Albert Augustus Pope

Albert Augustus Pope (May 20, 1843 – August 10, 1909) was a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel who founded the Pope Manufacturing Company in 1877. cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Col. A.A. Pope Dies at Summer Home. Pioneer Bicycle Manufacturer's Health Failed Since His Company's Embarrassment. Won Honors in Battle. Once Organized an Artillery Regiment from Convalescent Camp and Occupied Two Forts. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C07E7DD1F31E733A25752C1A96E9C946897D6CF |quote= Albert A. Pope, the ... Augustus Pope was born in Boston on May 20, 1843. ... |publisher=New York Times |date=August 11, 1909 |accessdate=2008-04-25 ]

Birth

Pope was born on May 20, 1843 in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1862 he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the 35th Massachusetts regiment, with which he continued until the close of American Civil War. He was mustered out as a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Albert Augustus Pope |url= |quote= |publisher=Appleton's Cyclopedia |date= |accessdate=2008-04-25 ]

Marriage

He married September 20, 1871, Abbie Linder, daughter of George Linder and Matilda Smallwood, of Newton, Massachusetts, and they had four sons and one daughter. [cite web |url=http://www.all-biographies.com/soldiers/albert_augustus_pope.htm |title= Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Augustus Pope, U.S.V. |accessdate=2008-04-25 |quote= |publisher=All Biographies ]

Bicycles

During the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition, Pope saw and became enthusiastic about bicycles. He began importing European Penny Farthings and taking out US patents on these European models. By the early 1890s, he had established a bicycle trust which controlled the central bicycle patents in the US. Nearly every US bicycle manufacturer paid Pope around $10 per bicycle. His bicycle brand was known as the Columbia. By the mid-1890s, at the height of the bicycle craze, Pope was manufacturing about a quarter million bicycles annually. [Flink, "Automobile Age", chapter one.]

The major problem for bicycles at this time was the lack of suitable roads on which to ride them. Pope being not only a bicycle manufacturer but a bicycle-riding enthusiast, was particularly troubled by this problem. He formed the League of American Wheelmen to agitate for and petition governments for improved roads. [Flink, "Automobile Age", chapter one.]

From 1896, he began to diversify into automobile production. The chief engineer of his Pope Motor Carriage department was Hiram Percy Maxim. In 1897, he renamed the Motor Carriage Department as the separate Colombia Automobile Company, which was spun off and sold to the Electric Vehicle Company, in which he was also an investor. [Rae, "Electric Vehicle," 299-305]

Death

He died on August 10, 1909. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Death of Col. A.A. Pope. Poineer Bicycle Maker Succumbs After Financial Reverses. Made Fortune in Manufacture of Wheels, but Auto Business Had Been in Difficulties Since Panic.| url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/252352222.html?dids=252352222:252352222&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=AUG+11%2C+1909&author=Special+to+The+Washington+Post.&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=DEATH+OF+COL.+A.A.+POPE&pqatl=google |quote=Col. Albert A. Pope, known as the father of bicycles in this country, and still more recently as one of the leading automobile manufacturers of the world, died at his summer home, Lindermere-by-the-Sea, late this afternoon. For more than a year Col. Pope had been in rather poor health, during the troubles of his bicycle and automobile enterprises, which were forced into the hands of a receiver not long after the panic. |publisher=Washington Post |date=August 10, 1909 |accessdate=2008-04-25 ]

Legacy

Following his death, some companies joined the United States Motor Company. Pope's empire collapsed in 1913. He founded Pope Park, Hartford, Connecticut and donated it to the City.

Writings

*cite book |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Movement for Better Roads: An Address |year=1892 |publisher=Pope Manufacturing Company |quote= | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VcgSAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq |isbn=
*cite book |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=A Catalogue of Books, Pamphlets, and Articles on the Construction and of Roads |year=1892 |publisher=Pope Manufacturing Company |quote= | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=FzsOAAAAYAAJ&dq |isbn=

Pope companies

*Columbia Automobile Company
*Pope Manufacturing Company
*Pope Motor Car Company

Pope motor vehicles

*Pope-Hartford
*Pope-Robinson
*Pope-Toledo
*Pope-Tribune
*Pope-Waverley

Notes

References

* Rae, John B. "The Electric Vehicle Company: A Monopoly that Missed." "Business History Review" 29 (Dec., 1955): 298-311.
* Flink, James J. "The Automobile Age". Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988.

External links

* [http://stephengoddard.com/first_chapter.htm First chapter of "Colonel Albert Pope and his American dream machines"] .
* [http://rustyspokes.com/facts.html Outline history of the bicycle in the United States] .
* [http://www.columbiabikes.com/index.html Columbia Bikes Incorporated] .