When we tell the story of
Glenn Hammond Curtiss, it is tempting to begin with the extraordinary
The roaring motorcycles.
The record-breaking speed.
The airplanes lifting from the waters of Keuka Lake.
The battles over invention.
The famous men who traveled to Hammondsport to see what this quiet mechanic from a little Finger Lakes village was building next.
But that isn't really where the Glenn Curtiss story begins.
Before Glenn chased the wind,
he chased his friends down the dirt roads of Hammondsport on a bicycle.
And if we want to understand the man he became, perhaps we should begin there.
With a group of boys.
A bicycle.
A best friend named Tank.
And a Hammondsport businessman named
John Smellie who recognized that young boys sometimes need more than rules and lessons.
Sometimes they need a place to explore exactly who they might become.
THE HAMMONDSPORT BOYS
Glenn's earliest world was centered around family.
His mother.
His sister, Rutha.
His grandmother Ruth, the strong family matriarch who believed deeply in the curious little boy who was always examining how things worked.
But eventually, as happens with all boys, Glenn's world grew larger.
And part of that larger world belonged to
John Smellie.
Smellie was a local pharmacist, businessman and community leader who took an interest in the young boys growing up around Hammondsport. Under his influence, a group emerged that would become remembered as
the Hammondsport Boys.
And what a childhood they must have had.
The 1800's were fading into the 1900's.
They hiked the hills surrounding Keuka Lake.
They camped.
They swam.
They played football.
They explored the countryside.
When winter settled over the Finger Lakes, they strapped on skates and took to the ice.
And whenever the opportunity presented itself, they climbed onto bicycles and raced.
Think about Hammondsport in those years.
No screens.
No video games.
No cars waiting to take them from one activity to another.
Their playground was the village itself.
The hills were their challenge.
The lake was their swimming hole.
The roads were their racetrack.
And their imaginations supplied everything else.
Among those boys was someone who would become one of the most important people in Glenn's life.
His friend
Tank Waters.
TANK & G.H.
Tank wasn't simply another Hammondsport boy.
He was Glenn's friend.
His competitor.
His companion in adventure.
And eventually, one of the people who knew the man behind the legend.
Tank called him
G.H.
Long before newspapers printed the name Glenn H. Curtiss around the world, he was simply G.H. to the boys who knew him best.
Glenn and Tank were athletic, adventurous and fiercely competitive.
They played football together.
Skated together.
Explored together.
And raced one another.
You can almost picture them.
Two boys hunched over bicycle handlebars, legs pumping, wheels rattling over the dirt roads around Hammondsport.
Tank determined to beat G.H.
G.H. determined not to let him.
But there was something about Glenn that was already a little different.
Tank wanted to win the race.
Glenn wanted to understand why one bicycle won it.
Why did one wheel spin more freely?
Why did one gear work better?
Why was one bicycle faster?
What happened if you adjusted this?
Changed that?
Reduced the weight?
Improved the mechanism?
Glenn wasn't satisfied simply using a machine.
He wanted to understand it.
And once he understood it, he wanted to make it better.
That instinct would follow him for the rest of his life.
JOHN SMELLIE OPENS ANOTHER DOOR
John Smellie's influence on Glenn would extend beyond the adventures of the Hammondsport Boys.
He gave Glenn something enormously important:
an opportunity.
Glenn went to work for Smellie in his bicycle business.
Imagine what that must have felt like to a boy whose hands and mind were constantly searching for something mechanical to investigate.
Bicycles.
Tools.
Chains.
Gears.
Wheels.
Bearings.
Repairs waiting to be made.
Problems waiting to be solved.
For Glenn, the bicycle shop wasn't merely a place to work.
It was another classroom.
Perhaps even another laboratory.
His grandmother Ruth had already recognized something unusual in her grandson.
Now Smellie was giving that curiosity somewhere to go.
Because Glenn didn't merely repair machines.
He interrogated them.
Why does it work?
Why doesn't it work?
Why was it built this way?
Could it be lighter?
Could it be smoother?
Could it be faster?
Could it be better?
Those questions would eventually help change transportation forever.
But first, they were asked over bicycles in Hammondsport.
A SMALL BICYCLE SHOP. A VERY BIG FUTURE.
Eventually G.H. opened a bicycle business of his own.
There is something wonderfully fitting about this chapter of the Curtiss story.
A small shop.
In a small village.
On the shore of a crooked lake.
Nothing about it would have suggested that history was being made.
But step inside and perhaps you could already see hints of what was coming.
Bicycles hanging overhead.
Tools scattered across a workbench.
Friends wandering through the door.
Customers bringing in something that needed fixing.
