Billy Jones Biography

Billy Jones was born in 1884 at Ben Lomond, California, son of a lumberjack and ox team driver. His parents had come west from Missouri with the Donner party branch that went to Oregon.

He completed his formal education at age 13 so he could work to help support his struggling family. His only employer was the Southern Pacific Railroad where he started as a roustabout, and then at 17 (in 1901), boarded a locomotive as a fireman. At 21 he advanced to engineer, a position he worked until his retirement in 1950. He ran "helper" engines over Cuesta Grade near San Luis Obispo, work trains, the "Daylight" and "Lark" passenger trains and commuter trains up the San Francisco Peninsula.

In 1917 he purchased "The Ranch", a nine acre prune orchard at Daves Avenue and Winchester Road in Los Gatos. The following year he married Geraldine McGrady, the school teacher at Wrights Station. They had four children, two sons and two daughters.

One day in 1939 he had a layover in San Francisco between commuter runs and was walking around the docks. It was there he found and bought the little locomotive that was to become the start of the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad, just hours before it was to be loaded as scrap metal on a ship bound for Japan. After this purchase, most of his layover time was spent in the Southern Pacific shops where, with the help of other employees, he repaired the locomotive and made other component parts for his home railroad.

In 1943, his son Robert, an Air Force pilot crashed in the Aleutians and was killed. His only other son was also killed in the war. Billy, finding solace in the company of children, began to run his railroad on an irregular schedule for their benefit. There wasn't much track at the time, just a short straight stretch along which the train went back and forth.

On the night of March 22, 1956 a fire gutted the wood structure housing the engine, which was seriously damaged. The railroad had become such a part of the community's life that the response was immediate. The next day's edition of the local newspaper announcing the fire was also able to announce an overwhelming number of spontaneous offers to assist in restoration. As a result, an outpouring of people and tradesmen made the repairs without charge for their time. Local banks accepted donations to cover the cost of materials. Children donated over $2000 in small amounts of a few cents to 50 cents or more each. The southern Pacific donated parts and assisted in repairing the engine. As a result, the train was running again in one month instead of the four to six months as originally estimated.

In 1950, having retired and having more time on his hands, Billy began to take an interest in civic matters. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the Prune and Apricot Growers Association, the Orchard City Grange and the First Presbyterian Church. Because of the outstanding quality of his efforts in these fields and because of his railroad, on January 11, 1952 the Chamber of Commerce designated him Los Gatos "Man of the Year". In December of that year his wife passed away.

It was then that Billy devoted himself earnestly to operating his railroad on a regular schedule. Some of the donations for rides were used as gifts for children in a local hospital, and towards refurbishing the children's ward.

Billy died in 1968, having lived pretty much in harmony with nature and with the world in general. He sincerely liked people, loved to participate in their activities, and being full of enthusiasm, was willing to try anything. He loved nature and enjoyed camping as well as being outdoors in general. He started with very little, asked for very little, and yet in a rich lifetime achieved quite a measure of success in many ways.