WILLEY, Waitman T., American states man: Monongalia County, Va. (now W. Va ), 18 Oct. 1811; d. Morgantown. W. Va., 3 May 1900. In 1828, at the age of 17, he entered Madison College (now Allegheny Col lege). Pennsylvania, from which he gradu ated in June 1831 In 1832 he began the study of law with the distinguished Philip Dodd ridge at Wellsburg, Va., and in September 1833 was admitted to the bar. Thereafter he resided at Morgantown. He was clerk of both county and circuit courts of Monongalia County from 1841 to 1852. For a quarter of a century be ft.re the Civil \k'ar, he and George W. Sum men of Kanawha County were universally re garded as the \Vhig wheel-horses of western Virginia. He was a member of the constitu tional convention of Virginia, 1850-51. lie was the Whig candidate for Congress in 1852, but was defeated, and was also the Whig candidate for lieutenant-governor of Virginia in 1859 but was again defeated. In 1860 he was a delegate to the constitutional union convstition which nominated Bell for President. In 1861 he was
a member of the Virginia convention in which he noted against the ordinance of secession. In the same year he was elected by the legislature of the •Restored government of Virginia at \\ beeline to a seat in the United States Senate, in place of James M. Mason who had resigned after the secession of Virginia. He was a mem ber of the Wheeling constitutional convention which framed the first constitution of West Virginia, and in 1863 he was chosen to repre sent the new State in the Senate. In 1864 he was re-elected to the Senate for a term of six years which expired 4 March 1871. In 1871 he served as a member of the second constitutional es mention of West Virginia which met at Charleston and framed the present constitution of the State. In 1876 he was a delegate at large to the National Republican Convention which met at Cincinnati.