TWO MEN MADE COUNTY HUB OF CYCLING IN OHIO

Members of the Valley City Cycling Club pose for the picture below. At the height of its activities, the club had several dozen members. Bicycling as a sport and social activity was popular in Shelby County, Ohio during the 1880s and 1890s.

As important as the automobile has been to modern society since 1900, many historians point to the bicycle as the invention that truly got America moving for the first time. Jay Pridemore, in his book The American Bicycle, traces the rapid development of the "wheel," as the bicycle was called then, in changing the sporting and social life in the US. beginning in the early 1880's.  He noted that bicycles offered young men (and eventually ladies) their first opportunity to travel easily beyond the neighborhood and to socialize in a sporting activity. The cycling craze swept across the country and captivated the attention of people as the sports of football and basketball do today. At the center of it all were two young Sidney men. Both were destined to hold numerous world records before their careers were concluded. This is the story of those exciting times and the men who made Shelby County the hub of cycling in Ohio.

The big wheel cycle was the machine of the day when O.W. Nisewonger first took up the sport. He was just 17 years old. The year was 1882, and America had just crowned her first cycling champion. The Nisewonger family had moved from Illinois to Cynthian Township in 1870. After teaching school in Turtle Creek and Cynthian Townships for a few years, O.W. entered the jewelry and book business. A year later, Nisewonger was winning local wheel races. Early in the 1887 racing season, he defeated the champion of Indiana in a match race at Napolean, Ohio. Later that year, he won his first state championship by capturing the three mile title at Ottawa.

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