Ulric Z. Wiley

                                                                  from
                                                  Indiana and Indianans
           A History of Aboriginal and Territorial Indiana and the Century of Statehood
                                                                    by
                                                        Jacob Piatt Dunn
                                                                  from
                                           The American Historical Society
                                                  Chicago and New York
                                                                   1919

Biography

    Forty-five years of continuous membership and activity at the Indiana bar have brought Ulric Z. Wiley some of the most substantial honors and achievements of his profession. For many years he practiced in Benton County, and was first eleced judge of the Circuit Court while living
at Fowler. The service which make him most widely known among Indiana lawyers was his twelve years work on the Appellate Court Bench. Judge Wiley since retiring from practice has been a resident of Indianapolis.
    He was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, November 14, 1847, youngest of the five children of Preston P. and Lucinda Weir (Maxwell) Wiley. The Wiley family came to Indiana when the country was a territory, more than a century ago. His grandfather Joseph Wiley, on leaving Pennsylvania first settled in Brown County, Ohio, where he developed a farm, and in 1811 pioneered to Jefferson County, Indiana, and was one of the first to develop the agricultural lines around Kent, where he lived until his death. Preston P. Wiley was born in Brown County, Ohio, November 25, 1809, and was two years old when the family came to Indiana. He spent about fifty years of his life on a farm in Jefferson County, and died there August 21, 1895. For several years after his marriage he taught school in the winter terms, and spent the summers at farming. His early education was very limited, but after his marriage he set himself to diligent study and not only mastered the common English branches but became a thorough Greek scholar. He eagerly read every book he could secure in a time when circulating libraries were almost unknown. Along with farming he became a preacher of the Gospel, and continued that work for about fifty years. He also assisted his children as far as possible to secure good educations. In politics he was an early whig, a strong abolitionist and anti-slavery man, and afterwards an equally ardent republican. He was the first man in Jefferson County, Indiana, to respond to the call for troops in the Civil War, but was too old to be accepted for field service, though he rendered the Union his hearty support in every other way. He was a member of the Home Guards in Southern Indiana, and was called out during the Morgan raid.
    Judge Wiley and a brother are the only surviving members of his father's family. During his youth he was privildeged to attend school only three months each year, but at the age of nineteen entered Hanover College at Hanover, Indiana, and graduated with the class of 1867. At that time the degrees A.B. and A.M. were conferred upon him and subsequently he was honored with the degree LL. D. Teaching furinshed part of the funds by which he educated himself. He also had charge of his father's farm for one year while his parents were visiting a daughter in California. Judge Wiley began the study of law with William Wallace, son of Ex-Governor Wallace and a brother of General Lew Wallace. He was a student in Wallace's office at Indianapolis two years, and then entered the law department of old Northwestern College, now Butler University, from which he received his degree in May, 1873. In October, 1874, Judge Wiley located at Fowler, where his abilities brought him all the practice he could handle in a few years. In March, 1875, he was appointed county attorney, serving two years, and in 1882 was elected to the Lower House of the State Legislature. In 1892 he was appointed judge of the Thirtieth Judicial Circuit, composed of Benton, Jasper and Newton counties, to fill a vacancy. Later he was nominated and elected and served from 1892 to October, 1896. On the latter date he resigned from the Circuit Bench to become a candidate for judge of the Appellate Court of the Fifth District, and was elected and was a member of that tribunal for three terms of four years each.
    Judge Wiley is a thrity-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. He has long been prominent in Odd Fellowship and was grand master in 1891-92 and four terms was grand representative to the Sovereign Lodge of the World. He is also a Knight of Pythias, and is an active republican. Judge Wiley is an elder of the Christian Church and has filled that office for two years, and for eight years has taught the Business Men's Bible Class.
    May 6, 1874, he married Miss Mary A. Cole of Indianapolis. They are the parents of four children; Carl C., Nellie E., Maxwell H. and Ulric Weir.

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