Stone marker celebrates early St. Louis cycling club | stltoday.com

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

The Smith’s Hill marker was installed in 1921. As described in a Dec. 6, 1925, article in the Post-Dispatch, it honors a man “whose small stature hardly suffices for his hospitable inclinations.”

Smith was born in 1862 in a nearby farmhouse, part of the family’s 160-acre plot that Smith eventually inherited. In 1888, his new bride moved in with him, the article said.

About that time, the early 1890s, recreational cycling was in its infant stages and a handful of St. Louisans took to pedaling as a pastime.

According to the the St. Louis Cycling Club website, St. Louis County built Manchester Road in 1885, a smooth macadam highway that stretched from the city limits to the county line at Smith’s Hill. That new pavement brought the pedal-pushers and Smith’s Hill soon became the goal of a 30-mile trip from the city’s western border.

MoBikeFed comment: This marker is directly on the Tour de Wildwood route - see http://MoBikeFed.org/TourDeWildwood

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