Albert August Pope.
The name of Colonel Albert August Pope is identified with the popularizing of the bicycle in this country, for he it was who, more than any other, gave it the impetus which made it a prime favorite with the public. Apart from that, however, he has furnished us with yet another example of the power of push, perseverance and probity. Colonel Pope was born in Boston, May 10, 1843, of poor parents. He had to leave school early in life in order to earn a livelihood. When ten years of age he peddled fruit, and it is said by persons who knew him in those days that he made it a rule to pay every debt as soon as it was due. After years of hard work young Pope, then nineteen, accepted a junior second lieutenancy in Company I, of the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers. His record during the war was most brilliant, and he came out of it with the rank of colonel. He then went into business for himself and built up a profitable trade. It was in the centennial exposition in 1876 that he first saw a bicycle. Realizing the future of the machine, he in 1877 placed an order for “an importation of English wheels.” In the same year he organized the Pope Manufacturing Company. The vast nature of the business done by the corporation is a matter of familiarity to all those who were or are interested in bicycles. He also founded the publication entitled The Wheelman, putting upward of sixty thousand dollars in the enterprise. It is known to-day under the name of Outing. It was mainly through his efforts that public parks and boulevards were thrown open to the uses of bicycles, and that the machine was put upon the same footing as any other vehicle. When the bicycle interest began to wane, Colonel Pope turned his attention to the manufacture of automobiles. He also has a large interest in banks and other corporations. He is a member of the Loyal Legion and a visitor to Wellesley college, and the Lawrence scientific school. In 1871 he married Abbie Lyndon, of Newton, Mass.