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.