Calvin Henderson Wiley was born in Guilford County in 1819. He was named for John Calvin and his mother’s minister, Rev. Dr. Henderson, reflecting his mother’s ambition that her son become a minister.
Calvin graduated at UNC, but did not feel called to the ministry, so he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1841. He took the opportunity, when not busy with the law, to edit and publish literary works.
Wiley was concerned about the fact that North Carolina citizens were leaving the state in droves, and the state was not known for appreciating good literature. He determined that the lack of a system of universal education was a contributing factor to these conditions, and decided to devote himself to establishing a complete system of public schools.
In order to institute his reforms, he ran for the General Assembly, and put forth his ideas, which included the appointment of a superintendent for the common schools. In 1853, the man chosen for the job was Calvin Wiley, and so began his lifelong work to establish a public school system for North Carolina. Challenges faced Wiley at every turn, but he made progress and persevered until 1866, when the office of superintendent was abolished after the Civil War and the schools that he established were closed for lack of funds.
Wiley then studied theology, earned his doctor of divinity degree and became an agent of the American Bible Society for Eastern and Middle Tennessee. His territory changed to North Carolina and he moved to Winston in 1874. He established the public school system in Winston. He also served as chairman of the first Board of Commissioners until his death in 1887.
For many years, school children contributed to a fund to build a monument in honor of Dr. Wiley. When sufficient funds were collected, the monument was erected and unveiled in 1904 on the grounds of West End School (West Fourth Street near Broad Street).
Wiley School was built and named in his honor, and has been an elementary school, a junior high school, and is currently a middle school. The school is shown above in 1948. When West End School was slated for demolition, the monument was moved to the grounds of Wiley Elementary School on the corner of Hawthorne Road and Northwest Boulevard in 1947.
Photos courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
