This is a transcription of the Rebecca (Weeks) Wiley, M.D. biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 79.
Rebecca (Weeks) Wiley, M.D.
THE ancestral lines along which Rebecca Weeks Wiley is able to trace her kindred reach back through families distinguished for education, patriotism, and statesmanship. These include Horace Greeley on one side and Daniel Webster on the other. Many unpublished incidents in the early history of these noted men are held as family heirlooms. Her immediate relatives were characterized by quick discernment, executive ability, and sterling integrity. Her father, John Gale Weeks, was a hatter in Gilford when Rebecca was born, March 20, 1848. She was educated at Laconia academy, New Hampshire Female college, and Boston University School of Medicine, graduating from the latter in the class of ’82. Dr. Wiley at once began practice in Laconia, “The City on the Lakes,” and thus became the first woman physician in the state north of Concord. Some of the best families in the city and adjacent towns took early opportunity to express joy over her settlement. Her practice, at first good, gradually increased, until at times she has been overwhelmed with professional work. It was a great relief to her when her only son, Maurice G. Wiley, graduated from medical college, and in June, 1894, opened an office adjoining her own. She is a member of the New Hampshire Homoeopathic Medical society, and the American Institute of Homoeopathy. Dr. Wiley has been called much in council, and her relations to the profession have been uniformly pleasant. The dream of youth was a prophecy of which the practice of medicine is a fulfillment, and she is an enthusiast in her profession. To some extent she has complied with requests to address public assemblies on education and hygienic subjects. but fidelity to a growing practice has compelled her to decline many such calls. In church relations she is a Free Baptist. She is sympathetic and co-operative with her husband, Rev. Frederick L. Wiley, in his literary and philanthropic pursuits. They are mutually happy in their respective departments of work and sacrifice for human good.