1911

[Les Paul]

Found this picture of my Granddad taken in 1911. The motorcycle bicycle such as it is was a 1909. My granddad was 17 when this picture was taken. Living at home with his mom and dad working as an apprentice to his dad who was a blacksmith. His dad had come over with the proverbial dollar in his pocket in 1885 from Denmark and migrated to western Kansas where he was given a section of land from the state for planting X amount of trees on the land. My granddad was born in a sod house which I have a picture of somewhere.

When this picture was taken he had just returned from spending several months in Omaha Nebraska shucking corn for 1 dollar a day as the smithing business was sparse in the winter months. He told me he probably pedaled more than motored the 400 or so miles back home because there just wasn't enough gas in the small towns on his route. In fact roads were pretty sparse too. He used a compass much of the way.

If any of you photo-shop guys would mind I'd like to see what this might have looked like in color.

[legion]

Cool!

And I thought this was another gun thread...

[fxeditor]

This is a great picture. Thanks for sharing!

Michael

[Les Paul]

This one was taken in 1918 in his WWI uniform right before he shipped to France. He was a telegrapher and luckily never made it to the front lines as those boys had a high attrition rate to say the least. He did come home with some cool trophies. 2 rifles I have to this day.

[Dixie]

Nice photos. Have any more?

[doug_porsche]

Here is a picture of my GrandDad on his Harly. Not sure what year, but it was 191X
Then my dad with his Indian

[Les Paul]

Cool pics. My Grandfather became an Indian man too in the late 20's early 30's. Unfortunately no pictures exist of those bikes.