Wiley Griffon
American streetcar operator (1867–1913)

Wiley Griffon
Griffon sits cross-legged among a group of people
Griffon, c. 1896
Born1867 (1867)
Died (aged 46)
Eugene, Oregon, United States

Wiley Griffon (1867 – June 26, 1913) was an American streetcar operator and resident of Eugene, Oregon, United States. Little is known about Griffon's early life, but after being employed by the businessman Henry W. Holden, he moved to Eugene in 1890 to operate the street railway. After resigning from the position in 1894, he held a number of occupations elsewhere in Oregon. Griffon died in 1913 of a gastrointestinal illness after failing to recover from a surgery.

Although Griffon lived during a period of racism, scholars found that he held a favorable reputation and was generally accepted within the Eugene community. Several public displays dedicated to Griffon have been installed in Eugene, including a monument at his burial site, a mural, and a street named after him.

Biography

Wiley Griffon was born in 1867.[1] Little is known about his early life,[2] and sources disagree on his place of birth.[a] According to his obituary in the Morning Register, he was employed by the family of Henry W. Holden, a Texan businessman, at age 19.[4]

Griffon stands in front of a wooden streetcar, which is tethered to a mule
Griffon drove Eugene's first streetcar in the 1890s.[5] (pictured c. 1893)

Griffon moved to Eugene, Oregon, in 1890, despite exclusion laws in the state of Oregon forbidding free Black people from settling there.[6] Holden constructed a mule-drawn railway in 1891, and Griffon became the first operator in Eugene's streetcar system,[7] as well as the only African-American streetcar operator of his time in Oregon.[5] A resident recalled that Griffon often stopped his streetcar outside Villard Hall, on the University of Oregon campus, to pick up passengers before driving towards the Southern Pacific Railroad depot.[8] Although he resigned from the railway after three years, in July 1894,[9] he later acted as a substitute operator.[10] After it was sold to W. B. Dennis in September 1900,[11] The Oregon Daily Journal reported that Griffon often wholly managed the system.[7]

Griffon lived in a house along the Mill Race, and was the first Black property owner on record in Eugene.[12] He was employed variously across his life, including as a janitor at the University of Oregon's Friendly Hall – where he was the university's first African-American employee – as a waiter at Katherine Sterrett Munra's [d] restaurant and in the railway, and in other roles in Eugene and elsewhere in Oregon.[13] He sustained various injuries while engaged in manual labor.[14]

To remove several tumors in his back and neck, Griffon underwent a surgery which he did not fully recover from. The owners of the Elks Club, where he had been employed at the time, hired a caretaker for him.[7] After a week of gastrointestinal illness, Griffon died in his home on June 26, 1913.[15] The Elks Club helped arrange for his burial.[16] The Branstetter Chapel held his funeral on June 27, and Griffon was buried within what is now the Eugene Masonic Cemetery.[17][b]

Legacy

Map
Wiley Griffon Way (highlighted in red) was named in 2019.[18]

Griffon lived in Eugene during a period of overt racism;[19] however, the historian Jennifer O'Neal found that "evidence suggests he weathered those times positively" and held a favorable reputation.[1] Several local newspapers described Griffon in obituaries as a noteworthy member of the Eugene community.[20] The sociologist Douglas Card said that although these articles applied racial stereotypes, they nonetheless indicated Griffon's acceptance by Eugene residents.[19] The historian Richard Thompson, in his book about Oregon's streetcars, wrote that he "earned a special place in Oregon history."[21]

Several public displays dedicated to Griffon have been installed in Eugene. To highlight the history of public transportation in Eugene, the Lane Transit District installed an exhibit in Eugene Station for its first anniversary in 1999, including a display on Griffon.[2] Cheri Turpin and Mark Harris, a Lane Community College (LCC) instructor, installed a monument dedicated to Griffon in the Eugene Masonic Cemetery in 2013. They raised funds for the project over 15 years, receiving contributions from the Black student union at LCC, the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB), and the Lane Education Service District.[22]

In 2017, the EWEB partnered with the local NAACP branch to construct a sign about Griffon at its headquarters,[23] located at the former site of Griffon's house.[1] In 2019, a public mural depicting Griffon was painted by the artist Ila Rose, with support from Turpin and Harris.[24] The city of Eugene also held an online vote that year to name newly constructed streets along its downtown riverfront. Griffon was shortlisted,[25] and eventually selected as one of three namesakes for the streets.[18]

