CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: T. J. WILEY - Smith County, TX

*****************************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

Submitted by Peggy Brannon - peggybrannon@hotmail.com
14 October 2001
*****************************************************************

TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

Thomas J. Wiley, of Tyler, removed to Texas with his father's family, 
Columbus C. Wiley, and settled in Tyler in 1851. He was a native of Alabama 
and died in Tyler some years ago and was buried in Oakwood cemetery. He 
early enlisted in the Confederate army and performed all the duties of a 
soldier until the end of the war, in 1865. He returned home to build up a 
devastated and impoverished county, made so by the stern realities of war. 
He was married twice; his first marriage was with Miss Charlotte Curl, a 
daughter of Judge Curl, a leading citizen of East Texas. By this marriage he 
reared one son, Walter C., who is a leading business man and merchant of 
Tyler. His second marriage was with Miss Alice Draughon, of Mansfield, La., 
and they have one son, Claud, who is a prominent business man of Tyler. 
After the war ended Mr. Wiley entered the mercantile life, making his 
business a complete success, until his retirement several years before his 
death. Having accumulated a reasonable fortune, he retired from business and 
passed the last years of his life in the enjoyments of the comforts of his 
lovely home on North Broadway, until his death. A good Confederate soldier 
and a loyal man to the South; a successful business man; a christian 
gentleman; loyal to his friends and charitable to all mankind. By good 
management his life culminated in business succcss, giving his children the 
beat advantages and left them in good condition to enter the battles of life 
with business training and the advantages of capital to back it up. Mr. 
Wiley spent the greater part of his life in Texas, leaving a rich legacy for 
his children, for intelligence, honesty, and unquestioned integrity.