Hajj Ali was a camel rider of Greek or Jordanian Origin who came to US from the Ottoman Empire when the US government requested the Sultan to help setup a camel regiment in the US army. He successfully ran the camel regiment before it was disbanded.

He got his name Hajj Ali as he performed the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. While in US, the name got ‘americanized’ to Hi Jolly. In later life he lived as with his original name of Philip Tedro.