Among his siblings were older brothers Evander Higby Schley (an agent of the American Express Co. in Geneva) and William T. Schley (a prominent lawyer who was great-grandfather of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman).

[2][3][4] He attended the Canandaigua Academy, before becoming a clerk in the express office of Wells, Butterfield & Co. at Syracuse at the age of sixteen in 1861.

For many years, he was active on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, counting among his clientele many of the most prominent men in the country, including Henry Huttleston Rogers, William C. Whitney, William Rockefeller, Oliver Hazard Payne, and John Warne Gates.

[5] Schley served as a director of the American Smelting and Refining Co., the Chihuahua Mining Co., the Coal Creek Mining & Manufacturing Co., the Electric Storage Battery Co., the Elliott-Fisher Co., the Northern Pacific Railway, the Pittsburgh Coal Company, and the Republic Iron and Steel Company.

Schley was also a member of the Agricultural Association, the Academy of Political Science, the Economic Club, and the Archeological Society.