William S Harley

Early life

Harley was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1880 to William Harley Sr. and Mary Smith from Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England who emigrated to the United States in 1860.

Career

After moving to Milwaukee's north side on Burleigh Avenue, Harley first worked at the Meiselbach bicycle factory at the age of 15. In 1901, Harley drew up plans for an engine to be mounted on an ordinary bicycle, while working as an apprentice draftsman at the Barth Mfg. Co. Over the next few years, Harley and his childhood friend Arthur Davidson worked on their motor-bicycle with the help of Henry Melk, who owned a machine shop in northside Milwaukee. They later received help from Ole Evinrude, who was then building gas engines of his own design for automotive use on Milwaukee's Lake Street.

Harley received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1907. He co-founded Harley-Davidson with Arthur Davidson in 1903 and served as chief engineer and treasurer until his death in 1943. While in college he worked at a Madison architect's office and as a waiter for the Kappa Sigma fraternity house.

Personal life

In 1910 he married Anna Jachthuber, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. In his spare time, Harley took up hunting, fishing and golf, and was also noted for his affinity for sketching and wildlife photography.

Legacy

He was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.

In 2003, a Harley-Davidson statue was unveiled in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, to commemorate the centenary of the famous motorcycle company. William Harley, the father of the company's co-founder William Sylvester Harley, had been born in Victoria Street, Littleport, in 1835, before emigrating to the United States in 1859.

Labor Hall of Fame

Because Harley, Arthur Davidson, William A. Davidson, and Walter Davidson "used and believed in its products and relied on the dedication of its employees to produce quality motorcycles", the four men were inducted into the Labor Hall of Fame.