Notes

  1. ^ Scott Maben of The Register-Guard wrote that Griffon was born in the state of Illinois, possibly to a slave family.[2] According to Mark Harris, a Lane Community College instructor, he could have been from North or South Carolina.[3]
  2. ^ The Eugene Daily Guard reported at the time that Griffon was buried in the "A. F. and A. M. cemetery".[15]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c O'Neal & Bigalke 2018.
  2. ^ a b c Maben 1999, p. 1C.
  3. ^ Woolington 2013, p. A5.
  4. ^ Morning Register 1913, p. 8.
  5. ^ a b Thompson 2017, pp. 73–74.
  6. ^ Keefer 2013, p. B2; O'Neal & Bigalke 2018.
  7. ^ a b c The Oregon Daily Journal 1913, p. 10.
  8. ^ Tims 1964, p. 4, cited in Thompson 2017, pp. 74–75.
  9. ^ Daily Eugene Guard 1894b, p. 4.
  10. ^ Daily Eugene Guard 1895, p. 1.
  11. ^ Thompson 2017, p. 75.
  12. ^ Hill 2019; O'Neal & Bigalke 2018.
  13. ^ The Eugene Daily Guard 1913, p. 2, cited in O'Neal & Bigalke 2018; Morning Register 1913, p. 8.
  14. ^ Daily Eugene Guard 1894a, p. 6; The Eugene Daily Guard 1907, p. 6; Morning Register 1904, p. 6.
  15. ^ a b The Eugene Daily Guard 1913, p. 2.
  16. ^ The Eugene Daily Guard 1913, p. 2, cited in O'Neal & Bigalke 2018.
  17. ^ Cyr 2025.
  18. ^ a b KMTR 2019.
  19. ^ a b Keefer 2013, p. B2.
  20. ^ Daily East Oregonian 1913, p. 8; Morning Register 1913, p. 8; The Oregon Daily Journal 1913, p. 10.
  21. ^ Thompson 2017, p. 74.
  22. ^ Woolington 2013, pp. A1, A5.
  23. ^ Caltabiano 2017.
  24. ^ Begay 2019.
  25. ^ Hill 2019.

Contemporaneous news sources

  • "Well known negro dead". Daily East Oregonian. June 30, 1913. p. 8 – via NewspaperArchive.
  • "Head cut". Daily Eugene Guard. May 12, 1894. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "[No title]". Daily Eugene Guard. July 6, 1894. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "[No title]". Daily Eugene Guard. July 10, 1895. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "[No title]". The Eugene Daily Guard. June 21, 1907. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Wiley Griffn [sic] dead". The Eugene Daily Guard. June 27, 1913. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Wiley Griffon injured". Morning Register. February 25, 1904. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Wiley Griffon, Eugene's negro character, dead". Morning Register. June 27, 1913. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Negro who once ran streetcar system of Eugene, Or., expires". The Oregon Daily Journal. June 29, 1913. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.

Retrospective news and other sources

  • Begay, Melorie (June 8, 2019). "Mural honors Wiley Griffon's legacy in Eugene". KLCC. Archived from the original on March 27, 2025.
  • Caltabiano, David (February 17, 2017). "Eugene unveils marker honoring Wiley Griffon". KMTR. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017.
  • Cyr, Miranda (July 24, 2025). "11 famous people buried in Eugene's oldest cemetery". The Register-Guard. Archived from the original on July 27, 2025.
  • Hill, Christian (October 21, 2019). "Diversity dominates street naming contest's final list". The Register-Guard. Archived from the original on April 26, 2024.
  • Keefer, Bob (January 20, 2013). "One man's place in history". The Register-Guard. p. B1 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Mayor reveals names for 3 new streets created by Eugene riverfront redevelopment". KMTR. November 26, 2019. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020.
  • Maben, Scott (May 7, 1999). "LTD display honors transit pioneers". The Register-Guard. p. 1C – via Newspapers.com.
  • O'Neal, Jennifer; Bigalke, Zach (November 29, 2018). "Wiley Griffon". Untold Stories. University of Oregon Libraries. Archived from the original on April 29, 2020.
  • Tims, Marvin (December 20, 1964). "Clang! clang! clang! went the trolley". Eugene Register-Guard. pp. 3–6.
  • Thompson, Richard (2017). Lost Oregon Streetcars. The History Press. ISBN 978-1-4396-5933-5.
  • Woolington, Josephine (June 8, 2013). "Celebrating a pioneer". The Register-Guard. p. A1 – via Newspapers.com.
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