The “Bicycle Craze” Comes to Kankakee

By Jack Klasey

July 12, 2025

When you mount your penny-farthing and set off on your century, be careful not to take a header…it could end your hope of becoming a scorcher!

If you were a participant in the “cycle craze” of the late 1800s, that sentence would make perfect sense. For a reader in the 21^st century, it requires a bit of translation:

When you climb aboard your high-wheel bicycle to begin a 100-mile trip, beware of being pitched head-first over the big front wheel… it could injure you seriously enough to prevent you from ever becoming a fast, daredevil rider!

Also known as a boneshaker or high-wheel bicycle, the penny-farthing had a front wheel with a diameter of four to five feet, and a tiny rear wheel. The name can be traced to England, where two common coins were the large penny (the front wheel) and the considerably smaller farthing (the rear wheel).

In Kankakee County, the first person to own a bicycle was David “Ped” Durham, who worked in his family’s bookstore on Court Street. In the late summer of 1879, the Kankakee Gazette reported that “Ped Durham is the happy but severely bruised owner of the first bicycle which has been brought into Kankakee. It is called an ‘improvement’ on the old-style velocipede, that is, a man’s chance of breaking his neck are greatly improved.”

Durham became Kankakee’s first bicycle salesman, and quickly found at least a few other young men willing to try the new contraption. One of them was Arthur B. Holt, whose father owned the Gazette. In the May 13, 1880 issue of the newspaper, the younger Holt reported taking part in “the first cross-country trip in this section of the state on the new vehicle, the bicycle.” Holt rode to Momence in company with Kankakee businessman Emory Cobb’s son Walter. The 15-mile trip along unpaved, wagon-rutted roads, with “frequent stops for breathing spells, lunch, sandwiched with falls and walks over rough places, etc., occupied three hours.”

By the mid-1880s, more than twenty young Kankakeeans were “wheelmen,” as bicyclists were called at that time. They formed a cycling club, the Kankakee Ramblers, and made frequent excursions to other northeastern Illinois cities such as Joliet and Chicago. Since bicycles were expensive to purchase (often costing an amount equal to six months’ wages for an average working man), the club’s roster read like a directory of the area’s most prominent business families.

Beginning in about 1890, however, the bicycle was transformed from a “rich man’s toy” to a popular and widespread means of transportation that could be found in the homes of most working families.

The change came with the introduction of a bicycle very different in appearance from the penny-farthing machine. Usually referred to as the “safety” bicycle, it had two smaller, equal-sized wheels, a chain drive, and pneumatic (air-filled) tires. It was easy to climb aboard, less dangerous to ride, and most importantly, was affordable.

The new-style bicycle also contributed to a social revolution: for the first time, bicycle riding—for recreation or transportation—became practical for women. For greater ease of riding, many women abandoned ankle-length skirts for higher hemlines, or adopted trouser-like garments called “bloomers.” In the 1890s, feminist crusader Susan B. Anthony declared that bicycling “has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”

To meet the huge demand for bicycles, manufacturers emerged in towns across the country, including Kankakee. In October, 1896, the Gazette reported that “about 3,000 Kankakee bicycles were made and sold this season. The Kankakee Wheel has steadily improved in quality and workmanship.”  At various times from 1896 to 1898, the Kankakee Manufacturing Company also built bicycles under the brand names Guernsey, Ghost, and Cambridge.

In 1898, the bicycle manufacturer was acquired by the David Bradley Manufacturing Co. The following year, Bradley’s bicycle business was merged with three others to form the Great Western Manufacturing Co. It was the nation’s second largest maker of bicycles. Production was gradually shifted from Kankakee to LaPorte, Indiana, where it continued until at least 1915. Like most bicycle manufacturers, Great Western apparently fell victim to the rise of the automobile as the primary means of transportation.

Although it no longer has the status of a “craze,” bicycling continues to be very popular in Kankakee County. The area has an active bicycle club that sponsors various riding events and is involved, with governments and other organizations, in developing and extending bicycle trails along the Kankakee River.

Jack Klasey is a former Journal reporter and a retired publishing executive. He can be contacted at jwklasey@comcast.net.