Ariosto Appling WILEY, Congress, AL (1848-1908)

WILEY, Ariosto Appling, (brother of Oliver Cicero Wiley), a Representative from Alabama; born in Clayton, Barbour County, Ala., November 6, 1848; moved with his parents to Troy, Pike County, Ala.; attended the common schools and was graduated from Emory and Henry College, Emory, Va., in 1870; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1871 and commenced practice in Clayton, Ala.; moved to Montgomery, Ala., the same year and continued the practice of law; was captain of a Cavalry troop of the Alabama National Guard and later a lieutenant colonel commanding the Second Regiment of Infantry of the Alabama National Guard; member of the State house of representatives in 1884, 1885, 1888, 1889, 1896, and 1897; served in the State senate 1890-1893, 1898, and 1899; appointed by President McKinley on June 9, 1898, lieutenant colonel of the Fifth Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry, and served during the Spanish-American War; legal adviser and chief of staff to Gen. Henry W. Lawton in Santiago, Cuba, and assisted Gen. Leonard Wood in the establishment of civil government in the eastern Province; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1888; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-seventh and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1901, until his death at Hot Springs, Bath County, Va., June 17, 1908; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Ala.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present