Willard N. Jones

{{short description|American politician, civil engineer and timber dealer}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}

File:Looters of the Public Domain 035.png

Willard N. Jones (1869–?) was a civil engineer and timber dealer in the U.S. state of Oregon.{{cite q|Q61976648}} Looters of the Public Domain on Wikisource He served as a Republican in the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 1903,{{cite web|url=http://records.sos.state.or.us/ORSOSWebDrawer/RecordView/6785281 |title=HP Records Manager WebDrawer - 1903 Session Legislators and Staff Guide State Government |publisher=Records.sos.state.or.us |date= |access-date=2019-09-26}} and was convicted of fraud in 1906.{{cite news |title=PRISON FOR WILLARD N. JONES: Ex-Legislator Sentenced for Conspiracy to Defraud Government |work=The New York Times |date= August 5, 1906}}

Jones was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1869 and educated at Alfred University. He moved west in 1887 and became a civil engineer, spending time in Minnesota, Montana, and British Columbia. He moved to Portland in 1891, where he worked as a timber salesman.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L2QbAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Willard+N.+Jones%22+legislator&pg=RA6-PA33|title=Oregon Teachers' Monthly|date=September 26, 1902|via=Google Books}} He partnered with Stephen A. Douglas Puter, who was later known as the "Oregon land fraud king."Jerry O'Callaghan, [https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/technical_reports/q524jt839 The Disposition of the Public Domain in Oregon], doctoral dissertation (Stanford University), 1951.