Evangeline Wiley
Ice used to be cut from the river until Chillicothe finally got its own ice plant, the Chillicothe Ice and Fuel Company. It opened up in August of 1909 with the first set of ice not being suitable for consumption. Water after that went through a process to remove any germs or bugs. The superintendent of the plant was William J. Wiley. He moved his family here from Kansas in 1909 to run the plant. He and his wife Clara and daughter Evangeline lived at 505 Ann Street for about 40 years.
In 1932 Wiley sold the Chillicothe Ice and Fuel Company to the Consumers Public Service Company. They built a new ice plant in town. Wiley stayed on as manager until his retirement in 1944.
Evangeline, their only surviving child out of four, became a teacher at Central School. She lived most of her life in Chillicothe, except for her time at the University of Missouri at Columbia and the Monticello Seminary. Miss Wiley taught the third grade in the old high school building, Dewey, then in the new Central school building. She lived at 505 Ann Street for 50 years in total, finally moving to Grace Apartments on Washington Street in 1959. She retired in 1964 at the end of the school year, after teaching for 29 years. She died in 1980 at the age of 77.