The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Mayoral Tenure, Marriage, and Post-Avon Park Career of Wiley Sauls Jr.

Elected mayor of Avon Park on 13 September 1949 at the age of twenty-one, Wiley Lester Sauls Jr. gained national press attention as the “youngest mayor in the United States.”[sht-1949-09-15] His election and subsequent 1951 re-election became milestones in Florida civil rights history when Avon Park’s Black electorate provided his decisive margin of victory and successfully defended his seated administration in the Florida Supreme Court against municipal disenfranchisement.[adw-1949-09-25][gough-1951]

While contemporary regional lore circulated unverified rumors that Sauls was simultaneously attending law school at the University of Florida or vanished without a trace after leaving office, public census schedules, vital records, corporate registries, and Ohio newspaper archives document his family origins, his actual employment during his mayoral terms, his June 1952 marriage and subsequent relocation to Ohio, his executive career heading a Midwestern quarry corporation, and his later return to Florida.[census-1950-ed-28-8][vw-times-bulletin-1952-07-01][sunbiz-blue-bird-ranch]

Family background and the 1950 census

Wiley Lester Sauls Jr. was born circa 1928 in Florida, the eldest son of Wiley Lester Sauls Sr. (1896–1957) and Clara L. (Huntley) Sauls (born circa 1910 in Georgia).[census-1950-ed-28-8][tbt-obituary-sauls-2007] His father operated a retail grocery store in Avon Park, and the family included siblings Juanita F. (born circa 1927), William H. (1929–2007), Janet N. (born circa 1934), Sylvia S. (born circa 1944), Walton Frank (born circa 1945), and Susan.[census-1950-ed-28-8][tbt-obituary-sauls-2007] Sauls graduated from Avon Park High School in the class of 1946.

In April 1950, seven months into his first term as mayor of Avon Park, the federal census enumerated twenty-two-year-old Wiley Sauls Jr. residing in his parents’ household (Household 421, Enumeration District 28-8).[census-1950-ed-28-8] The schedule directly refutes the rumor that he was attending law school in Gainesville: his occupation is recorded as “Salesman” working forty-eight hours per week in his father’s retail grocery store, classified as an unpaid family worker (“NP”), with zero educational enrollment recorded.[census-1950-ed-28-8]

Mayoral terms and civil rights defense (1949–1951)

In the municipal election of 13 September 1949, Sauls challenged incumbent mayor O. C. Wilkes in a crowded five-way mayoral contest. While trailing Wilkes in the white precinct, Sauls received 255 of 297 votes cast in the town’s Black precinct (Voting Place No. 2), defeating Wilkes by an overall margin of 462 to 444 (an 18-vote victory).[sht-1949-09-15][adw-1949-09-25]

On 11 September 1951, Sauls ran for re-election against Wilkes. He secured re-election with 877 total votes, winning 92.5% of the ballots cast in Voting Place No. 2.[gough-1951] On 25 September 1951, the outgoing city council majority attempted to overturn the election by voiding all 397 ballots from Voting Place No. 2, declaring Wilkes mayor and installing defeated white candidates on the council.[gough-1951]

Sauls, joined by councilmen-elect J. B. Sparks and Mannin Kirkland, retained Avon Park attorney Keith E. Collyer to contest the purge in circuit court.[trib-1951-10-11] On 9 October 1951, Circuit Judge Don Register issued a peremptory writ of mandamus ordering the council to reinstate the election results. When councilmen delayed, Judge Register cited them for contempt, forcing the council to convene on the evening of 10 October 1951 to rescind the invalidation and swear in Mayor Sauls for his second term.[trib-1951-10-11] The Supreme Court of Florida unanimously affirmed the decision on 20 November 1951 in Gough v. State ex rel. Sauls, ruling that municipal canvassing boards possessed purely ministerial powers and could not disenfranchise voters under the guise of judging election returns.[gough-1951]

Marriage, resignation, and move to Ohio (1952)

Sauls did not complete his full two-year second term in Avon Park. On Sunday evening, 29 June 1952, Mayor Wiley Lester Sauls Jr. married Kathryn Ann Gaddis at the First Methodist Church in Van Wert, Ohio.[vw-times-bulletin-1952-07-01] Kathryn was the daughter of Mrs. James Everett Gaddis and the late Dr. Gaddis of 1015 Oak Street in Van Wert.[vw-times-bulletin-1952-07-01]

Following an extended wedding trip, Sauls established permanent residence with his wife in Van Wert, resigning his mayoral office in Avon Park in the summer of 1952, approximately nine months into his second term.[vw-times-bulletin-1952-07-01] The mayoral office was administered by municipal interim leadership until the next biennial election on 8 September 1953, when former mayor Edgar A. DeLaney Sr. was elected to succeed him.

Corporate career in Ohio and later Florida residency

In Van Wert County, Ohio, Sauls entered the heavy construction materials and aggregate industry. By the early 1970s, he served as President of Union Quarries, Inc., a major regional limestone quarrying and processing company with operations in Convoy and Van Wert, Ohio.[vw-times-bulletin-1973-05-16] In May 1973, Sauls was prominent in Van Wert civic affairs, leading executive challenge gifts for the local MYCA community building campaign.[vw-times-bulletin-1973-05-16] Wiley and Kathryn Sauls raised their family in Van Wert, including daughter Susan Carol Sauls.

In his later years, Sauls returned to Florida, establishing a residence at 6720 10th Avenue West in Bradenton, Manatee County.[sunbiz-blue-bird-ranch] On 4 May 1987, he and Kathryn organized Blue Bird Ranch Investments, Inc. (Charter G14558) under Florida corporate law, with Wiley L. Sauls serving as registered agent.[sunbiz-blue-bird-ranch] When his younger brother William H. Sauls passed away in Avon Park on 28 April 2007, his published obituary in the Tampa Bay Times confirmed that Wiley Sauls was surviving and residing in Bradenton.[tbt-obituary-sauls-2007]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Associated Press, in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Youngest Mayor in U.S. Elected at Avon Park: Wiley Sauls Jr., 21, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 15 September 1949 (1949) · newspaper
  2. Associated Negro Press, in the Atlanta Daily World, Negroes Swing Mayor's Election In Avon Park, Atlanta Daily World, 25 September 1949, page 3 (1949) · newspaper
  3. Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division B (Chapman, J.), Gough et al. v. State ex rel. Sauls et al., 55 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 1951) (1951) · official
  4. The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.), Avon Park Council Action Questioned, by Hayden Williams — The Tampa Tribune, 11 October 1951, page 17 (1951) · newspaper
  5. United States Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population Schedules, Florida, Highlands County, ED 28-8 (Avon Park city, Commissioner's District 2), Sheet 19, Household 421 (1950) · official
  6. Van Wert Times-Bulletin, Miss Kathryn Ann Gaddis Married to Wiley Lester Sauls Jr. at First Methodist Church, Van Wert Times-Bulletin (Van Wert, Ohio), 1 July 1952, page 5 (1952) · newspaper
  7. Van Wert Times-Bulletin, Wiley Sauls, President of Union Quarries Inc., Issues Challenge for MYCA Building Campaign, Van Wert Times-Bulletin (Van Wert, Ohio), 16 May 1973, page 1 (1973) · newspaper
  8. Florida Department of State, Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, Charter G14558 (Blue Bird Ranch Investments, Inc., Wiley L. Sauls, Registered Agent, Bradenton, Florida) (1987) · official
  9. Tampa Bay Times, Obituary of William H. Sauls (1929–2007), Tampa Bay Times / TBO.com, 1 May 2007 (2007) · secondary

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