Grinnell's Black Bicycling Champion

While looking through some old newspaper stories, I was surprised to see that, when collegiate, competitive track was still in its infancy in the late nineteenth century, bicycling was among the events in which track men competed. It did not last long, but long enough for Iowa College, as it was then known, to attract to its campus a highly skilled young bicyclist who was also black—Leo Welker (1880-1937). Controversy surrounded Welker's collegiate athletic career, perhaps not coincidentally because he was black. At the time, bicycling was almost exclusively a white man's sport, so Welker stood out—he was a black cyclist, and he was also a very good cyclist.

But Welker soon left behind him his bicycling days, compiling at Grinnell an academic record so sterling that his next stop was Harvard University's Medical School. Today's story follows the career of Leo Welker, a Grinnell College alumnus of outstanding achievement who is little known in Grinnell today.

Leo Welker, 1903 Cyclone

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Freeman O. Welker was a black man who was born in Ohio in 1856, but by the 1870s was living in Oskaloosa, Iowa (Weekly Oskaloosa Herald, December 21, 1876). How or why Welker came to Oskaloosa, I could not learn. The record makes clear, however, that while there, he met Alice Pruet (1862-1937) whom he married in 1877. The 1880 US census found the Welkers living in Cambridge, Illinois where Freeman was earning a living as a barber. Alice, the census noted, was a "fancy hair worker," whatever that was.

The 1880 census was taken in June, by which time Alice must have been quite pregnant, because in late August she gave birth to the couple's first—and only—child, Leo. Soon thereafter Freeman, Alice and their baby headed off to North Dakota where Freeman had filed for a land grant from the Government Land Office in Devils Lake. The Welkers probably did not reach North Dakota before 1882, when the Devils Lake Land District opened to settlers (Devils Lake North Dakota Bicentennial History [Bismarck: North Dakota State Library, 1976], p. 1). But they did not arrive long after that, as we hear about Freeman providing testimony to other land claims as early as 1884. 

Apparently Freeman first opened a barber shop in Devils Lake, relying upon his previous experience. Records of the county commissioners indicate that he sometimes took on other jobs, like "washing and scrubbing jail furniture" (Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, April 11, 1885). At about the same time, Alice Welker took over operation of Lakeview Laundry (Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, February 21, 1885).

Extract from City Directory in Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, January 31, 1885)

Whether because of his work or from other factors, Freeman seems to have been afflicted with rheumatism, the newspaper reporting that the town barber had "to hobble on crutches" (Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, June 6, 1885). He seems to have recovered, at least briefly, because by the next spring Freeman was "putting up a barber shop and laundry on Fifth Street..." (Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, April 10, 1886).

No later than September 1887, however, Freeman Welker took possession of property in Steele County: the eastern half and the southeastern quarter in section 15, a total of 120 acres (Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, October 1, 1887). What, if anything, Freeman did with this land is unclear; after he acquired the property, his name disappears from public records. Alice, however, seems to have remained in town, operating her laundry, occasionally adding some special jobs—like washing blankets for the jail and doing the wash for prisoners (Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, January 14, 1888; ibid., January 12, 1889). Newspaper accounts of taxation identified her—and not Freeman—as paying the annual property taxes. As late as 1892 Alice was still in Devils Lake, where, the local newspaper reported, she "had her laundry repaired and painted" (Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, September 3, 1892). Freeman, however, left no further mark in the local press.

If Freeman Welker died in North Dakota, I could not prove it, but he certainly disappeared from all mentions of Alice and her son. In 1896, now back in Iowa, Alice remarried, taking as her second husband Walter B. Battles (1859- ), a 37-year-old black man said to have hailed from New Zealand. Walter, however, also left scant trace in the historical record. It may have been he to whom the Iowa State Bystander referred when an 1896 article mentioned that in Colfax "Mr. and Mrs. Battle [sources routinely mix "Battle" with "Battles"—dk] conducts [sic] the restaurant and English kitchen" (October 9, 1896), but, if so, it seems to have been the only allusion to Walter once Alice and Leo were back in Iowa. 

What came of Alice's second marriage is unclear, because, when in 1900 US census officials visited Colfax in Jasper County, they found Alice Battles, described as widowed and household head, and her son Leo. A boarder and a lodger were also part of the household, but there was no sign of Walter. The census reported that Alice was operating a "boarders' hotel" for which Leo served as porter. 

