Old Days Of Cycling Over The Meramec in St. Louis

Maud Dunning (17 years old) rides over the Meramec, Fenton with an “unidentified male companion”. John DeSmet Hurck was Maud Dunning’s future husband. This photo was taken in 1897, almost exactly one year after this column appeared in the newspaper. John DeSmet Hurck was a member of Mercury Wheel Club and raced his bike at the fairgrounds before they were transformed into Fairground Park. He won the Sunday race at the old fairgrounds, where he was able to take first place. The Bohemian banquet made it even more appealing. There were both liquids and solids of the highest quality. John appeared in the newspaper again in 1920. He was a well-known former racing cyclist and owned a bike shop and motorcycle shop. Maud? Maud appeared in 1910 society columns, where she threw “a children’s lavender-and-white party.” Her obituary in 1939 stated that she was John’s widow and that she had inherited the title of Hurck Delivery Service president (bike couriers). She was also buried at Calvary. This story feels out of place with this image of a young woman riding her bike across the ocean, her eyes full of visions of a long and long road that is full of possibilities.

Editor’s Note: The article has been updated so that John DeSmet Hurck rode bikes at Fairground Park today, instead of at Penrose Park and its Velodrome which were not built until the 1960s.

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