Dexter Georgia Mail Squad

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I received a message last night from a FB friend who happened upon this fantastic photo. This motley crew appears to have served as the rural mail squad from Dexter, Georgia circa 1910. From left to right are Mail carriers G.H. Green, W.P. English, H.I. King, Postmaster, G.F. Shepard and J.T. Register. The tiny town of Dexter, which is located just southeast of Macon has remarkably maintained a population of around 500 people for at least the last 100 years, and the mail route today is most likely much the same as it was in the days of these early motorcycle delivery men. The gents are sporting a fine fleet of Silent Grey Fellows, 1909 or 1910 Harley-Davidson belt-driven single’s as well as what looks to be a Wagner on the far left, each equipped with baskets for their daily deliveries. Postal service, especially in rural areas was one of many early commercial industries in which the utilization of motorcycles was a momentous success. In the case of Birmingham, Alabama’s legendary racing pioneer Gene Walker, the postal routes also offered a perfect opportunity to sharpen one’s racing faculties.

Ray Seymour, Columbus Motordrome 1912

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I had a great visit last week to the archive in Springfield, MA. The museum there has way more material than I could chew through in a single trip and I cannot wait to get back. I answered a ton of questions, was able to connect a lot of dots, and I am excited to share what I am finding. I also stopped into the Motorcyclepedia Museum in Newburg, NY to see the insane collection that they have on display. If you have been thinking of making a trip don't wait any longer, it is a remarkable place.

Ray Seymour, another American pioneer motorcycle racer is one of those guys you see often in photos but most know little about. The museum collection in Springfield has some incredible photos of Ray, who joined the Indian roster in 1910 when Reading-Standard decided to pull back from professional racing. The freckle-faced Seymour had been competing since he was a teenager and was a top competitor from the very start. Here, he sits for a photo onboard his factory “Big Base” 8-valve racer during the races at the newly opened Columbus Motordrome in mid July, 1912. Seymour was one of three professionals to enter the race, Indian teammates Eddie Hasha and Morty Graves both piloting powerful Big Base 8-valve machines as well. Seymour took the flag in the 5 mile professional and 5 mile open races, as well as the top spot on the podium for the 10 mile professional event. Tragically, just over a month later Seymour would be leading a race at the Vailsburg Motordrome in newark, NJ when friend and teammate Eddie Hasha lost control resulting in one of the most notorious and catastrophic motorcycle racing accidents in history.

Robert Stubbs, Ormond Beach 1909

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Birmingham, Alabama's Robert Stubbs, dealer and one of Indian's earliest racing stars on the speedy sands of Florida's, Ormond Beach in late March, 1909. He was asked to accompany Indian's chief engineer Carl Oscar Hedstrom along with teammates Walter Goerke and AG Chapple to stretch the new lot of Indian racing machine's to their limits during the annual Carnival of Speed. Each man from the "tribe" reached and broke new records with the exception of Hedstrom, who was reported as being too busy tinkering with his Simplex powered Hot Shot, which had too large a displacement to qualify for any FAM record runs. During a run on Wednesday afternoon Stubbs met and exceeded the limit of his powerful Indian twin racer, and at over 80 mph, undoubtedly the fastest creature on the planet earth at that moment he went over the bars. Stubbs not only came out of the incident unscathed but smiling, an unusual emotional break for a typically stoic man based on all photographic accounts... his machine however was done. 

The Sporting Few, 1913

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Cyclepimps... whoever these gents were they certainly weren't strapped for cash. Those are some high end machines they are sporting around town circa 1913. A couple of Wagners, a couple of Yales, and an Iver Johnson there in the center.