Mary Wiley Staver , Jersey Shore Authoress

 

New And True

Rhymes and Rythms

and Histories Droll

For  Boys and Girls 

from Pole to Pole

Written by Mary Wiley Staver of Jersey Shore

Published October 1891

Mary Wiley Staver, of Jersey Shore Pa, published a book of children's rhymes in 1891. 

It was the first of two books published by Wiley, the second being a journal of her foreign travels, published in 1899.

Read the entire book online here

Fifty Years After

By Mary Wiley Staver

Staver's second book, a journal of her foreign travels, was published in 1899.

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" Mary Wiley Staver was the daughter of Mr. John Wiley, a prominent miller and distiller at Schocks Mills, at Locust Grove, Lancaster county. She was born on August 2, 1828.

 She was educated at the Linden Hall Academy, Lititz, where she was also for a time a teacher of music. Several years after her graduation she visited Europe with the then President of Linden Hall Academy and his family. Well educated and naturally bright, the spell of European travel showed itself in a bock written some years later on her recollections of what she saw in Europe and the effect they had on her. 

Her poetic temperament came to the front some years later in a volume written for young people.  Note - Her volume written for children was actually published first, in 1891.  The Memoir of her trip abroad was published in 1899.

October 25, 1879

She was married to Mr. Staver, a lumber merchant of Lock Haven, to which place she removed and where she lived until her husbands death, when she returned to her old home, at Bainbridge. 

John E. Wiley, a former member of the legislature of Pennsylvania, was a brother, as was Henry H. Wiley, for many years the owner of Schocks Mills and of the stately old manor house belonging to that estate. Mrs. Susanna W. Smith, of Bainbridge, and Margaret W. Jones of South Bend, Ind., are surviving sisters."

Note - the only John Staver I can find, in a very quick search, is the John mentioned in the annals of Columbia County.  "The father of our subject was also born in Pine Creek township, Lycoming County, Pa., and upon growing to manhood moved to Jersey Shore, Pa., where he embarked in the lumber business and became one of the valued members of the community. He was united in marriage with Mary Nicely, and they were the parents of four children, named as follows: Lizzie, deceased; Carrie, widow of A. J. Sypher; Martin Luther, a prominent real estate and insurance man residing in Jersey Shore, Pa.; and James M., the subject of this sketch. John Staver, who still resides at his home in Jersey Shore, is now eighty-two years old. In politics is a Prohibitionist, being greatly opposed to the use of intoxicating liquors." Since this cannot be the same John, this John being married to Mary Nicely, that means there were two John Stavers in Jersey Shore in the 1880s and 90s.

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Mary Wiley Staver died on Christmas Day, 1913, at her home in Bainbridge, Lancaster County Pa.