The First Confirmed Cyclist in Houston
Fred E. Van Meerbeeke
To my knowledge, this is the first published account of this story since the Houston Daily Post article first appeared in 1886.
Other What Are Streets For posts on cycling history:
A Brief History of the Technological Development of the Bicycle
Image 1. Illustration of Thomas Stevens, a famous world-touring cyclist. Image source: Thomas Stevens, Around the World on a Bicycle (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1887).
Fred E. Van Meerbeke was one of many cyclists following dispatches of the global touring adventures of Thomas Stevens. During the popularity of the ordinary bicycle in the Northeast United States, Thomas Stevens and other intrepid cycling tourists were publicizing travel narratives in the mid-1880s. Bicycle industrialist Albert Pope promoted some of these trips, and his publications covered them all as promotion for both the sport of cycling and his Columbia bicycle line. One such cross-country cyclist was Frederick E. Van Meerbeke. Having already completed a trip from San Francisco to New York City, he mapped a circuitous tri-coastal route for his return trip. He designated a route, leaving from New York City Hall on 1 March 1886, passing through Philadelphia, Baltimore, Danville (VA), Atlanta, Montgomery, Mobile, New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Deming (NM), Benson, Tucson, Yuma, Los Angeles, Mojave, Goshen, and finally, to San Francisco. He estimated transit time of 150 days, which included sightseeing diversions. Van Meerbeke rode a Columbia high-wheeler, stealthily sponsored by Pope Manufacturing. He completed the 361-mile trip from New Orleans to Houston in 147 hours, and rode from Houston to San Antonio (217 miles) in 90 hours.1
These long bicycle treks were noteworthy in the late-1880s, which is no doubt why Pope equipped Van Meerbeke with a Columbia Expert. The South was definitely retrograde in terms of cycling trends. Whether Pope was consciously marketing his bicycles to the South and the West, editors of southern newspapers were taking notice. The North Carolina Herald tracked his progress from City Hall in New York at noon on March 1, and located him leaving Linwood, North Carolina on the morning of April 6, and to his brief stop at the newspaper’s hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina around noon. He departed for Charlotte the same afternoon.2
Newspapers in Orangeburg, SC, Atlanta, and Montgomery noted Van Meerbeke’s journey. One of these papers mentioned Van Meerbeke’s passage through Spartanburg, SC in brief, while adding that he averaged 34 miles traveled per day on his mount. He arrived in Atlanta on 16 April, but “brought out his bicycle during the afternoon and rode about the city while being accompanied by several Atlanta wheelmen. He took out a run to Peachtree and to Ponce de Leon.” He remained in Montgomery only long enough to clean and oil his bicycle, and the local paper reported that another cyclist rode aside Van Meerbeke as the tourist left town.3
The Times-Picayune reported on Van Meerbeke’s trip. He arrived in New Orleans sometime after 2 May, and was definitely staying there on or about May 9, when he was observed scorching Canal Street. He was still in the Crescent City about four days later. He rode west out of the city on 17 May.4
The Houston Daily Post published an interview with Van Meerbeke on 30 May 1886:5
Yesterday at 2:30 o’clock in the afternoon Mr. Fred E. Van Meerbeke, who started from the city hall in the city of New York on the 1st of March, riding a bicycle, for San Francisco, Cal., arrived in this city and alighted from his fifty-four inch Columbia machine at the office of THE POST. He bore very plainly the evidences of the tough ride that he had been through. He was dusty and thoroughly bronzed from the rays of the summer sun through which he had been traveling. Immediately upon his being comfortably seated, a POST reporter engaged him in conversation and learned that he was just 20 years of age, weighed 133 pounds, having lost two pounds coming through the swamps of Louisiana from New Orleans. He is very boyish looking but he has an independent demeanor that betokens the indomitable courage and fortitude that would start and support a man on such an adventurous undertaking. A light mustache adorns his lip. He wears a blue flannel shirt with tie to match, a slouch hat and grey jeans pants and a pair of brown baseball shoes somewhat worn but evidently comfortable to the feet. In a side pocket of his shirt he carried a lot of maps of the various States through which his route was made out, and a couple of notebooks converted into diaries. This about constituted his outfit except appliances attached to and a part of his bicycle. He said he had a pretty tough time coming through the swamps of Louisiana, along the line of the Southern Pacific railway from New Orleans, from whence he started on the 17th instant, making the time in 147 hours and 15 minutes. He is the first wheelman who ever rode from New York to New Orleans, and the first who ever rode from New York to New Orleans, and the first who ever rode from either place to Houston.
