Walter "Wiley" Jones (July 14, 1841 – December 7, 1904) was a
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
man in
Pine Bluff,
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
, who was one of the wealthiest
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
s in his state. He owned the first
streetcar company in Pine Bluff and a park in the city which housed the fairgrounds. A devotee of
horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...
, he owned stables and a race track on the park grounds. He also owned a saloon. He was active in civic affairs and was an advocate for
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
.
Early life
Walter "Wiley" Jones was born in
Madison County in northeastern
Georgia, on July 14, 1848.
[Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p278-280] His parents were George Jones, a white planter, and Jones'
slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, Anne, who had six children by George Jones: Matthew (who superintended the construction of the Wiley Jones Street Car Line), Thomas, Julia (wife of Ben Reed), Wiley, Taylor, and James (who managed many of Wiley's businesses). Wiley received his nickname because of his mischievous nature. At the age of five, he moved to Arkansas with his master and more than forty fellow slaves. They settled on the Governor Byrd plantation. George Jones died in 1858. Anne was called his wife in an 1889 biography of Jones, and she believed that George had promised to free herself and her children upon his death, but no
manumission
Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing enslaved people by their enslavers. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that t ...
papers were found, and the family was kept as slaves and sold by the estate administrator, Peter Finerty, to
James Yell, a lawyer and planter in Pine Bluff. Jones worked as a houseboy and carriage driver for his new master. When Jones was ten, he was given to Yell's only son,
Fountain Pitts Yell, on the occasion of Pitts Yell's marriage. Pitts was a
state representative
A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system.
Two federations literally use the term "state legislature":
* The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...
from 1860 to 1861. During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, James Yell became a Major General of the Arkansas State Militia, and Pitts became a colonel in Company S of the
26th Arkansas Infantry Regiment in the
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
Army. James Yell's was transferred to the Confederate States Army in the summer of 1861, and James left the service and moved to
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. Jones served for Pitts during the war until Pitts' death in 1864 at the
Battle of Pleasant Hill
The Battle of Pleasant Hill occurred on April 9, 1864 and formed part of the Red River Campaign during the American Civil War when Union forces aimed to occupy the Louisiana state capital, Shreveport.
The battle was essentially a continuation ...
in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. Jones then joined James Yell and his family in
Waco
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
, Texas. There, he served as a porter in a mercantile house for one year. He was then hired to drive a wagon carrying cotton on a route along the
Brazos River
The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater Dr ...
to
San Antonio
("Cradle of Freedom")
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.
[Goodspeed Publishing Company, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland, and Hot Spring Counties, Arkansas Chicago, 1889.]
Business career
After the war, Jones returned to
Monticello, Arkansas, with the Yell family. From there, he moved to Pine Bluff to work first as a mule driver and then as the business manager of the Yell plantation.
In 1868,
he began to work as a
barber in the shop of Ben Reed, his brother-in-law,
and continued in that pursuit until 1881. He then began dealing
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
,
cigar
A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...
s, and other goods. His brother, James, worked as his plantation business manager.
In 1884, Jones got the better of state legislator and pastor William Young in a fist fight in front of Jones's saloon as a result of Young giving a speech which Jones did not like.
In August 1886, Jones secured the charter for the first streetcar line in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He had one and one-fourth mile completed and the first car running byn October 19, 1886, coinciding with the first day of the annual fair of the Colored Industrial and Fair Association, an organization of which he was treasurer. He owned the fair grounds located on a 55-acre park he owned near main street
and which was called Wiley Jones Park.
[Schweninger, Loren. Black property owners in the South, 1790-1915. Vol. 82. University of Illinois Press, 1997. p222-223.] His stables included one stallion, "Executor" that was of particular note, and later his colt, "Trickster". He also owned a number of mares and a herd of
Durham and
Holstein cattle.
In 1901, his thoroughbred pace, "Billy H", broke a track record at a race in
Windsor, Canada. In 1890, he purchased the second line in Pine Bluff, known as the Citizen's line, from H. P. Bradford for $125,000. In 1894, Jones sold his streetcar company to another streetcar syndicate. In 1901, Jones founded the Southern Mercantile Company, making his longtime friend Fred Havis president and his brother, James, manager.
Affiliations and public life
Jones was an active Republican and was a delegate to the
1880 Republican National Convention
The 1880 Republican National Convention convened from June 2 to June 8, 1880, at the Interstate Exposition Building in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Delegates nominated James A. Garfield of Ohio and Chester A. Arthur of New York as the offic ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, which nominated the
James Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...
-
Chester Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th U.S. vice president, vice president un ...
ticket
Ticket or tickets may refer to:
Slips of paper
* Lottery ticket
* Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start)
* Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a tol ...
.
[Leslie, James W. "Ferd Havis: Jefferson County's Black Republican Leader." The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 37, no. 3 (1978): 240-251.] He opened a manual training school, the Colored Industrial Institute of Pine Bluff in about 1888. He played an important role in promoting blacks to office in Pine Bluff and in
Jefferson County. He was an organizer of the Arkansas Colored Men's Association. In 1893, he was a delegate to the annual convention of the
Colored Men's National Protective Association in Chicago.
[Rise of Wiley Jones, The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinoia), June 30, 1893, page 2, accessed September 22, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737383/rise_of_wiley_jones_the_inter_ocean/] He was an active Mason and along with professor
J. C. Corbin played an important role in the building of a
Masonic Temple
A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting.
Development and history
In ...
in Pine Bluff. Jones sold land at 12th Avenue and Main to the Masons to be used to build the temple, but the building was instead built at 4th and State.
Personal life and death
He did not learn to read and write until he was an adult.
He was a
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
but not a part of any denomination or church. He did not marry.
He died in Pine Bluff on December 7, 1904 of
Bright's disease. The funeral was held at the new black Masonic Temple. He is interred at the black cemetery which he had founded.
[Wealthy Negro's Funeral, Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas), December 10, 1904, page 2, accessed September 22, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737621/wealthy_negros_funeral_daily_arkansas/]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Wiley
1841 births
1904 deaths
People from Madison County, Georgia
People from Pine Bluff, Arkansas
People from Waco, Texas
Saloonkeepers
African-American activists
American civil rights activists
American racehorse owners and breeders
Businesspeople from Arkansas
Arkansas Republicans
Barbers
Burials in Arkansas
19th-century American businesspeople
20th-century African-American people