American Iron Magazine Presents 1001 Harley-Davidson Facts. Tyler Greenblatt
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Friends and business partners Arthur Davidson and Ole Evinrude made a pact before either of them actually developed their namesake product, promising that they would never encroach on each other’s market. That pact is honored to this day, on purpose or by default. Evinrude never built a motorcycle engine and Harley-Davidson has never built a water product. The latter is surprising because The Motor Company owned, bought, or built just about everything else from snowmobiles to golf carts.
5 While home in Milwaukee for William A. Davidson’s wedding, Walter Davidson, a skilled mechanic, helped Arthur and Bill successfully put together all the parts they had crafted to build their motorized bicycle. When the three were done, Walter hopped on and took the machine for a ride, making that the first ever ride on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
6 That first ride must have touched something deep within Walter Davidson; soon afterward he quit his job in Kansas and moved to Milwaukee on April 17, 1903. He took a job with his father and brother William at the railroad, and lived in the Davidson household so he could more easily spend his spare time with Arthur and Bill perfecting their motorcycle. And so the third founding father joined the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. At this early point in company history, all three young men still had full-time jobs and worked on their motorcycle in their spare time.
7 In 1903, Bill and Walter’s mother, Margaret Davidson, finally had enough of the three boys tracking dirt and grease throughout her house and the constant working in the basement. In truth, their father, William C., encouraged their entrepreneurship, but he liked to build furniture in his spare time and also wanted his basement woodworking studio back. And so, the day after Margaret had finally let the world know she had had enough, William C. bought some lumber and set to work building a 10 × 15–foot shed in the backyard. This shed became the first Harley-Davidson “factory.”
8 The first Harley-Davidson was sold to the founders’ friend, Henry Meyer, in 1903. In 1913, a company researcher was tasked with tracking down that first motorcycle and looking at its maintenance history. After Henry Meyer, four others owned it and put a cumulative 83,000 miles on the machine and none ever had to replace the engine bearings. In a 1913 advertisement, the company bragged that this was a testament to the durability and longevity of its motorcycle. Serial Number One, as it’s affectionately called, is on display at the Harley-Davidson Museum.
9 Before the founders knew the advantages of using a bank, they stored their sales proceeds in a canning jar and hid it in the Davidson family’s pantry. Unfortunately, the maid, hired by Margaret Davidson to clean up the boys’ dirt and grease, discovered the small stash and stole it. They quickly learned their lesson and began keeping the company’s earnings in the bank while sister Bessie kept the books. She was responsible for the company’s financial records in the early years, and her brothers rewarded her by paying for her college education.
10 By 1904, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company had sold about ten motorcycles, so the boys doubled the size of the backyard shed to handle the additional capacity. But the shed wasn’t going to last much longer for the burgeoning company, and there were no funds to open a real factory yet. That’s when help came from the Davidson brothers’ “Honey Uncle,” James McLay. The land he owned is now known as Picnic Point, a beautiful spit of land on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin. Uncle James kept bees there and lived off the land, hence his nickname. He was intrigued with his nephews’ motorcycles and loaned his life’s savings to the young company. As you might imagine, he was paid back many times over.
11 With the money from their Honey Uncle, Bill Harley and the Davidson brothers purchased some land on Chestnut Street in Milwaukee, where, in 1906, they built the first Harley-Davidson factory. It measured 28 × 80 feet, not exactly large by factory standards, but the additional space allowed the company to produce motorcycles on a much grander scale. Apparently, they accidentally built part of the building on railroad-owned land so, to remedy the problem, all of the employees gathered outside and lifted the building and moved it a foot and a half. Soon after, Chestnut Street was renamed Juneau Avenue, which is where Harley-Davidson’s corporate headquarters exists today.
12 Harley-Davidson hired its first outside employee in 1905 and production increased from 3 motorcycles a year to 7. In 1906, things really took off for the fledgling company. It hired 5 more employees that year, and production increased to 50 motorcycles.
13 In 1907, Harley-Davidson produced 150 motorcycles and it was clear that The Motor Company was destined for great things. After only about a year at the Juneau Avenue factory, it was rebuilt with cream-colored brick and mortar to 40 × 60 feet, with a second floor. This allowed production to skyrocket to 410 motorcycles in 1908. The new factory had two doors, one for management and one for employees. However, because the doors were next to each other, everyone simply used the convenient door and this helped promote a family atmosphere at the company, which still exists.
14 The Harley-Davidson Motor Company officially incorporated on September 17, 1907, and all 17 employees opted to purchase stock in the company. Walter Davidson became the first company president, Bill Harley became chief engineer and treasurer, and Arthur Davidson took on the role of secretary and general sales manager. After the company incorporated, the oldest Davidson brother, William, decided to leave his job at the railroad and join the company as the works manager.
15 Arthur Davidson insisted that the company must advertise its product, even though it was already struggling to keep up with demand and all of its money was going into meeting that demand. Arthur convinced his friend, Walter Dunlap, a partner at a new advertising firm, to publish a Harley-Davidson catalog on credit. This was a big risk, but the catalog was a success and The Motor Company retained Dunlap’s advertising firm as its exclusive agency well into the 1950s.
16 The first official Harley-Davidson dealer, C. H. Lang, opened in Chicago in 1904; it sold one of the first three motorcycles that the company produced.
17 The distinctive Bar & Shield logo was seen for the first time on 1908 model toolboxes. It featured the words “Harley-Davidson” in a bar across the middle in front of a shield that showed “Motor” on the top and “Cycles” on the bottom. However, it didn’t see widespread use until 1910 when it appeared on a variety of company literature and packaging. Technically, The Motor Company officially trademarked the logo on May 6, 1910, leading many to believe that 1910 was the first usage.
18 By 1914, less than a decade after hiring its first employee, Harley-Davidson employed 1,570 workers. That year, 16,284 motorcycles were produced, which means that one was completed every 5-1/2 minutes. Not long before, the average was one motorcycle every four months. During this same time period, more than 100 other motorcycle manufacturers had come onto the scene in the United States and gone out of business.
19 Harley-Davidson was Milwaukee’s largest user of gas and electricity in the 1910s, perhaps because it was the city’s only company using an electric furnace. The same General Electric transformer powered the Juneau Avenue factory from 1913 right through the 1990s. Then it continued service as a backup power unit until 2011, when the 8-foot-tall 8,000-pound unit was moved to the lobby area of the Harley-Davidson Museum where it is currently displayed.
20 The first Parts & Accessories department is formed in 1912 and officially becomes its own division of the business. In that same year, the first P&A catalog, which features parts and riding clothes, is distributed. I’m sure Harley owners then, just as today, waited anxiously for the local dealer to receive the new year’s P&A catalog.
21 When the Harley-Davidson Motor Company incorporated on September 17, 1907, the total value of company stock was $14,200. That’s a little over $350,000 in today’s dollars.
22 On August 14, 1915, Harley-Davidson held its first company picnic at Army Lake in East Troy, Wisconsin. More than 150 employees and their families attended the company outing where they enjoyed games, music, and other festivities. In attendance was L. C. Rosenkrans, the company’s staff photographer, who took several pictures of that first event, which disappeared until they were discovered in 2012. Interestingly, East Troy is the hometown and headquarters of Buell, Harley’s future sportbike division.
23 Harley-Davidson begins selling H-D branded oil for the first time in 1909. I don’t