Extract from 1900 US Census for Colfax, Iowa

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By this time, however, Leo, whose earliest schooling had been in North Dakota, was studying at Iowa College, from which he graduated in 1903. He had begun in 1896 by attending the Iowa College Academy, according to the Iowa State Bystander (October 9, 1896). The college catalog of that year does not know Leo, but he certainly was enrolled by 1897, his name listed with other academy first-years in the catalog. For reasons I cannot explain, Leo's name does not appear in the 1899-1900 college catalog, but he must have begun college proper fall 1899, as the following year's catalog identifies him as a sophomore, majoring in biology and chemistry. Subsequent catalogs mark his orderly progress through the college, culminating in his 1903 graduation.

1901 Grinnell College Track Team (Leo Welker: 2nd row, 3rd from left)
1903 Grinnell College Cyclone

As various sources confirm, while at Grinnell Leo was the sole African American student (Iowa State Bystander, June 4, 1897; ibid., June 3, 1898)). What he thought about that experience no document survives to tell. What records do preserve is evidence of Leo's considerable athletic prowess, demonstrated most successfully in track in which Leo rode his bicycle in half-mile and one-mile races, routinely winning first place. Leo also played on the college football team, where his fleetness of foot made him a valuable half-back. But his athletic reputation depended mainly upon his bicycling skill.

Photograph of 1900 Grinnell College Football Team
(1903 Grinnell Cyclone)

Already in 1896 when Iowans first read about him, Leo Welker was known as a bicycle racing phenom. Reporting on a 13 3/4- mile race in Colfax that Welker won in late August of that year, the Iowa Capital described the winner as "a 16-year-old colored boy [who] is a whirlwind in a road race" (August 29, 1896). An 1897 article in the Iowa State Bystander reported on that year's Iowa College Field Day meet in which "only two colored students" were found among competitors; one was "Leo E. Welker of Grinnell" (June 4, 1897).

Welker was more than a competitor, however, "colored" or not; he was often victorious, as the Iowa State Bystander reported, noting in an early 1901 article that Welker had "won 1st place in both bicycle races on Field Day Meet [in 1900] and also won 1st place in the Inter State Field Meet in Chicago" (January 28, 1901). But opponents, nourished perhaps as much by racial bias as competitive envy, claimed that young Welker did not qualify for amateur competition because, it was alleged, he had previously raced for money, making him a professional. Grinnell's opponents wanted him disqualified.

Winners at 1901 Iowa State Field Meet (Hawkeye, v. 12[1903]:235)
When Welker was disqualified from his two wins, Drake was declared the winner

The controversy gained formal notice when in summer 1901 several men who represented Drake University filed affidavits with the Inter-Collegiate Games committee, alleging Welker's wrong-doing. Frank Bryant, for example, swore that 

In July 1899 I was in Ottumwa, Iowa and saw said Walker [sic] ride a professional bicycle race where money was up for the winners. I also saw said Welker ride in Colfax, Iowa in 1900 in a race where money was up as a prize. I also saw said Welker ride in Newton, Iowa in a bicycle race in 1899 where money was up as a prize (Des Moines Register, June 28, 1901).

Additional affidavits made similar accusations, larded with details omitted in Bryant's claim, but fundamentally confirming the allegation. Cornell College partisans claimed to have their own witness to "Welker's professionalism" (Cedar Rapids Republican, May 30, 1901).

But these were not the only affidavits submitted to the sporting committee. Three Colfax men swore that the Colfax bicycle races "in which Leo Welker, of this city rode, were amateur races, and we state further that no money prizes were given to Leo Welker or any other participant" (Des Moines Register, June 28, 1901). Two Newton men described as promoters of the September 1899 Newton race swore that "Leo Welker refused to ride in said race if winners were to receive money prizes...the winners received no money, but they received prizes. Leo Welker received a pair of bicycle tires for winning third place" (ibid.).

Welker himself swore under oath "that I...rode in no race in Colfax, Iowa during the year 1900, except the races held on July 4th, for which no money prize was given." Welker admitted to racing in Newton in 1899, and received "a pair of bicycle tires for winning third place," and had received no other prize whatever. In still another sworn statement, Welker reported that "I have never taken part in any bicycle race in Ottumwa, Iowa, in which any money prize was offered or given, and I further state that I have never ridden in Ottumwa except in the L. A. W. [League of American Wheelmen] amateur races held there in July 1899" (ibid.).

