July 16, 1914

One Hundred Years Ago Today in Transportation...

The Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM) was holding the second day of its annual convention in St. Louis, Missouri on June 16, 1914. “Hundreds of devotees of the motorcycle” were on hand on for that meeting, according to that day’s edition of the Arizona-based Bisebee Daily Review newspapers. That attendance alone underscored the ever-increasing popularity of that means of transportation nearly 11 years after FAM – now part of today’s American Motorcyclist Association – had been officially formed in Brooklyn, New York.

That St. Louis convention occurred during what present-day motorcycle historian Harry V. Sucher has characterized as the Golden Age of American Motorcycling. Just earlier that same month, as a matter of fact, one of the seminal events for that vehicle had taken place elsewhere in the nation – the first major motorcycle race in the U.S. at the inaugural Kansas-based Dodge City 300.

In St. Louis, those attending the convention seemed willing to endure the business sessions of the first day so that July 16 could be primarily set aside for what mattered most: a series of national championship competitions at a one-mile dirt track out in neighboring St. Louis County. A higher-than-average number of motorcyclists participated in those competitions. There were a few injuries, but those were characterized as being “of minor nature” in the Associated Press account. At least one speed record for motorcycles was established that day when Ray Creviston of Chicago circled around the track in just about 46 seconds (approximately two seconds faster that the previously best performance in that category).

Among those showing up in that part of Missouri for the convention was one motorcyclist who was quickly making a name for herself nationwide. She was 30-year-old Della L. Crewe of Texas, who had left her home state on June 24 riding a Harley-Davidson Two-Speed Twin and heading for New York. Crewe launched her long-distance trip with both a Boston bull pup named Trouble and 125 pounds of luggage in the sidecar and despite only 10 days of actual practice using that motorcycle.

Crewe had been on hand for the Dodge City 300 race a couple of weeks earlier before making her way to the St. Louis area. Ultimately, her originally planned 5,000-mile trek to New York instead became an epic motorcycle journey of 11,000 miles throughout a good part of North and South America.