Lost twelve days by rain, which I did not travel through, reaching New Orleans May 1, 7:30 P.M.; remained in New Orleans fifteen days; left there on the 17th instant and arrived in Houston, Texas, May 29, Saturday, 2:30 p.m.—147 hours and 15 minutes riding the distance, 361 miles.
Leaves to-day at 6 a.m., going via San Antonio, El Paso, there to Los Angelos [sic] to San Francisco. Calculating to make the trip from here in eighty-eight days.
In riding along the railway track he generally uses the center of the roadbed and when crossing trestles he carries the small wheel in his hand, pulling the large one from tie to tie. He never carries money about his person, but banking men in large towns are advised of his coming so that any necessary money can be had upon his arrival. He has never had any violence attempted upon him in any way, but often has foolish interrogation propounded as to who he is, where from and where bound for. He has not yet been sick nor had any serious accident. He always carries railway time tables and keeps thoroughly posted about the running of trains. From San Antonio west he expects to have to carry water with him, and depend upon section houses in most instances for food. He dreads the dry regions across Arizona.
Van Meerbeke passed through Marion, TX, just east of San Antonio, around 10am on June 5, 1886. He probably left Houston on June 1. On the 68th day of his tour, he rolled into San Antonio, “a cake of mud from head to foot, his wheels clogged and dead tired.”6
Thomas Stevens, “Pastimes of the Persians,” Outing 8 (May 1886), 233‒6, Hathi Trust; “Another Trans-continental Bicycler,” Outing 8 (May 1886), 236, Hathi Trust. For more about Stevens and other globe-trotting cyclists, see David V. Herlihy, The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010),
North Carolina Herald (Salisbury, NC), “The Long Distance Bicyclist of the World,” 8 April 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required]; Charlotte Observer, “A Long Bicycle Journey,” 8 April 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required]; Wilmington Morning Star, “Charlotte Observer,” 10 April 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required].
Times and Democrat (Spartansburg, South Carolina), “Fred E. Van Meerbeke,” 29 April 1886, newpapers.com [subscription required]; Atlanta Constitution, “The Bicycle Rider,” 18 April 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required]; Montgomery Advertiser, “Riding Bicycles,” 23 April 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required]. As a point of comparison for top speed of intercity travel on high-quality ancient roads, 34 miles per day was perhaps average for daily travel between cities in Roman Italy. Ray Laurence, The Roads of Roman Italy: Mobility and Cultural Change (New York, Routledge, 1999), 82, citing Pliny the Elder, Natural History 3.100; Pliny the Younger, Epistles 2.17, 6.8; Livy 24.13.9–11, 22.11.5; Polybius 2.25. However, this speaks more to the deficiencies of contemporary American highways rather than any technical deficiencies with high-wheelers.
Times-Picayune (New Orleans), “The Wheel,” 1 May 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required]; “The Bicycle,” 2 May 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required]; Times-Democrat (New Orleans), “Van Meerbeke and His Bicycle,” 10 May 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required]; “Bicycling,” 14 May 1886, newspapers.com [subscription required]; Times-Picayune (New Orleans), “By Bicycle,” 18 May 1886, Times-Picayune (New Orleans), newspapers.com [subscription required].
Houston Daily Post, “Across the Continent,” 30 May 1886, Page 4, Column 2, microfilm, Houston Public Library, Houston History Research Center, Houston, TX.
Galveston Daily News, “Marion,” 6 June 1886, Portal to Texas History; Times-Picayune (New Orleans), “The Bicycle,” 7 June 1886, newspapers.com [quoted] [subscription required]; John L. Weiss, “Frederick Van Meerbeke,” Crazy Guy on a Bike.