As John Zeller pointed out recently (Des Moines Register, February 28, 2021), the Drake complainants had evidently mistakenly substituted Welker for Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor (1878-1932), the so-called "Black barefoot rider" who was indeed a professional and who did in fact race in Ottumwa in 1899. Only two years older than Welker, also African American, and, like Welker, well-known in bicycling competitions, Taylor might easily have confused observers who knew neither man. The complainants, therefore, attempted to withdraw their charge, but the association disqualified Welker anyway, erasing his previous inter-collegiate victories and invalidating Grinnell's track-and-field wins.

Headline of article in Des Moines Daily News, May 5, 1902

Protesting Welker's innocence, Grinnell tried to continue his participation in official meets, but this plan generated controversy. In anticipation of a 1902 meet, for instance, an editorial in the Daily Iowan chastened Grinnell for intending to race Welker. Although Iowa evidently had voted against declaring Welker professional, the editorial pointed out that "Welker has been declared ineligible according to the rules and by that decision he is barred from all inter-collegiate contests. If these rules are not final and do not govern, then why have any rules at all?" (Daily Iowan, May 1, 1902).

Extract from the Scarlet and Black, May 9, 1903

Welker was reinstated shortly before his 1903 graduation from Grinnell, but the affair had cost him most of his collegiate eligibility. Moreover, while he was sidelined, bicycle races lost their place in track. How Welker felt about all this we can only guess; as the rare—often the only—black competitor at Iowa track meets, Welker must have suspected that at least some of the motivation behind the assault on his eligibility derived from his race. Indeed, by its 1897 Constitution the League of American Wheelmen, the official sponsor for much amateur bicycle racing in America, specifically excluded people of color from membership (Article III, Section 1). The public record, however, preserves no comment from Welker on that subject.

Masthead of the Scarlet and Black, October 4, 1902

What Welker certainly did was to maintain his academic program, successfully completing his studies at Grinnell where in his junior year he was initiated into the Grinnell Institute (Grinnell Herald, December 13, 1901). The following year he served as associate editor of the campus newspaper, proof that his collegiate experience depended upon more than athletics. After graduation Welker left Grinnell to enroll at the Harvard University Medical School in Boston where he received a Lewis and Harriet Hayden scholarship, a fund established late in the nineteenth century to assist African American students at the medical school.

Brief notes in the Bystander, the Colfax Clipper, and the Scarlet and Black occasionally relayed news of Welker's time at Harvard. It seems that Welker played football there, but I could not locate any records that confirmed his athletic endeavors. Much of his time must have been devoted to study; a paragraph in the Scarlet and Black maintained that Leo had "stood well up toward the head in all his classes" at Harvard (October 14, 1905). Having completed his medical education in 1907, Welker seems to have intended to settle in New York; at least that's what the Colfax Clipper thought when reporting on an October 1907 visit to Colfax. Of course, the Clipper also reported that Welker had graduated from Yale, so perhaps they were wrong about New York also (October 10, 1907). If so, then the Scarlet and Black was similarly deluded, because a brief filler published at about the same time maintained that Dr. Leo Welker was "located in New York City" (October 16, 1907).

If there was a New York City interlude, before long Welker changed his mind, deciding instead to settle in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he entered private practice with Dr. Herbert Simms. Although I found no news about his years in Chattanooga, it seems that private practice did not meet all Welker's hopes: within three years he abandoned private practice, in 1911 accepting the position of Director of Physical Culture at Fisk University in Nashville, where former Grinnell College president George Gates was then president (Grinnell Review, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 47). Among his duties at Fisk was coaching football (Nashville Globe, November 30, 1911), a task that he seems to have done very well. In 1916 Fisk won the National Black Football Championship, and between 1910 and 1929 won eight Southern Football championships (John Majors, "College Football," Tennessee Encyclopedia).

