Stringing Spokes in Bicycle Wheels

The attached photo, taken about 1898 at Gasport, Niagara County, New York, shows four men (left to right): Warren Nehemiah Hull [Hull-5293], John Clarence Hull [Hull-4193], George Hull [Hull-2336], Aaron Taber; and one young girl, Julia Ruth Hull [Hull-2335] stringing spokes to bicycle wheels in their home.

My great grandfather, George Hull [Hull-2336] and his family built bicycles for a few years at the end of the 19th century. As members of the Religious Society of Friends, they originally called their product the Quaker Bicycle. Soon another company in Erie, Pennsylvania, started marketing a Quaker Bicycle, and George Hull wrote to them about the use of the name. It turned out that the Hull family had used the name first and had the rights to it. The company in Erie had invested a lot in advertising so offered to purchase the rights to the name, which George Hull accepted. When one of his sons asked what they would then use for the name of their bicycle, George told them they would henceforth use a much better name: the Friend Bicycle.

This photo was scanned from a family collection.