Wiley Griffon

Wiley Griffon, once described as Eugene's pioneer colored citizen and one of its most industrious colored men, was a familiar figure on the streets of Eugene as a tram operator who drove the city's horse-drawn trolleys, an earlier form of what eventually became Lane Transit District. For a fare of 5 cents, children saved their pennies to ride with him, and he gave them hard candy, stories, and sometimes a free ride home. His carriage also carried many Eugene citizens to their final rest in this cemetery. Though he was neither the first nor the only African-American in Eugene, he was the first one mentioned by name as a resident. Despite exclusion laws then in effect that forbade the presence of non-white American citizens in Oregon and Eugene, he and others came to live there. He owned a home overlooking the Millrace on the site of what is now EWEB's employee parking lot, and he worked at various times as a janitor for the university dormitory, a waiter on railroad dining cars, and a porter at the Elks Club when he died. Obituaries remembered his ready smile, kind word, devout Christian faith, and abstinence from drink and profanity, while also suggesting the hardships he endured in making a life and home in Eugene.

Eugene, Oregon · United States