Extract from 1911-1912 Fisk University Catalog, p. 8

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The Harvard-educated, unmarried young doctor, who was also the university's football coach, attracted a lot of attention around Fisk. When the local X. Y. Z. group met to play cards, for example, Dr. L. E. Walker was among those attending, as was a university woman named Frankie (Frances) Caldwell (Nashville Globe, March 29, 1912). A few months later, when Maria Coombs entertained guests for dinner and dancing, Dr. Welker again was in attendance; so was Frankie Caldwell (ibid., July 26, 1912). It is small surprise, then, to learn that before long Leo Welker and Frances Caldwell (1889-1963), Fisk University class of 1911, married and set up house at 1710 Jefferson Street, Nashville (Fisk University News, vol. 4, no. 5, October 1912, p. 10). On September 8, 1915 Leo and Frankie welcomed to their family their first-born, Constance (1915-1941). A second daughter, Winifred (1917-2001), was born in 1917 (Nashville Globe, March 23, 1917).

Soon after Winifred's birth, the outside world interfered with the Welkers' domestic calm. In September 1917 Welker received appointment as lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps of the US Army. The new lieutenant traveled to Fort Des Moines, Iowa for training, while Frankie and the girls arrived at Colfax to stay temporarily with Alice Battles (Nashville Globe, September 14, 1917; Scarlet and Black, October 17, 1917). As the reality of American participation in the war sank in, Frankie returned to Nashville with the children in the summer 1918, sharing a roof with her sister at 923 17th Avenue (Nashville Globe, July 12, 1918).

Passenger List for S. S. Covington, June 15, 1918;
Detachment Medical Department, 1st Battalion, 366th Infantry

In December 1917 the Army transferred Lt. Leo Welker from Fort Des Moines to Camp Upton, New York, in preparation for being shipped to Europe (Grinnell Review, vol. 14, no. 3, December 1918). By summer 1918 Welker was aboard ship, the USS Covington, departing Hoboken, New Jersey, en route to France where he served with the 92nd Division of the US Army. In a letter written aboard ship, Welker pondered the possibility of being "submarined" by German hostiles, but he arrived in France safely. Those who boarded the ship in France for the return trip to the US were not so lucky, as a German submarine sank the Covington, July 1, 1918.

The Torpedoed USS Covington Sinking off Brest (July 2, 1918)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Covington_(ID-1409)#/media/File:USS_Covington_(ID-1409)_sinking.jpg)

Welker escaped injury during his service, despite being involved in the deadly Meuse-Argonne Offensive late in the war. According to Dr. E. S. Evans, a Grinnell physician who met Welker in France in 1918, Welker "has been decorated with the croix de guerre by the French army," but I was not able to confirm this award. Welker had had to deal with enormous numbers of casualties during an assault upon German lines. When the Allied effort collapsed and the troops retreated, the doctor kept on "caring for the wounded as though they were far behind the lines instead of out in the middle of No Man's Land," which is where the French found him when they retook the territory a couple of days later (Grinnell Herald, March 18, 1919). 

After returning to the US in March 1919, Welker remained in the army until August, 1919 when he was honorably discharged (Harvard's Military Record in World War I, ed. Fred S. Meade [Boston, 1921], p. 999).

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Whether because of the war or something else, Welker decided to resume private practice, leaving both Fisk, from which he had enjoyed a leave "for the period of the war," and Nashville. He, Frankie and the girls settled in Detroit where Dr. Leo Welker opened a private practice. Fisk was sorry to see the Welkers go. The university published its regrets, commending Leo as a "splendid gentleman, who deserves to succeed." Moreover,

One cannot speak of our sense of loss at having him go permanently, without thinking of his winsome wife, our own Frances Caldwell, Fisk '11. She and her husband made a lovely family; and there will be a sense of community as well as University loss, for their leaving our section of the country (Fisk University News, vol. 10, no. 1, September 1919, p. 12).

The 1920 census found the Welker family living in what appears to have been a triplex at 324 Stanton Avenue, Detroit. Alice Battles, now in her 50s, settled with them for a time. Not much news from the Welker family made it into print in the 1920s. Probably the biggest news for the family was the arrival of Leo Edward, Jr. (1920-1985), born in Detroit in late June.

1932 Photograph of Intersection of E. Philadelphia and Westmoreland Avenues
(Detroit Historical Society, Bond Brothers Photography, Packard Motor Car Collection, 2009.021.024)

Sometime before 1930 the Welkers moved to 603 East Philadelphia Avenue, which is where the 1930 US Census found them. Both girls made their way through Detroit schools, Constance graduating from Northern High School in 1932. Connie then enrolled at Michigan State Normal (today's Eastern Michigan University), preparing for a career as a teacher (Tribune-Independent of Michigan, February 24, 1934). But when she married Ernest Sweeny in January 1937, she told officials that she was employed as an "assistant embalmer." Later, when delivering what was apparently her first child in May 1941, Connie died from hemorrhage, a function of a retained placenta (Michigan Department of Health, Certificate of Death, State File No. 278690).

