View source for Isaac William Wiley

{{short description|American physician}}

{{No footnotes|date=May 2013}}
{{stack
|{{Infobox person
| name   = Isaac William Wiley
| image     = Isaac W Wiley.jpg
| caption  = [[List of bishops of the United Methodist Church|Bishop]] of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]]
| image_size  = 
| birth_date  = March 29, 1824
| birth_place = [[Lewistown, Pennsylvania|Lewistown]], [[Pennsylvania]], United States
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1884|11|22|1825|3|29}}
| death_place = [[Fuzhou]], [[China]]
}}
|
}}
'''Isaac William Wiley''' ({{zh|t=懷禮|s=怀礼}}; [[Pinyin]]: ''Huáilǐ''; [[Foochow Romanized]]: ''Huài-lā̤''; 29 March 1825 – 22 November 1884) was an [[Americans|American]] who distinguished himself as a [[physician]], a [[Methodist]] [[missionary]] to [[China]], a [[pastor]], as the [[President (education)|president]] of a [[seminary]], as an editor, and as a [[bishop]] of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], elected in 1872.

==Birth and early years==
{{methodism}}
Isaac was born 29 March 1825 in [[Lewistown, Pennsylvania|Lewistown]], [[Pennsylvania]]. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at ten years of age.

==Education==
Isaac had been preparing to enter the sophomore class at [[Dickinson College]], but the affection of his throat being considered permanent, he commenced the study of medicine, instead. He was graduated in 1846 from the medical department of the [[New York University|University of New York]]. He pursued a course of classical study in the same institution.

==Medical missionary==
Dr. Isaac Wiley commenced the practice of medicine in Western Pennsylvania, subsequently moving to [[Pottsville, Pennsylvania|Pottsville]] in 1849. Shortly thereafter, at the request of Dr. Durbin, Isaac agreed to go as a medical missionary to [[Fuzhou]], [[China]].

Isaac first was received into the ministry of the Genesee Annual Conference of the M.E. Church.  He also attended an additional course of lectures in the University of New York.  Finally, he sailed for [[China]], March 1850, transferring his conference membership to the [[Philadelphia]] Conference.

==Pastoral, academic, and editorial ministries==
The Rev. Dr. Wiley returned from China in May 1854.  He then was appointed to fill a pastoral vacancy on [[Staten Island]].  In 1855 he transferred his conference membership again, this time to the [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]] Annual Conference. He was successively appointed to Newark and then [[Jersey City]].

In 1858 the Rev. Dr. Wiley took charge of the [[The Pennington School|Pennington Seminary]]. He served this position until 1863.  In 1864 he was elected editor of the ''[[Ladies' Repository]]'', an important periodical of his denomination. He was re-elected to this position in 1868. While editor, he also edited books for the M.E. Book Concern.

==Episcopal ministry==
The Rev. Dr. Isaac William Wiley was elected to the episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church by the General Conference of 1872. As bishop he was one of the founders of [[Wiley College]], the first and oldest [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically Black college]] west of the Mississippi River, located in [[Marshall, Texas]]. Wiley College was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1873 and chartered by the [[Freedman's Aid Society]] of the M.E. Church in 1882 for the purpose of providing education to the ''"newly freed men"'' (following [[Abolitionism in the United States|emancipation]] and the [[American Civil War]]), preparing them for a new life.

Bishop Wiley traveled extensively to the various U.S. States and Territories. In 1877 he made an extensive tour in support of the M.E. missions in [[Japan]] and China.

Bishop Wiley died in [[Fuzhou]], China, 22 November 1884. The funeral services took place the next day at [[Church of Heavenly Peace (Fuzhou)|Tieng Ang Tong]].

==Selected writings==
* ''The Fallen Missionaries of Foo Chow.''
* ''The Religion of the Family.''
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=krQOAAAAQAAJ ''China and Japan: a record of observations made during a residence of several years in China, and a tour of official visitation to the missions of both countries in 1877-78'' (1879)]

==See also==
*[[List of bishops of the United Methodist Church]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*''Cyclopaedia of Methodism'', Matthew Simpson, [[D.D.]], [[LL.D.]], Ed., (''Revised Edition.'')  [[Philadelphia]], Louis H. Everts, 1880.[http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyctr/books/0801-0900/HDM0856.PDF]
'''Attribution'''
*{{Appletons'}}

==External links==
* [http://www.wileyc.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=30 Institutional Background of Wiley College] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324080913/http://www.wileyc.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=30 |date=2016-03-24 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723140137/http://www.gnudoyng.net/christianity/1858_mission_cemetery.php The Mission Cemetery of Fuh-Chau]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ak8FAAAAYAAJ Isaac W. Wiley, Late Bishop of the M.E. Church]

{{Protestant missionaries in Fuzhou}}
{{Protestant missions to China}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiley, Isaac William}}
[[Category:American Methodist bishops]]
[[Category:Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church]]
[[Category:1825 births]]
[[Category:1884 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:Methodist missionaries in China]]
[[Category:Wiley University faculty]]
[[Category:Christian missionaries in Fujian]]
[[Category:American Methodist missionaries]]
[[Category:Christian medical missionaries]]
[[Category:American expatriates in China]]
[[Category:19th-century American clergy]]