George R. Bidwell

[1] Bidwell was educated in the public schools of Buffalo before beginning his career in bicycle sales and manufacturing.

After becoming a proficient bike rider and mechanic, Bidwell later inquired to Albert Augustus Pope, a prominent bicycle manufacturer, about becoming a salesman.

[4] At a conference of the League of American Wheelmen, Bidwell saw a modern safety bicycle, a Rover designed by John Kemp Starley.

[1] He lost a lawsuit that accused him of patent infringement for using pneumatic tires, but won an 1892 appeal of the original ruling against him.

These factors led the office of Collector of the Port of New York to be described as "the prize plum of Federal patronage not only in this State but perhaps in the country, outside of positions in the Cabinet.

After a career in bicycle manufacturing, Bidwell later turned his interests to the automobile and established a factory in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, for making truck engines.