California Biographies

REV. DR. S. H. WILLEY

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Rev. Dr. S. H. Willey, President of Van Ness Seminary, 1222 Pine street, San 
Francisco, is one of the early pioneers, and in length of service one of the 
oldest and most prominent clergymen of the Pacific coast, being a citizen of the 
Golden State for more than forty-three years.  He was born at Campton, New 
Hampshire, March 11, 1821.  His parents, Darius and Mary Willey, were also 
natives of that State.  The Doctor received his education in New England, and 
graduated at Dartmouth College, in the class of 1845.  He then entered Union 
Theological Seminary, in New York city, in 1845, and after completing his 
theological course, instead of locating among his friends and accepting a 
pastorate of a church in a congenial, pleasant community, he decided to seek a 
broader field of labor and came to the Pacific coast.  He sailed on the ship 
Falcon to Chagres, and on this side of the Isthmus he came on the first trip of 
the California, and arrived at Monterey, February 23, 1849.  He remained there 
about eighteen months, and in May, 1850, came to San Francisco and established 
the Howard Presbyterian Church, and for twelve years was the honored pastor.  In 
1862 he accepted the position of Vice President of the College of California in 
Oakland, where he remained until 1870, when he accepted the pastorate of the 
Congregational church at Santa Cruz, and remained there ten years.  In 1880 he 
removed to Benicia, and became pastor of the Congregational church, serving 
faithfully for nine years.  In 1889 he became the head of the Van Ness Seminary, 
one of the most prominent schools for young ladies in the State.  Dr. Willey is 
well-known as a writer.  He is the author of valued publications, among which 
are �Annals of Santa Cruz,� published in 1876, and subsequently, �Thirty Years 
in California,� and an exhaustive history of the College of California.
 
He was married September 19, 1849, to Miss Martha N. Jeffers, of New Jersey, and 
they have had six children, four of whom survive,�two sons and two daughters.  
All live in California except one, who resides in Arizona.