Another special vehicle you can see here at the Heritage Center when the "Good Roads" exhibition opens September 30 is this 1880's tiller & treadle velocipede. It too comes to us courtesy of the Hall Bicycle Company of Cedar Rapids. The machine dates from the 1880's and was used by young girls. The first treadle-powered machines with tiller steering (c.a. 1850) had iron-rimmed wooden wheels; steel wheels with solid rubber tires, like this one has, came in the 1880's. The velocipedes were expensive items and only wealthy families could own them. The maker of this one is unknown. Most were sold wholesale to department stores and bike shops, which applied their own brand names and badges.

We're very grateful to Halls Bicycle and the State Historical Museum of Iowa for loaning us so many wonderful machines. We'll share more stories about them in the future and, of course, in the exhibition. Hope to see you there! ... See MoreSee Less

17 hours ago  ·  

One of the unique vehicles you can see here at the Heritage Center when the "Good Roads" exhibition opens September 30 is this A. Featherstone "Road King" bicycle made c.a. 1899 by A. Featherstone & Co. of Chicago, makers of high-grade velocipedes, bicycles and tricycles starting in 1888. It comes to us courtesy of the Hall Bicycle Company of Cedar Rapids.

A. Featherstone & Co. was the first bicycle manufacturer in the U.S. to offer Dunlop pneumatic tires on their machines (1891) and though the advance was viewed with some initial skepticism, and the Co. didn't keep their monopoly long, it made Alfred Featherstone (1855-1924), president of the company, a multi-millionaire. In 1897 he turned his attention to breeding thoroughbreds, fast living, and, alas, slow horses. He died penniless, a national morality tale of what can befall a man who strays from the path.
You can find Alfred Featherstone in Find a Grave at memorial #112152514.

We're very grateful to Hall Bicycle and the State Historical Museum of Iowa for loaning us so many wonderful machines. We'll share more stories about them soon, and, of course, in the exhibition. Hope to see you there! ... See MoreSee Less

2 days ago  ·  

Emma E. Snyder was two years out of high school and setting type in the office of the Charleston IL Courier when Sumner Rose, pioneer bicycle tourist and publisher, met her. (Mattoon Gazette; January 13, 1882) A good type-setter is hard to find (even if she's learned the trade at a Democrat paper), so they married in July, 1883.

The couple moved to Indianapolis a year later. Sumner continued publishing "Will Roses's Paper" (aka "Toothpick"). They had their first son in August, Charles Victor. Sumner became involved in politics and the local prohibition movement. After the Paper folded he tried a series of others: a one-cent rag called the Southside Morning Star (1885), and then the Coatsville Mail (1889), the Amo Reporter (1889), and the Filmore Star (1889). Then, either hunting success in a niche market, or more likely, out of a growing sense of conviction, he started the Princeton, IN Prohibition Era (1889), the Greensburg, IN Argument (1892), and in 1894 the Hoosier Blade, also from Greensburg. He had come to see both the Democrat and Republican parties as corrupt and called on reformers of all stripes to join forces. Along the way, two more children arrived: Glen Willard (March, 1890), and Archibald (1892, who died in 1894).

It's interesting that Roses settled in Greensburg, IN. If Sumner was looking for subscribers, he picked a receptive population--the middle of the "Reform Belt" crossing the northeastern US. Greensburg later became home to Julius A. Wayland and his Coming Nation, the country's most popular reformers' newspaper.

Wayland was a small-town IN newspaper editor in the 1880's, who moved to Pueblo, CO and became a successful job-printer, and made a fortune in land speculation on the side. He moved back to IN and Greensburg in Feb., 1893 and established Coming Nation, an eclectic weekly newspaper combining radical populist and socialist ideas. It was hugely successful. In early 1894 Wayland decided to use his 60,000+ subscriber-base to promote the establishment of a cooperative colony where his progressive ideas could be put into action. Publishing the newspaper was to be one of the colony's principle businesses along with farming and other small enterprises.

In May, 1894 Wayland dispatched Rousseau Hess, the newspaper's bookkeeper/business manager, on a tour of the South to look for a site for the proposed colony; Sumner Rose accompanied him. (Greensburg IN New Era; May 23, 1894) Like Wayland, Rose had decided to start a utopian community, free from the corruption that marked capitalism at the time. He had organized a company, the National Cooperative Industrial Co., in early 1894 to buy 10,000 acres of land in the south and own it in-common for 150 or so families who would move there, farm and engage in light manufacturing. Like Wayland, Rose hoped his newspaper, "Hoosier Blade," (soon to be renamed "The Grander Age") with an advertised circulation of 10,000, would help provide a stable financial footing.

