The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Wiley Sauls, Jr.

Mayor of Avon Park from 1949, re-elected in 1951, removed from office by his own city council ten days after it had declared him elected, and restored by a circuit judge and the Supreme Court of Florida. He held the office because Black Avon Park voted for him, and he lost it, briefly, for the same reason.

Elected at twenty-one

The Atlanta Daily World of 25 September 1949 reported the election under the headline “Negroes Swing Mayor’s Election In Avon Park.” Three hundred and seventeen Black voters were registered in the town; 297 of them voted, and 255 of those votes went to Wiley Sauls Jr., “newcomer to politics.” The turnout followed a Junior Chamber of Commerce registration drive whose posters read “Don’t Vote, Don’t Gripe.”[adw-1949-09-25]

He was twenty-one.

What he was doing in April 1950

The federal census of 1950 finds him at home. Household 421 of enumeration district 28-8, enumerated 27 April 1950: Wiley T. Sauls, Sr., 52, born Georgia, manager and owner of a retail grocery store, sixty-two hours a week; his wife Clara L., 40, born Georgia; daughter Juanita F., 23, a telephone operator; and Wiley, 22, born Florida, occupation “Salesman,” industry “Retail Grocery” — his father’s store — class of worker “NP,” an unpaid family worker, forty-eight hours a week. Three younger children follow: Janet N., 16, Sylvia S., 6, and Walton T., 5.[census-1950-ed-28-8]

A local-history account had the young mayor attending law school at the University of Florida. The contemporary press had him working in his father’s grocery. Seven months after that report, the census has him working unpaid in his father’s grocery, at Avon Park, with no schooling recorded. The grocery account is right, at least for the spring of 1950.

Mayor a second time, twice

He was re-elected on 11 September 1951 with 877 votes, and the city council’s canvass of 15 September declared him so.[gough-1951] On 25 September the same council voided the 397 ballots cast in Voting Place No. 2, the town’s Black polling place, and declared O. C. Wilkes mayor instead.[gough-1951]

Sauls, with councilmen-elect J. B. Sparks and Mannin Kirkland, went to law. Through his attorney Keith E. Collyer he obtained an alternative writ of mandamus, and after a hearing at Sebring on Monday 8 October 1951, Circuit Judge Don Register granted a peremptory writ ordering the council to rescind its second resolution.[trib-1951-10-11] The council delayed; Collyer got them cited for contempt; and on the evening of 10 October 1951 they complied.

The following winners, as determined by a Sept. 15 resolution, were sworn in by Collyer as a notary public: Mayor Wiley Sauls, Jr., for his second term.[trib-1951-10-11]

That same afternoon the Supreme Court of Florida had already suspended Judge Register’s order by a writ of supersedeas, so the swearing-in happened under a cloud; the city attorney said publicly that he doubted the council’s compliance was even legal.[trib-1951-10-11] The Supreme Court heard the appeal and, on 20 November 1951, affirmed. Sauls stayed.[gough-1951]

Marriage, resignation, and Ohio career

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 Van Wert.[vw-times-bulletin-1952-07-01]

Following an extended wedding trip, Sauls relocated permanently to Ohio, resigning his mayoral position in Avon Park in the summer of 1952, roughly nine months into his second term.[vw-times-bulletin-1952-07-01] His unexpired term was filled by interim municipal leadership until former mayor Edgar A. DeLaney Sr. was elected to succeed him in September 1953.

In Ohio, Sauls entered the construction aggregate industry and became President of Union Quarries, Inc., operating limestone quarries and processing facilities in Convoy and Van Wert, Ohio, through the 1970s.[vw-times-bulletin-1973-05-16] He and his wife raised their family in Van Wert, including daughter Susan Carol Sauls.

In later years, Sauls returned to Florida and established a home in Bradenton, Manatee County, organizing Blue Bird Ranch Investments, Inc. in May 1987.[sunbiz-blue-bird-ranch] The published obituary of his younger brother William H. Sauls (1929–2007) of Avon Park confirmed that Wiley Sauls was surviving and residing in Bradenton in 2007.[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. 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)
  2. The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.), Avon Park Council Action Questioned, by Hayden Williams — The Tampa Tribune, 11 October 1951, page 17 (1951)
  3. 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)
  4. 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) (1950)
  5. Van Wert Times-Bulletin, Miss Kathryn Ann Gaddis Married to Wiley Lester Sauls Jr. at First Methodist Church, Van Wert Times-Bulletin, 1 July 1952, page 5 (1952) · newspaper
  6. Van Wert Times-Bulletin, Wiley Sauls, President of Union Quarries Inc., Issues Challenge for MYCA Building Campaign, Van Wert Times-Bulletin, 16 May 1973, page 1 (1973) · newspaper
  7. Florida Department of State, Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, Charter G14558 (Blue Bird Ranch Investments, Inc., Wiley L. Sauls, Bradenton, Florida) (1987) · official
  8. Tampa Bay Times, Obituary of William H. Sauls (1929–2007), Tampa Bay Times / TBO.com, 1 May 2007 (2007) · secondary

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