George Phillips Huffman (September 6, 1862 – December 31, 1897) was an American businessman. His

Davis Sewing Machine Company The Davis Sewing Machine Company began in 1868 in Watertown, New York, and moved to Dayton, Ohio, around 1890. History Early Davis sewing machines, known as their "Vertical Feed" machines, did not use the conventional four motion feed, as invent ...

, which began producing bicycles in the late 19th century, was the precursor to the Huffman Manufacturing Company (later became the

Huffy Corporation The Huffy Corporation is a supplier of bicycles with headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, United States. Early history It has its roots in 1887 when George Huffman, George P. Huffman purchased the Davis Sewing Machine Company and in 189 ...

), a manufacturer of bicycles.

Early career

Huffman was born September 6, 1862 in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...

. He was educated at the Cooper Academy and then studied law in the offices of Gunckel & Rowe. He worked in real estate and in 1887 he purchased the Kratochwill Flouring Mills and the Kratochwill Milling Company. He was also president of the National Improvement Company, the Monitor Publishing Company, and the Miami Valley Elevator Company. He served as vice-president of the Crume & Sefton Manufacturing Company and treasurer of the Cooper hydraulic Company. He was a director in the Third National Bank, the Homestead Aid Association, the Consolidated Coal and Coke Company of Cincinnati, and

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

locally. On October 30, 1884 he married Maude C. McKee. They had two children, Horace Huffman and George P. Huffman Jr.

Bicycles

In 1887, Huffman purchased the

Watertown, New York Watertown is a city in, and the county seat of, Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River about east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by the ...

, which manufactured high-quality

sewing machine A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the inv ...

s. The following year, Huffman moved the factory to larger facilities in

. While continuing to manufacture sewing machines, in 1892 Huffman adapted the factory to produce bicycles. George P. Huffman died December 31, 1897 of a brain hemorrhage and was interred in the

Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum (200 acres), located at 118 Woodland Avenue, Dayton, Ohio, is one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the United States. Woodland was incorporated in 1842 by John Whitten Van Cleve, the first male child born in D ...

References

External links

Huffy Corporation corporate history site
Retrieved 2010-Jun-08 American manufacturing businesspeople Businesspeople from Dayton, Ohio Burials at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum 1862 births 1897 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1860s-stub