This cache could be part of the Disappearing RR Blues series of caches, as Wiley was a horsecar operator on the original Eugene streetcar system.
Most people know I love trains, and particularly subways and streetcars. This is a story about a specific person from Oregon's streetcar history. One that is depicted on a mural here along Willamette Street in Eugene.
Meet Wiley Griffon, a black many who operated horsecars in Eugene in the 1890s. This at a time when blacks were not allowed to own land, live, work, or even vote in Oregon. Wiley worked for the Eugene and College Hill Railway operating horsecars between the Eugen Train Station and the University of Oregon Campus. He has apparently arrived in Oregon with Henry Holden, the owner of the railway, from Texas.
Pauline Walton, a 1905 UofO Graduate recalled the following in a 1964 newspaper interview: "I remember that Wiley used to hitch his mule to a pole near Villard Hall on campus when he didn't have any passengers on board. Then he would go into the hall to see what was going on. Often, when he came back out, the car would be filled with passengers." (from Richard Thompson's Book, Lost Oregon Streetcars)
When Wiley passed away in 1913 at the age of 46, the Eugene Guard published an article noting his 25 years as a resident of Eugene. After the horsecar line closed (electric streetcars replaced it), Wiley became a janitor at the university, later he worked at an eating house. He worked for a time as a waiter on the dining car for the railroad, later he had odd jobs around town. His last job was working as a porter at the Elks Club. The Elk Club gave him a decent burial. Interestingly, the article cites he owned his home down by the river near a flour mill in Eugene. He was noted as being kind and gentle, with always a smile and a kind word. He did not drink and rarely used profanity.
The Mural here is on the old trolley stairs. They were built to connect the College Crest Trolley on Willamette Street with the long-since-gone Mercy Hospital on College Hill. It seems only fitting for this mural to Eugene's trolley past and even more so to Wiley.
He was the only known black streetcar operator in Oregon until Trimet MAX and Portland Streetcar came many decades later. He was a pioneer.