After its invention in Germany in the early 1800’s, the bicycle went through several modifications and updates to enter the “Golden Age of Bicycles” in the 1890’s. Between 1890 and 1895 the bicycle craze came to Hancock County.
Even though the fad came to the county, no one in the area owned a bicycle. To solve the problem, a man named Mortimer Walker opened a bicycle shop in Bay St. Louis, renting the machines for twenty-five cents an hour. Public interest became so intense that W. J. Watts of Chattanooga, TN, the inventor of the chainless bicycle mechanism, retired to Bay St. Louis in the early 1900’s and opened a bicycle repair shop on the beach.
Although it was considered terribly daring for a young lady to ride a bicycle, ride them they did. They even joined the numerous bicycle clubs, formed in Bay St. Louis and Pearlington, which were open to men, women, and children.
Further, during the spring of 1896, bicycles became so popular and numerous that Bay St. Louis enacted an ordinance regulating their use, requiring “lamps” after dark, and prohibiting their being ridden on sidewalks. Even the Sea Coast Echo ran a front page editorial condemning speeding bicyclers and requesting the riders to “stop it.” Ultimately, they did “stop it.” As with most fads something new came along, and interest in bicycles succumbed to the popularity of the automobile.
SOURCES:
The Daily Herald (Biloxi, MS). July 29, 1958.
The M. James Stevens Collection. Vertical file. Hancock County Historical Society.