Shaler Granby Hillyer was a prominent Baptist leader born on June 20, 1809, in Wilkes County, Georgia. He died on Febrary 19, 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hillyer received a degree from the University of Georgia in 1829 and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Mercer University in 1850. In 1831, he was admitted to the bar in Clarke County, Georgia. In 1834, he was elected Tutor of Languages in the State University, and the following year he became principal of the Male Academy.

Hillyer's ordination to the ministry was by the Cabin Creek Church in Jackson County in 1835. He served as pastor of the Baptist churches at Athens, Milledgeville, Rome, Forsyth, and Macon. Other positions Hillyer held include principal of Scottsboro Female College and Penfield Female Academy, Professor of Belles Lettres at Mercer (1845-1856), Chaplain of Mercer (1859), Mercer Trustee (1838-1847), Professor of Theology at Penfield (1859), and President of Monroe College in Forsyth (1867-1876). In 1876 he resigned to devote full time to the Forsyth Church. In 1873 at the Georgia Baptist Convention in Rome, he introduced resolutions pointing out needs for a “well-endowed institution of learning for the higher education of our daughters, under control of the Convention.”

Hillyer's three marriages were to Elizabeth J. Thompson in 1836, Elizabeth T. Dagg in 1846, and to Mrs. William Lawton in 1870.