Wiley Crowley and
Lucy Capps Mellon
According to Benjamin H. Crowley, Wiley Crowley was
born the 27th of March
1803 in Kentucky. He married a Ms. Lucy Capps (or Copps) and had five
children: John Thomas Crowley, who died in the Civil War. According to
Benjamin H. Crowley he was a member of the 5th Arkansas regiment, and was
captured in Tennessee, and later died of small pox. He was held as a prisoner
of war at Rock Island. They also had a son named William Crowley who died
in
Greene County, Arkansas in 1859. Their daughter Cynthia died in her childhood.
Elizabeth Jane Crowley died in Greene County, Arkansas in 1880. Samuel
Jefferson Crowley was their last child.
Little is known about Wiley's early life. He was the fourth son of Benjamin
Crowley II. Benjamin was an industrious man who was born in Virginia in 1758
to Benjamin Crowley I and his wife
Sara Strong. Benjamin Jr. married
a Ms
Catherine Annie Wiley the 15th of Dec 1795 at Oglethorpe County, Georgia.
She was the daughter of Peter Wiley
and Mary Sharkey. It is known
that
Benjamin the younger was, like his forbearers, a man of many talents. He
dabbled in horse breeding, no doubt from his father's side of the family,
as
his grandfather, Jeffrey Crowley, owned his own race track and bred horses.
He
also raised Cattle, and we believe at one time raised peaches for brandy,
just
as his grandfather had done. What we do know of Benjamin is that he served
in
some capacity in the War of 1812, as he received land for his service. We
also
know that the original land he was to claim was devastated by the New Madrid
Earthquake. He then picked land in Northeast Arkansas. Little did he know,
but the ridge he was to lay claim to would one day bear his name forever.
It
was in his home that the first court was held, and under his trees that the
first jury would deliberate under. The first post office and church were also
started in his home.
The mentions we do have of Wiley Crowley are mainly tax lists. We find Wiley
in Lawrence County, Arkansas in 1829 through 1834. We then find him in Greene
County, Arkansas from 1834 to 1841. In 1837, also in Greene County he was
noted as being an administrator, yet for whom escapes us. We know he did not
live to be very old, as he died no sooner than January of 1846 and no later
than the year 1850 when his wife shows up on a census remarried. The earliest
record I have found to date on Wiley Crowley is his being a witness to his
brother, Samuel Crowley's marriage to Sarah Hutchins, the 28th of February
1823, in Lawrence County, Arkansas.
Back to Wiley’s children, little is known about three of them, John
Thomas,
William and Cynthia. It is assumed that there was no issue left from them.
We
do however know quite a lot about Elizabeth Jane and Samuel Jefferson.
Elizabeth Jane Crowley was born the 5th of July 1836 in Greene County, Arkansas
and died around the 19th of May 1880 most likely in the very house she was
born
in. It is known that Elizabeth married her first cousin, Benjamin H. Crowley
around 1857. Benjamin H being the son of Samuel Crowley and Sarah Hutchins.
They had ten children together. They are: William H (1858-1860), Lucy J
(1860-1873), Ann M (1863-1875), Victoria Victorine (1867-?), John F (1868-
1875), Syntha A (1870-1942), Benjamin
S (1872-1873), Lucian G (1875-1958),
Belle (1878-?), and Benjamin H or Benona H (1880-?). Elizabeth died shortly
after her last child was delivered. Benjamin H Crowley, like his grandfather
was a man of many parts. Throughout his life he held many different positions.
These include rising through the ranks in the CSA from being a body guard
to
Gen. Benjamin McCulloch, to being a 1st Lieutenant in General Hidman's Command,
to being the Captain of General Fagan's bodyguard. He then was appointed as
Colonel of Arkansas' militia by the order of Governor Garland. Later he was
appointed as the Brigadier General of Arkansas' troops. His civilian life
was
even more impressive. He was a farmer, school teacher, lawyer, legislator,
senator, delegate to Arkansas' Constitutional Conventions, he was a Scottish
Rite Mason, and perhaps one of his highest honors was being appointed Receiver
of the land and appraiser of government land at Little Rock, by appointment
of
President Grover Cleveland. He was later appointed as appraiser of government
lands at Hot Springs, by the Secretary of the Interior, Hoke Smith. He also
served as the postmaster of Crowley, in the steps of his grandfather, who
was
the first postmaster of the county.
I go into so much detail about Benjamin H so much as to show the reader how
truly industrious and hardworking this man was, just like the rest of the
early
Crowleys. Anyone who is related to this family should understand that in their
own little ways they helped shape this country. Wiley Crowley's own great
uncle was one of the first men to die in the Revolutionary War, in 1774. Wiley's
grandfather may have served in the Revolutionary War, but we cannot be sure.
We do know he donated supplies and that he had earlier served in the French
and Indian War.
Back to Wiley Crowley; He is kind of a mystery. What we know of him
personally comes from his nephew, and son-in-law, Benjamin H Crowley. Benjamin
H tells us this about Wiley:
"... He also recalls the first of boots he ever had and it was a happy
epoch
in his life. His Uncle, Wiley Crowley, was his guardian and took a load of
beef cattle to the New Orleans market, and when he returned home he had brought
the writer a pair of red-top boots and they were the envy and admiration of
the
whole county.... The first brick kiln in Greene County was put and operated
by
Wiley Crowley on his place, which belongs to the writer. The manner of making
then was different from what it now is. First the ground had to be cleared,
prepared, by mixing the proper amount of clay and sand. Water was then poured
on the material and several yoke of oxen were driven in on the yard, and made
to tramp the clay and dirt to the right consistency and mix it ready for brick-
mounds. The bricks were then burned and were ready for use. They were built
into two good chimneys, and are perfectly sound. They are larger than the
standard size brick as now manufactured.
The old house, which Wiley Crowley built as a home for himself and family
about the year 1840, is still standing. It was built of large hewed pine logs,
and these lay just as they were placed by the neighbors, over half a century
ago. The logs were cut and hewed by old Zacharia Hampton, father of the late
Nimrod Hampton and of Mrs. Lucy Willcockson, widow of Capt. I.P. Willcockson.
It is claimed that at the raising of this house that every man in Greene county
was present and assisted in the erection of the building. The day for the
raising had been set in advance, and word sent around to the different
settlements. Those who went from the remote parts of the county had to depart
the day before and some reached the home of Wiley Crowley late at night on
the
same day. Others reached points nearby and remained in camp or put up at the
house of some neighbor overnight. After assisting in raising the big log house,
they started home, and went as far as they could before night over-took them
and traveled the remainder of the way the next day. So, it took some of the
neighbors three days to help the old man Crowley raise his house. This service
was all rendered free of charge, and the writer submits that no such neighborly
relations ever existed between men in any other section of the country. The
writer remembers having come from near Walcott to the Old Bethel neighborhood
to take part in a log rolling, when some neighbor way trying to clear a piece
of new ground.
There was not then such a thing in the country as a sawmill, but the people
had what they called a whipsaw, which operated up and down, instead of
horizontal as the crosscut saw. The log which was to be cut into lumber was
put
up on a scaffold, six or eight feet from the ground, and one man got up on
the
log to lift the saw and guide it straight, while another man stood directly
under the saw and drew it down with force through the log. This last man did
all the real labor and his job was somewhat harder than splitting rails with
maul and wedge. Some good lumber was made in this slow and laborious manner,
and there is plank in the Wiley Crowley house today cut by the whip-saw method,
and it is still in a good state of preservation."
Wiley's Children, Elizabeth Jane Crowley and Samuel Jefferson Crowley