And Glenn examining the problem.
Repairing it.
Adjusting it.
Improving it.
Then wondering what else might be possible.
The bicycle shop became one of Glenn's earliest laboratories.
Because bicycles eventually led him to something even more intriguing.
Engines.
And once Glenn Curtiss discovered engines, simply pedaling faster wasn't going to be enough.
THEN THERE WAS LENA
But there was another person entering G.H.'s life during these formative years.
Lena Pearl Neff.
If Tank Waters represents the enduring friendship of Glenn's youth, Lena would become his partner in the remarkable life ahead.
They fell in love young.
Young enough—and certain enough—to elope and begin building a life together long before either could possibly have imagined where Glenn's restless curiosity would take them.
They were wonderfully different.
Glenn could be quiet and reserved, particularly in a crowd.
He was comfortable at a workbench.
Comfortable studying a machine.
Comfortable working through a problem in his head.
Lena could work a room.
She was outgoing, vibrant and social.
Where Glenn sometimes turned inward, Lena reached outward.
But theirs wasn't simply a case of opposites attracting.
Their marriage became a working partnership.
And for their era, that matters.
SHE WORKED BESIDE G.H.
Lena wasn't simply waiting at home while Glenn disappeared into another mechanical experiment.
She became part of the enterprise.
She kept books and helped provide practical structure beneath Glenn's increasingly ambitious ideas.
There is an almost irresistible way to imagine the two of them:
Glenn sees an engine.
Lena sees the invoice.
Glenn sees another experiment.
Lena knows what's in the account.
Glenn sees possibility.
Lena understands what it will take to make that possibility sustainable.
Before the factories and military contracts...
before famous airplanes...
before newspaper headlines...
before Hammondsport became a destination for inventors, engineers, pilots and military officers...
there were small businesses.
Bills had to be paid.
Customers had to be satisfied.
Orders had to be filled.
Books had to balance.
And risks had to be taken.
They were building something together.
Lena would become wife, mother, bookkeeper, business partner, hostess and confidante.
She wasn't simply watching history happen from the sidelines.
She was living inside the machinery of it.
And Glenn's world was about to move very, very quickly.
BEFORE THE WINGS
This is why the Curtiss story cannot begin with an airplane.
Because the airplane came later.
First came Hammondsport.
First came Ruth believing in the unusual little boy in her family.
First came John Smellie giving that boy opportunity.
First came the Hammondsport Boys giving him adventure and competition.
First came Tank Waters racing G.H. down the road.
First came Lena believing enough in the young mechanic to build a life beside him.
And first came the bicycle.
A wonderfully simple machine that taught Glenn something that would shape nearly everything he did afterward:
There is always a way to go faster.
And perhaps more importantly:
There is always a way to make something better.
Those Hammondsport roads were more than places where boys played.
They were Glenn Curtiss's first proving grounds.
The bicycle shop was more than a business.
It was a laboratory.
The friends were more than childhood companions.
Some would remain part of his life as the world around them changed almost beyond recognition.
Soon the bicycles would give way to motorcycles.
The quiet bicycle mechanic from Hammondsport would discover engines.
And the boy racing Tank Waters through the hills surrounding Keuka Lake would begin going faster than almost anyone on Earth.
But that's the next chapter.
Next on The Road to Wings & Wheels:
FROM PEDALS TO ENGINES
How a Hammondsport bicycle mechanic became the fastest man on Earth.
Keuka Roots™
Small Towns. Big Stories. One Crooked Lake.™
Stay Rooted. Stay Keuka.™
🏁 THE ROAD LEADS TO HAMMONDSPORT
Every story in our
Road to Wings & Wheels series leads us back to the place where so much of it began—Hammondsport, New York, home of
Glenn H. Curtiss.
Now it’s your turn to become part of the story.
✈️ 🏍️ 🚗 WINGS & WHEELS 2026
Saturday, September 19 | 10 AM–4 PM
Hammondsport, New York
Registration is still open for participants! Bring your
seaplane, classic or special-interest car, or motorcycle and join us for a day celebrating the machines, innovation, speed, and spirit that helped put Hammondsport on the map.
Have a ride worth showing off? Enter it today and become part of Wings & Wheels!
Participant information and registration are available through the
Glenn H. Curtiss Museum.
And for everyone coming to watch, explore, photograph, reminisce, and enjoy the day—admission is FREE!
So mark your calendar, bring the family, and meet us in Hammondsport as we celebrate the remarkable legacy of Glenn Curtiss and the enduring love of
wings, wheels, and everything that moves us.
See you at Wings & Wheels!
Join the Keuka Roots FB Group!