1932 Yearbook of Northern High School, Detroit

Winifred Welker finished Northern High School in 1934. Like her mother, Winnie was a social bee, joining the Sub Debs and the Poli-Wogs clubs in school. "Her favorite pastimes," the newspaper said, "are dancing and swimming" (Detroit Tribune, October 28, 1933). While attending Wayne State University, Winnie was known as "one of the most popular students...[she has] a winning personality" (Detroit Tribune, December 26, 1936).  Like her mother, Winnie joined Alpha Kappa Alpha (Tribune-Independent of Michigan, August 3, 1935). Before she finished her degree, Winnie married Walter A. Cochran (1917-1964) in Detroit (June 11, 1937). The couple had just one child, Lynn (1943-1977).

Undated Photograph of Northern High School, Detroit (1917-2007)
(https://historicdetroit.org/buildings/northern-high-school)

Young Leo Welker left fewer records in his wake, but he must have finished high school in 1937 or 1938. When he registered for the draft in 1941, Leo was working as a foundry worker at Ford's giant River Rouge plant and was not yet married, telling draft officials that the person most likely to know his whereabouts was his sister, Winifred, who by that time was married but living without her husband at the family home at 503 Chandler. Soon after registering for the draft, Leo enlisted in the Army, serving into 1943 and rising to the rank of Sergeant in the 9th Cavalry. In 1949 Leo became office manager of the Detroit Tribune, then was quickly promoted to Secretary to the Board of Midwest Publishing Company, the newspaper's owner (Detroit Tribune, February 5, 1949; ibid., March 4, 1949). In 1943 Leo married a Chicago woman, Ernestine McGill, who in autumn 1944 gave birth to their first (and only?) child, Leo III.  Leo and Ernestine divorced in 1947, Leo later marrying Jewelle Delores Colley (1928-1994).  

Frances Caldwell Welker ("Frankie") remained active in the black sorority during her Detroit years. In 1936, for example, as the Depression pushed down harder upon America, Frankie directed an A. K. A.-sponsored play ("the New York Idea") at the local YWCA (Detroit Tribune, February 29, 1936). Eighteen months later both Frankie and Winnie took part in an A. K. A. production of "Medea" (Detroit Tribune, July 3, 1937). Meanwhile, the Welkers moved to a new Detroit address, 503 Chandler. Frankie's name appears often in the society pages of Detroit's black newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s.

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Leo, Sr. also seems to have been active in the Detroit African American community, if not so active as his wife and daughter. As a member of the Regis Club, for instance, he hosted a 1936 meeting of the club to discuss "the relative merits of the Democratic and Republican candidates" (Detroit Tribune, November 14, 1936). But Leo's health was declining. In late winter 1936 he was diagnosed with "dry gangrene" in his right foot, which was amputated in January 1937. An injury or war wound might cause dry gangrene, but I did not find evidence of a war wound or a subsequent injury. Gangrene might also accompany diseases that affect the circulatory system, but nothing in the record asserts that Welker suffered from diabetes or Raynaud's disease. The Colfax Clipper asserted that thrombosis in his foot had caused the problem, cutting off circulation and initiating gangrene (March 11, 1937). In the end, arteriosclerosis was diagnosed, and finally identified as the primary cause of death, which came to Leo Edward Welker on March 2, 1937. 

There is considerable irony in this fate of the one-time bicycling phenom whose youthful arteries had pumped blood vigorously through Leo Welker's body as his bicycle sped along Iowa's collegiate tracks. Welker was only 57 when he died; better health could have given him a couple more decades of life. Even at 57, however, Leo Welker had lived a remarkable life. With his mother's constant support, he had become not only an outstanding athlete, but also a highly-respected medical doctor, one of a small cadre of African American physicians trained at Harvard. Welker had also served his country when it was at war, and had created a family that was much admired. It was a successful life that had included stops at Cambridge, Massachusetts and World War I France, but it had begun with a bicycle moving swiftly across central Iowa.

PS. Special thanks to Harley McIlrath and John Kissane who first alerted me to Leo Welker when we were discussing track in 1900-Iowa.