My great-great-grandfather Frederick H. Williams enjoyed bicycle riding, and got much practical use out of his "wheel." He wrote in his memoir:
Alice made me a present of a $100.00 bicycle (Remington) [in 1896], procured thru her uncle Norman Waldron for $65.00, one of the best bicycles ever manufactured. After taking two or three lessons, I became proficient as a rider, and during the years I owned it, rode over 13,000 miles. Many a time when my family was away at Corbettsville or Castine, and I was alone in the big house at #28 Lafayette Ave., I would ride thru Prospect Park and down to Coney Island after my supper, stay a half hour watching the people and filling my lungs with fresh sea air, then ride home. There was a good cinder path for bicyclists on each side of the broad boulevard for six straight and level miles. As oil or acetylene lamps were required on every bicycle, it was a pretty sight to see thousands of these twinkling lights across on the opposite path as I rode down and back. On getting home, I would always carefully wipe the dust of the trip from my new machine. For several years I had no coaster brake but a hand brake on the front tire, so had to pedal or coast down grade, but I seldom coasted. Most of my riding was done after coming to Binghamton and I explored all this region within a radius of 25 miles very carefully. My longest single ride in one day was to Earlville, 60 miles.
In his "Events and Dates" diary he would often note the days on which he would get out or put away the bicycle for the season, and he kept careful track of his cyclometer readings. His busiest season was 1901, when he rode 1171 miles. I suspect that the bicycle was the 1896 Light Roadster, of which 15,000 were sold:
Here are a few of the more interesting mentions of his bicycle use:
10 June 1898: Made my best record on bicycle from 1 Jay St. Binghamton to Corbettsville home in 48 minutes.
Corbettsville was about ten and a half miles from downtown Binghamton. In 1898, his family moved to Corbettsville from Brooklyn, and he got a job as Principal of Binghamton's Truant School. Up until the family moved into the city...
During September, I rode my bicycle back and forth daily and, with the Truant Officer, made the rounds of the schools to discover illegal absences and thus prospective pupils for my school.
9 Sept 1899: Went to the school principals' annual "melon raid" up to Chenango Bridge. On the way home got a tack in my bicycle tire - my first puncture in my 3 seasons of riding and cyclometer showing a mileage of 1771.5 miles.
What's a melon raid? Fred explains in his memoir:
For several years, the men in the school system would go on a "melon raid" on a Saturday afternoon every fall. Automobiles had not yet appeared so we rode our bicycles out in the country beyond Port Dick, where a farmer, by previous arrangement, furnished several bushel crates of fine muskmelons for us, which we fell to and ate until we were fairly uncomfortable, then pedalled back to the city. Some who had wire carriers on the handlebars brought home some of the left-over fruit.
Aug 1904 [while visiting Oneonta, NY]: Took bicycle and rode over 70 miles around neighboring country. Rode it to Cooperstown [on the 16th], and had fine sail around Ostego Lake.
30 June 1905: Rode bicycle to Quaker Lake - first ride into the country this season - and went on a most interesting physical geography expedition with Howard Wilson, examining the barrier that causes the lake to exist.
Fred's good friend Howard was a geologist, and they went on several expeditions together. This held Fred's interest because he taught the subject at Binghamton Central High School at that point. Howard wrote a paper about the barrier which formed Quaker Lake.
In August 1909, Fred's father-in-law, Rev. Dr. Henry Tuckley organized a camp-meeting at Dimock, Pennsylvania. He hired three Pennsylvania State Constables to provide security for the event. Fred rode his bicycle to Dimock (30 miles from Binghamton) "and first saw these nattily uniformed men, fearless, upstanding men with whom there was no fooling. I had read carefully some time before an article about them in The Outlook and had brought up the subject, with stories of them in action among the coal miners, in my Civics classes, so I was glad to interview them at the breakfast table one morning."
30 May 1912: Had bad fall from bicycle by carelessness of another man. Was flung against telegraph pole and wire and disabled left shoulder and arm.
31 May 1913: Rode wheel for first time since my accident on Decoration Day, 1912. Last year I rode 81 miles only and as my cyclometer was stolen at school, had just got a new one. Total mileage now 12,397. Start with new cyclometer at 2 miles.
The "Events and Dates" diary ends in 1914, so we don't have further anecdotes. Based on his comment that he rode over 13,000 miles, it seems that his bicycle use dropped off around that time. Perhaps that's when he bought an automobile.
Sources:
Illustration from The Bearings, v12 n22, 26 Dec 1895
Additional details from The Bearings and The Cycle Age and Trade Review, 6 Jan 1898, both via thecabe.com
Howard Wilson's paper is: A Glacially Formed Lake in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania (Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1914)
Family papers
