Griffon, Wiley

From Lane Co Oregon

Wiley Griffon (1867-1913) was a black man in a white town. He came to Eugene around 1890, and was the driver of the town’s first streetcar service — a single mule-powered car that ran on narrow-gauge tracks from the Southern Pacific railway station to the university. “In fact, he was driver, conductor, dispatcher, and largely the motive power by persistently shoving along the ambling mule,” said the Eugene Morning Register. The streetcar line’s first owner sold out after two years, and the new owner was absent from Eugene for months at a time — leaving Griffon completely in charge of operations. After the line shut down, Griffon took on various jobs.

“He was for a time janitor at the University dormitory, was employed by Grandma Munro at her famous eating house on the O.R. & N. line at Meacham, was later waiter on a dining car on the railroad, and afterward worked at many odd jobs in Eugene and at other points in the valley,” said the Eugene Daily Guard. “For some time previous to his death he was porter at the Elks’ club. The Elks gave him a decent burial.”