Rousseau settled on a rocky patch in Tennessee City, TN, and there Wayland established his so-called "Ruskin Colony." It soon failed, however, torn by dissension, as most of the utopian communities were.

Sumner extended his search into the Gulf Coast-states and settled on a 1,000 acre site near Handsboro, MS, about 5 miles west of Biloxi. The first recruits arrived just before Thanksgiving and included families from Colorado, Illinois and Iowa (a Mr. Piper, though this may be C. A Piper of Indiana, Rose's future brother-in-law). (Biloxi Herald; November 24, 1894) He named their community, "Co-Opolis," but it also came to be known as the "Grander Age Colony," from its flagship newspaper.

The first (Jan. 1895) issue of The Grander Age was upbeat. The colony had overcome some initial organizing difficulties and survived the coldest MS winter in ten years. They saw a few early dropouts but Co-Opolis grew overall, both from within and without, as the editor proudly reported the birth of twin girls around Christmas-time. (Greensburg Standard; February 1, 1895) Sadly, they died just a few days apart in early February. (Greensburg New Era; February 20, 1895) With Rose acting as unofficial mayor, the colonists built six homes, a few stores, a print shop for the paper; they planted and started some light manufacturing works (e.g. brickyard, lumber yard, boat building, fishing).

Another daughter, Wilfreda Mary, was born at Co-Opolis in March, 1897, but the hoped for expansion of the colony never materialized and the population never topped 100. Profits from their business ventures were equally scarce. Rose waged a constant battle with creditors demanding payment for the colony's mounting bills. In 1897 Rose wrote to E. B. Gaston, a leader in the Fairhope Single Tax Colony on nearby Mobile Bay, revealing a reorganization was imminent, "to discourage deadbeats." (August 25, 1897) In December Rose disclosed his plans to leave Co-Opolis in the spring, "The experiences here have been so painful that I feel that any other spot in the world would be a more happy one for myself and family. There can be no worse hell than that we have passed through here, and I have lost much of my old respect for those whom I had heretofore thought genuine reformers. . . the majority have been as hard to get along with as the most devilish of devils. (letter to E. B. Gaston; December 27, 1897) Sumner left the colony in the summer of 1898 and took a "one-horse" traveling salesman's job to pay the bills. Emma took the children home to Illinois seeking emotional recovery for herself and a school for the boys. (letter to E. B. Gaston; August 13, 1898) In a final letter from the colony (September 25, 1898) Rose reported he had lost everything and told Gaston to expect to see a cynic, "with a big C" when he visited.

In Oct. 1902, Rose left his Biloxi music business to take a position on the staff of "The Appeal to Reason," Julius Wayland's KS newspaper. (Biloxi Herald; October 7, 1902) Emma stayed behind, with plans to join him at the end of the the school term, but Sumner resigned his position and returned to the healthier air of Biloxi in Feb. 1903. (Biloxi Herald; February 25, 1903)

For a awhile in 1903 Rose resumed printing The Grander Age. Rose eschewed Socialist theory and offered his own brand of folksy maxims and humanist philosophy that hearken back to the Will Rose we know from Toothpick days. When the newspaper folded he sold his press to the Biloxi Herald and went to work for them. His letters appeared regularly in the newspaper and were always interesting, logical and as brief as possible.

In 1910 Rose ran for Alderman of Biloxi's First Ward, and was elected with almost 60% of the vote leading a campaign against a city law that forced the poor to work on the roads for 6 days, 10 hours/day if they couldn't come up with $3 cash for street taxes. He refused to pay and was jailed for 6 months. He appealed his case all the way up to the Supreme Court. He later ran for Mayor, but was defeated. As a candidate for Governor on the Socialist ticket in 1912 he pulled in 12,000 votes. He also ran unsuccessfully for the U. S. Senate.

The Roses relocated to Atlanta in 1932. Emma died there in 1938. She was buried in Biloxi. Sumner then moved to Houston to live with his son Charles, and died there of heart attack October 30, 1947. He's buried next to Emma. See them at Find A Grave memorial # 41791339. ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago  ·