The following newspaper clipping circa 1906 relates the story of a Hornby scandal written in a wonderful style of  journalism common in it's time. Milt Adams gave Hornby Historian Susan Moore an album of newspaper clippings which had belonged to Addie Stephens and Susan passed this one along to me. Lyle Roloson sent me a collection of old clippings which contained more on this story and I have summarized them below. George Rogers

 

Wily Mr. Wiley

----   Climax Reached in a Sensational Case that Has Caused
Much Sorrow in a Hornby Home -- Divorce Pending

Some two years ago Rev. James Robert Wiley, aged about 40, who had for
several years served very acceptably as pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist
Church at Haskinville, in this County, became pastor of the First Wesleyan
Church pf Hornby, located at Dyke.  But little was known of the antecedents
of Rev. Mr. Wiley.  He was reported to be of Scotch parentage and a native of Canada.  The higher authorities of the Wesleyan Church vouched for him.

In the prime of life, of good appearance, inclined to the clerical mannerisms
of dress and speech peculiar to men of the cloth coming from the British
provinces; yet, withal, genial and a ready speaker, Rev. Mr. Wiley impressed
the people of Hornby favorably.  The eye of one schooled in anthroposcopy
could have discovered no fault in him.  His sermons were good and he walked
in paths of peace and pleasantness.  As a pastor he did work energetically.

After a time, unforunately for his own future usefulness as a pastor, as well
as his reputation as a man, Rev. James Robert Wiley, allowed both a "wedge of gold" and a "Babylonian garment" to turn his eyes away from the prize of themark of his high calling.

In some way he became inoculated with a mania for a class of speculative
-better spelled without the "s"- business that has wrecked the good name of
many a man; he became more zealous as a promoter of mining and oil schemes
than as a preacher of the Gospel.  He preached oil and gas until he succeeded
in getting a number of Hornby people and many of his friends elsewhere, to
put a large amount of money in deep hole in the ground at Dyke.  It is said
that he operated with parties at Buffalo in working off stock in some "mining
prospects," located in the secret recesses of the far West.  So much for the
"wedge".

Rev. James R. Wiley was married but childless.  His wife looked carefully
after home interests and won the respect of all who met her.

About a year ago the couple formally adopted a small boy, a native of
Connectucut, whose father had died.  The papers in the case were drawn by
Attorney E.C. English, of this city.  This would indicate that at that time
the relations of Rev. and Mrs. Wiley were mutually satisfactory; that the
"Babylonian garment" had not yet attracted his sparkling optics.

Some weeks after the little boy had been added to his family by legal
process, the speech of people began to associate the name of Pastor Wiley
with that of a married woman of Hornby.  This aroused the reverend
gentleman's righteous indignation.  The wicked gossips were anathematized.
He frequented the house of his neighbor to help his neighbor's wife live down
the unjust rumors.  To stay away would be, as the lawyers say, open
confession!

Last Spring Rev. Mr. Wiley announced his purpose of going West to look after mining properties in which he had become jointly interested with some Buffalo men.  He started West, taking his wife and adopted son.  The wife of his Hornby neighbor is reported to have joined them at Buffalo - as traveling companion of the child, probably.  "The woman in the case," Mrs. Fannie M. Green, of Hornby, did not reveal, even to her husband, the purpose to leave home.  She was not - for the wiley Brother Wiley took her.

For a time Mr. and Mrs. Wiley and Mrs. Green and the adopted child dwelt
together in more or less of harmony at Phoenix, Arizona.  The next
information in regard to their whereabouts located Mrs. Wiley and the child
in Missouri, and Rev. James R. Wiley and Mrs. Fannie M. Green in Los Angeles, California.  Their arrival there is said to have been followed by a wedding ceremony.  At least a "widower" and a "widow", giving their names, exchanged the weeds of sorrow for a marriage certificate, at Los Angeles.

In another column of this issue of the Journal appears the climax of the
unfortunate affair, in the shape of a legal notice headed:  "Supreme Court -
County of Steuben - Action for a Divorce - Arthur F. Green vs. Fannie M.
Green".

Arthur F. Green is a respected farmer of the town of Hornby, and he and his
children have the sympathy of their friends and nieghbors.

 
 
  

The Fannie Root Scandal
by
George Rogers

The Reverend James Robert Wylie became the pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Dyke, Hornby in about 1903. He was about 40 years old at the time and had been married to his wife Flora for about 15 years. They were childless but in 1904 adopted a small boy from Connecticut named Johnnie, whose parents had died. Besides his pastoral duties, which he seemed to have performed satisfactorily, Rev. Wylie was also the manager of an oil company and had drilled a test well in Dyke but it had failed to produce oil.

Arthur Fairfax Green was their neighbor.  Mrs. Green, the former Fannie M. Root, was a native of Hornby and was about the same age as Rev. Wylie. She and Arthur had one son William, born 1885, and they had adopted her half niece Mabel Lillian Harrison, born 1896. Mabel later said that Fannie was quite a beautiful woman and there wasn't much to keep her interested in Hornby.

By the summer of 1905 Rev. Wylie had become such a frequent visitor at the Green residence that Hornby tongues began to wag about the Rev. Wylie and Mrs. Green’s relationship. Shortly thereafter, the Wylies left for Phoenix, Arizona purportedly to pursue some mining interests he had invested in with some men from Buffalo. Fannie then left her husband and children and followed the Wylies to Arizona.

A few weeks after Fannie arrived in Phoenix, Flora went to visit her relatives in Council Bluffs, Iowa. As soon as she was gone, James and Fannie eloped to Los Angeles and were “married” on 28 August 1905. In April 1906 Flora found out where they were, went to Los Angeles and swore out a complaint charging them with bigamy. The illicit couple, apparently aware that Flora was in pursuit, attempted to escape to Ensenada, Mexico, but was intercepted by police in San Diego, arrested, and returned to Los Angeles. Flora reported in a letter to Amelia Bixby back in Hornby, that if she had arrived in Los Angeles one day later they would have made good their escape to Mexico.

On 11 April 1906 they were charged with bigamy and unable to make the $1500 bail were sent to jail. James Wylie confessed to bigamy and on 6 June 1907 was sentenced to pay a fine of $5 and imprisoned in Folsom Penitentiary for one year. Because the crime was not an aggravated case, prosecution against Fannie was dropped. After he was discharged from prison, James and Fannie resumed their relationship and lived together until Fannie died 19 November 1910. Both Arthur Green and Flora Wylie divorced their respective spouses and not unexpectedly, an inquiry by the Wesleyan Methodist Church found Wiley, “guilty of conduct unbecoming a minister”.

Postscript: In 1911 Fannie’s son William received a check for $350 in settlement of his mother’s estate. Rev. Wylie had deeded $1500 in real estate to Fannie in an attempt to avoid creditors after his court costs, attorney’s fees, etc had been paid. After her death he had attempted to reclaim the property under the California community property law. William got wind of this and hired an attorney to claim the property for himself, the only living relative. To avoid lengthy litigation, it was agreed to give Rev. Wylie one third of the amount. It must be assumed that the lawyers got the other $650.

 

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