Robert Wiley

Robert Wiley, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Robert Wiley

1809-1872

Biographical Sketch

Early Years in Yorkshire, England

Robert Wiley was born on November 22, 1809 in York, Yorkshire, England, the son of John and Elizabeth Wiley.

In 1832, he married Sarah Darling at St. Peter’s Church in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Sarah had been born in 1814 in Liverpool, the daughter of John Darling and Elizabeth Ann Youd.

First Trip to America

A month later, Wiley and his wife joined his parents family in journeying to America where they settled in Newark, Licking County, Ohio. Four children were born to them there but evidently only one survived.

In 1840, Wiley and his wife and son, William, returned to familiar surroundings, the bustling port city of Liverpool, England. Wiley worked at his trade while his wife sold meat and produce in the local market. Wiley heard the preaching of Mormon missionaries and was impressed with their message. In spring 1843, he was baptized in the Mormon Church. During this time several more children were born to them. Wiley was enthusiastic about his new faith but not so his wife.

Permanent Immigration to American and onto Utah

In the late 1840s, Wiley decided to return to America, this time to join the Mormons in their new settlement in the American West. He took his two older sons with him, leaving his wife and younger children in England.

Arriving in the eastern seaboard, Wiley and his sons journeyed to the trail head in the Mid-West. Joining a wagon train of Mormon immigrants, he was appointed a captain of a small company of ten travelers. In fall 1850, their train arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah Territory. Soon, Wiley became a member of a brass band organized in Great Salt Lake City.

Move to Southern Utah

In December of that year, Wiley volunteered to join the exploratory company of Mormon leader George A. Smith to found settlements in southern Utah. In January 1851, they arrived in what was then known as Little Salt Lake Valley (now Parowan Valley) and soon established Parowan and several neighboring settlements. Smith appointed Wiley as the conductor and choir president of the “English” choir in Parowan.

The discovery of plentiful iron ore in the eastern mountains soon led to the founding of the so-called Iron Mission in southern Utah and Wiley played a role in attempting to establish a profitable iron works. Wiley was also appointed to the first city council there. In fall 1853, he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature for Iron County.

In the early 1850s, Sarah Wiley decided to emigrant to America and join Wiley in Utah Territory. Her thriving business provided her with the means for a relatively comfortable voyage, travel across the eastern United States and journey by wagon train to Utah. She arrived in 1852 where she was baptized into the Mormon Church and “sealed” to her husband in the Salt Lake Endowment House. Then they journeyed to the Wiley’s Parowan home in southern Utah.

Stonemason in the Ironworks

In spring 1853, the Wileys were among the first families to move to the new settlement of Cedar City in Iron County. He was an early member of the Cedar City choir. A stonemason and bricklayer by trade, Wiley was involved from the beginning in the Iron Mission and lent his efforts to the repeated attempts to make it productive. Welch immigrant Elias Morris seems to have been the lead stonemason. (Morris was also implicated in massacre planning in his role as counselor to stake president Isaac C. Haight and adjutant to Haight in his role a major in the militia). For Wiley's work at the ironworks, he received credit on the books of the Deseret Iron Company. However, he did not held shares in the enterprise.

In 1854, Wiley, Elias Morris, Joseph Clews and other stonemasons built the new "Nobel" furnace. The account book of the Deseret Iron Company usually refers to Wiley's role as stonemason.

Over the next four years, Wiley worked periodically at the ironworks. There is some evidence that on several occasions between 1856-1858, Wiley and others may have traveled north to the new settlement of Beaver in Beaver County to assist in its founding.

In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Robert Wiley, Company E, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion

In 1857, Iron County militia records reflect that Robert Wiley, 42, was a sergeant in one of the companies of the Iron County militia. According to Samuel Pollock and John D. Lee, Wiley was at the Mountain Meadows and attended the military council on Thursday, September 10. His exact role during the massacre on the following day is unknown.

Wiley was not listed in Judge John Cradlebaugh's 1859 arrest warrant. However, in the first trial ofJohn D. Lee in 1875, Samuel Pollock identified Wiley. Lee and his attorney William Bishop also identified Wiley in Mormonism Unveiled, Lee's autobiography published after his execution in 1877.

Final Days in Cedar City; Moving to Beaver County

In 1858, the ironworkers made their last attempt to make the ironworks productive. Wiley hauled coal from the mine in the canyon to the furnace for one of the last trials. But this effort, like all the earlier ones, failed to produce high-grade iron.

The following year, Wiley and his family joined the exodus from Cedar City, spurred by the failure of the iron project to produce high-grade iron, the threat of federal prosecution against those involved in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the general post-massacre malaise that hung over the settlement. They settled briefly in Toquerville in Washington County, but by fall 1860, they had moved north to Beaver in Beaver County.

During the 1860s, Wiley lent his stone masonry skills to several civic projects including the Parowan Rock Church and the Beaver Tabernacle. He served on the school board and in the choir led by John Weston (also a reputed participant in the massacre).

Final Years

Wiley resided in Beaver until mid-1872 when he died of pneumonia at the age of 63. He did not live to see the federal indictment against nine Iron County militiamen in 1874, the first trial of John D. Lee in 1875, the second Lee trial in 1876, or Lee’s execution in 1877.

Robert Wiley was survived by his wife, Sarah, and three children. Sarah lived another two decades. She died in Circleville, Piute County, Utah in 1892.

Many thanks to Ruth Robbins for her contributions to the biographical sketch of Robert and Sarah Wiley.

References

Bradley, A History of Beaver County, 84, 100, fn. 56; Collet, Orin, "Personal History of Robert and Sarah Wiley; Desert Iron Company Account Book, 1854-58; Deseret News; Larson, ed., "Journal of the Iron County Mission," Utah Historical Quarterly, 20/3 (Jul 1952), 260, 365; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 232, 380; Lee Trial transcripts; Merkley, ed., Monuments to Courage, 71, 134; NewFamilySearch.org; Robbins, Ruth, personal communication, May 12, 2010; Seegmiller, A History of Iron County, 56, fn 32; 89, 238; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 89, 91, 123, 139, 154, 175, 177-78, 225, 292, 293, 331, 349, 354, 440, 476, 483, 495; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Appendix C.

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