Oliver Harper “Harp” Wiley was born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina November 30, 1807. 

“Harp” Wiley married Matilda Krantz (1808 – 1891), daughter of Thomas Krantz and Elizabeth Kent. Matilda was a teen-aged orphan when she and her sister, Sarah, came from Cheatham County, Tenn. to Franklin County, Illinois with a Sanders family in an oxcart.  Her sister, Sarah married Wiley Berry Chamness (1811-1882), founder of the Chamness settlement, now in the Wildlife Refuge. Continue reading →