- WILLIAM W. RILEY, for several years the genial and efficient
agent of the American Express
- Co., at Beloit, Wis., was born at Green River, Vt.., April
16, 1870. His parents, William H. and Anna A. (HEAD) RILEY,
were natives of New York, and had a family of three children:
William W., of Beloit; Franklin H., of Milwaukee; and John Wesley,
of Appleton. The father was a farmer boy in New York, and at
the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted in the 6th N.Y. Vol. Cav.
He served four years and three months at the front, and was
seriously wounded several times. He had a bullet wound in the
center of his forehead, and a saber thrust through his arm into
his left side. He was thrown from his horse in front of a cannon
at the premature explosion of the latter, and had his face filled
with powder, and was otherwise so seriously injured that he was
kept in the hospital for a half year of more. He was in the
battle of the Wilderness, and many of the other bloody struggles
that marked the history of the Army of the Potomac. When he
came back from the war Mr. RILEY entered the employment of the
Boylston Manufacturing Co., at Green River, Vt., and rose to
be the head of the blacksmithing department of their extensive
factory. That position he held until 1874, when he went into
business for himself at South Norwalk, Conn.., as a general worker
in iron, at carriage making and manufacturing oyster tongs, and
had a regular working force of about eighteen hands. He came
West to Milwaukee on account of his wife's health, and died three
days later, May 5, 1883, at the age of thirty-five. His wife
still survives, and has her home in that city. She married Robert
C. HIGGS for her second husband, and they have two children,
Benjamin and Dean. William RILEY, the paternal grandfather of
our subject, was born in County Cavan, Ireland. He studied at
Oxford for the Episcopal ministry, but his father disowning him,
he married an English girl, and emigrated to Ottawa, Canada,
with the intention of practicing law. His health failed him,
and he turned to farming, locating near Ogdensburg, N.Y., where
he died in middle life during the Civil war, from injuries received
by being thrown from a buggy. He was the father of three sons
and three daughters. The maternal grandfather of William W.
RILEY was James HEAD. He was born in Lincolnshire, England,
and was all his life a farmer. He came to this country in 1833,
and served in the Civil war. He retired from farming about 1872,
and came West to Milwaukee, investing his money in lead mines
in the western part of the State. He died in 1889, and his wife
in 1896, the mother of thirteen children. They were both born
in 1800, within one day of each other.
- William W. RILEY received his schooling at South Norwalk,
Conn.., and at the age of thirteen
- began his life work in Milwaukee as a cash boy in a dry goods
store. He was messenger boy for the Western Union Telegraph
Co., and held successive clerical positions until 1890. That
year he started in as second assistant cashier of the Milwaukee
office of the American Express Co. He remained in the Milwaukee
office until February, 1896, when he was sent to Beloit to take
the agency of the company in that city, and he acted as their
competent and trusted representative in Beloit.
- Mr. RILEY and Miss Gertrude WEAVER were married July 8, 1896.
Mrs. RILEY is the
- daughter of Thomas and Emma (CALLEAR) WEAVER. Mr. and Mrs.
RILEY are members of the Methodist Church, and are regarded as
valuable helpers by the church community. They have a comfortable
home at No. 122 E. street. Mr. RILEY belongs to Morning Star
Lodge, No. 10, A.F. & A.M., and to Beloit Chapter, No. 9,
R.A.M. He is a Republican in political faith.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 847-848.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|