position he held during his life. In
his official connection, and being also a warm personal friend of its founder
and first Principal Rev. S. O. Garrison, the doctor took his usual active part
in the new enterprise, and had a fair share in its inception and early management.

     Besides these positions he was, when he died, a director of the Tradesmens
Bank, and President of the Board of Medical Examiners for Pensions for
Cumberland County, in which latter official capacity his kindliness of nature
will be long remembered by many veterans of the G. A. R.

     It may be truly said of Dr. Wiley, as he would have wished it to be said of
him, that he died in the harness. Beginning with a poisoned hand and arm,
contracted in dressing a purulent wound some four or five years before his
death, his health gradually broke down. Several attacks of the grippe and an
ulcerated leg, which for a year or more necessitated the almost constant use of
crutches, made it a hard struggle to keep up against constantly lowering vitality.

     In March 1897 was again attacked by the grippe, but there were then many
dangerously sick and he kept at work till he was forced to bed by an attack of
acute pneumonia to which he succumbed in a week, being after the first day,
unconscious most of the time. Dr. Wiley had a host of friends both lay and
professional, who mourned his loss, but next to his own kin, those who felt it
most keenly were the sufferers, and most of all the poor and unfortunate ones
among them, who looked to him for help in their hour of need, who expected and
received, night or day, storm or shine, for thirty-two long years, always the
pleasant smile and cheery word as well as tender sympathy and skillful care.

     Pineshore Cottage, Monterey, Mass.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

THE EARLY PHYSICIANS OF VINELAND, N. J.
Published by the VINELAND HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY 
1903


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