Icons: Alexander Wiley begins political career here

Born in Chippewa Falls on May 26, 1884, Alexander Wiley earned his law degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1907. He would go on to serve as district attorney in Chippewa County from 1909 to 1915.

During Wiley’s life, he was a member of the Freemasons, the Elks Club, the Knights of Pythias, Moose International and the Sons of Norway.

He would run for Wisconsin governor as a Republican in 1936, but wound up losing. But two years later he unseated one-term incumbent F. Ryan Duffy to become a U.S. senator from Wisconsin. He would be re-elected three times — in 1944, 1950 and 1956.

Wiley would hold onto his Senate seat for 24 years, and for a time was the longest-serving senator in the state’s history. His mark held up until William Proxmire broke the record by serving 32 years.

During Wiley's time in the Senate, he was the chairman of the chamber’s Committee on the Judiciary (in the 80th Congress) and the Committee on Foreign Relations (in the 83rd Congress).

He would lose re-election in 1962 to former Gov. Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat. Wiley died on his 83rd birthday at the High Oaks Christian Science Church Sanitarium in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

Alexander Wiley is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Chippewa Falls. The Wiley Law Office he found continues to flourish today in Chippewa Falls.