Local woman braved 11,000-mile journey on the back of a Harley-Davidson
Posted: Saturday, August 31, 2013 12:01 am
By TERRI JO RYAN
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http://www.wacotrib.com/news/waco_h...e-139f-5ee3-99ac-55309f8b83fd.html?mode=story
When Della L. Crewe set out on a cross-country journey on the back of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in 1914, roads were not yet routinely paved and the Interstate Highway System was still decades away from reality.
Crewe, an adopted Texan living in Waco, would eventually add up more than 11,000 miles of teeth-rattling travel through North and South America.
Born in 1884 and growing up in Racine, Wis., Crewe showed a bent for adventure at an early age, according to materials assembled by the Harley-Davidson Co. from its archives. She learned Spanish by immersion, living for several weeks in Panama, and traveled extensively through Alaska and much of North America.
Crewe moved to Waco sometime around 1910, and worked as a manicurist, according to a city directory of the time. Her notion to explore the country by motorcycle came from a suggestion by her nephew during a 1913 family visit in Wisconsin.
That fall, she purchased a two-speed single model Harley-Davidson. But as she practiced her ridership, the weather soured and torrential rains eroded nearly all roads leading out of Waco. Although friends encouraged her to have the motorcycle shipped outside of the city, Crewe insisted she start her odyssey from Waco.
While waiting for roads and bridges to be restored, she traded in her first motorcycle for a Harley-Davidson two-speed twin-engine with sidecar, which she dubbed “The Gray Fellow.”
“The citizens of Waco presented Miss Crewe with a (female) thoroughbred Boston bull pup as a token of their esteem and to remind Miss Crewe constantly that they wanted her to come back to Waco,” reported the August 1914 issue of the Harley Davidson Dealer magazine. “Miss Crewe confidently named the blooded pup ‘Trouble,’ saying: ‘Trouble is the only trouble I will have with me on this trip.’ ”
On June 24, 1914, with about 125 pounds of supplies and her canine companion loaded in the sidecar, Crewe began her adventure. Maneuvering through muddy, badly rutted roads, she set out first for the July 3 motorcycle races in Dodge City, Kan. She earned the admiration of many spectators and participants in the events, according to company archives.
On her way to Milwaukee, Wis., home of the Harley-Davidson Co., she took a 4-mile detour through wheat fields where no road existed — to the amazement and amusement of the affected farmer, she later reported.
“When I arrived in Milwaukee, I had passed through six states and my expenses had not exceeded $25 ($565 in today’s dollars),” Crewe said.
Along the way, she wrote in her own account of her travels, she made a point of stopping at farm houses, visiting with the residents of the towns she passed through, and even joining in parades and other civic celebrations.
Her fall trek through the northern states found her dealing with sub-zero temperatures and snarled, snow-covered roadways.
“The Gray Fellow,” she wrote in an article for The Harley-Davidson Dealer, kept “a cheerful humming regardless of roads and weather. Thaws and slush, fresh gravel, ice and snow made little difference to my motor.”
When she and Trouble arrived in New York City in December 1914, Crewe was wearing “four coats, four pairs of stockings and heavy sheepskin shoes,” according to company archives. Trouble braved the wintry blasts clad in a special, made-to-order sweater.
They had traversed almost 5,400 miles and 10 states in a span of six months.
Crewe had originally envisioned setting sail for Europe, but the outbreak of war overseas just after she left Texas ended that idea.
Crewe, Trouble and The Gray Fellow left for Jacksonville, Fla., with plans to travel through the American South and then to Cuba and South America.
“Never for a moment have I regretted adopting the motorcycle and sidecar as my mode of travel, and in my future articles on countries which I visit I confidently expect to be able to say that my motorcycle journeying are always enjoyable,” Crewe wrote.
After the South American portion of her trip, which took most of 1915, Crewe seems to vanish from the public record. By the 1920 U.S. Census, she shows up in Compton, a Los Angeles suburb, as a manicurist. She progressed, through the California voter rolls, as a department store clerk and a registrar. Her name disappears from accounts after the 1926 voter registration records.
The mind reels at the possibilities her life journey took, said Kimberly Thomas, corporate archivist for Harley-Davidson Co. The firm marks an anniversary with the weekend event, “110 Years of Freedom.”
“As I understand it, she was going to write or was in the process of writing a book about her journey,” Thomas said. “I keep my fingers crossed that some day a copy of that book will turn up!”
