156:, 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
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241:. 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.
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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
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in the shop of Ben Reed, his brother-in-law, and continued in that pursuit until 1881. He then began dealing tobacco, cigars, 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
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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. 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
220:, 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
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He did not learn to read and write until he was an adult. He was a
Christian but not a part of any denomination or church. He did not marry. He died in Pine Bluff on December 7, 1904, of
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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.
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Graves, John
William. "Jim Crow in Arkansas: A Reconsideration of Urban Race Relations in the Post-Reconstruction South." The Journal of Southern History 55, no. 3 (1989): 421–448.
264:. 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
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164:, 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,
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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.
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The Two
Conventions About to Compromise – Summer Fights, Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) July 24, 1884, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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200:, 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
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132:, 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
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Leslie, James W. "Ferd Havis: Jefferson County's Black
Republican Leader." The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 37, no. 3 (1978): 240–251.
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Masonic Temple Corner-Stone, Daily
Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) August 15, 1902, page 8, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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Wealthy Negro's
Funeral, Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas), December 10, 1904, page 2, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p278-280
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Army. James Yell's was transferred to the
Confederate States Army in the summer of 1861, and James left the service and moved to
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Well-to-do Negro Dead, Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) December 8, 1904, page 2, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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268:. He was an organizer of the Arkansas Colored Men's Association. In 1893, he was a delegate to the annual convention of the
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Schweninger, Loren. Black property owners in the South, 1790–1915. Vol. 82. University of Illinois Press, 1997. p222-223.
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Splendid Program, Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas), June 11, 1899, page 9, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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Over the State, Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas) August 21, 1901, page 8, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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A Big Deal, Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas), November 25, 1890, page 3, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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Pine Bluff Personals, Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas) July 19, 1901, page 3, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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292:. The funeral was held at the new black Masonic Temple. He is interred at the black cemetery which he had founded.
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176:, James Yell became a Major General of the Arkansas State Militia, and Pitts became a colonel in Company S of the
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Rise of Wiley Jones, The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinoia), June 30, 1893, page 2, accessed September 22, 2016 at
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papers were found, and the family was kept as slaves and sold by the estate administrator, Peter Finerty, to
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company in Pine Bluff and a park in the city which housed the fairgrounds. A devotee of
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front of Jones's saloon as a result of Young giving a speech which Jones did not like.
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737461/pine_bluff_personals_arkansas_democrat/
237:. In 1901, his thoroughbred pace, "Billy H", broke a track record at a race in
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737621/wealthy_negros_funeral_daily_arkansas/
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737512/over_the_state_daily_arkansas_gazette/
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737383/rise_of_wiley_jones_the_inter_ocean/
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737591/welltodo_negro_dead_daily_arkansas/
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737328/a_big_deal_daily_arkansas_gazette/
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188:. Jones served for Pitts during the war until Pitts' death in 1864 at the
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737793/masonic_temple_cornerstone_daily/
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737429/splendid_program_daily_arkansas/
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120:(July 14, 1841 – December 7, 1904) was a businessman in
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in Chicago. He was an active Mason and along with professor
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Jones was an active Republican and was a delegate to the
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Gatewood, Willard B. "Frederick Douglass in Arkansas."
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Unnamed black cemetery in Pine Bluff which he owned
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428:https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6737207//
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614:American racehorse owners and breeders
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639:19th-century American businesspeople
584:People from Madison County, Georgia
251:1880 Republican National Convention
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398:The Arkansas Historical Quarterly
216:After the war, Jones returned to
144:Walter "Wiley" Jones was born in
589:People from Pine Bluff, Arkansas
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253:in Chicago, which nominated the
609:American civil rights activists
178:26th Arkansas Infantry Regiment
172:from 1860 to 1861. During the
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619:Businesspeople from Arkansas
245:Affiliations and public life
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604:African-American activists
401:41, no. 4 (1982): 303–315.
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35:Image of Jones from 1887
594:People from Waco, Texas
284:Personal life and death
190:Battle of Pleasant Hill
359:Business and Economics
624:Arkansas Republicans
323:Georgia (U.S. state)
170:state representative
118:Walter "Wiley" Jones
23:Walter "Wiley" Jones
16:American businessman
634:Burials in Arkansas
574:19th-century births
166:Fountain Pitts Yell
174:American Civil War
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70:(aged 52)
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130:horse racing
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68:(1904-12-07)
579:1904 deaths
206:San Antonio
182:Confederate
158:manumission
93:Businessman
568:Categories
366:References
218:Monticello
162:James Yell
140:Early life
122:Pine Bluff
102:Republican
90:Occupation
76:, Arkansas
74:Pine Bluff
47:1852-04-15
311:Biography
194:Louisiana
126:streetcar
629:Barbers
297:Portals
180:in the
150:Georgia
262:ticket
231:Durham
222:barber
108:Spouse
335:Texas
186:Texas
154:slave
233:and
198:Waco
63:Died
41:Born
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