1896 Butts & Ordway Standish Lady’s Bicycle

1896 Butts & Ordway Standish Lady’s Bicycle

 

 

 

Butts & Ordway was an American hardware business. Like many similar companies, they tried their hand selling bicycles. I assume they manufactured their own cycles in 1896, buying in the various components.

 

It has wooden wheels and no gears.

There’s no rear brake. Like other fixed-wheel bikes, when you want to stop the bike, you stop pedalling.

 

 

This Standish is in superb condition. Everything about it is wonderful and it’s one of my treasures.

 

Butts & Ordway,

500 Atlantic Ave, Boston, Mass, USA

STANDISH

I’ve not yet been able to find out why this bicycle is called the Standish. There’s a village in Lancashire, England called Standish, as well as a town in Maine, USA. There was also a well-known writer called Standish. I always wondered if there was a connection with his name, as I remembered his 1903 book Frank Merriwell’s Bicycle Tour, but I’ve now researched further, and I don’t think he used this pseudonym until 1896.

Burt L. Standish was one of the pseudonyms of Gilbert Patten (who was born William Patten in 1866). He had his first work published in 1880. On April 18, 1896, under the pseudonym Burt L. Standish, he published the first of his famous Merriwell stories.