Harry “Pop” Kramer was a vaudeville trick-cyclist who performed along the Appalachian mountains. He designed and fabricated his own trick bicycles and unicycles.

1941

Born new years day, 1875, at the age of twelve, Harry became intrigued by the trick cycling he saw at a circus in town. When he obtained his first bicycle, he anticipated his father’s disapproval and hid it from his father. He learned various tricks from a circus friend over a period of a few years and set out on his own without his father’s knowledge in 1892.

He perfected his stunts and traveled from town to town performing a forty-five minute routine. Frederick only forgave his son after learning how much income Harry had earned during his travels. Harry performed for various circuses, theaters, carnivals, street fairs and county fairs

His first wife Jennie Toye died in 1910 and he was left with four children in his care, so he moved to Hendersonville, NC because it had a better climate for his youngest child, who had asthmatic problems, there he set up an automobile and bicycle repair garage to earn money while he was not performing.

He remarried in 1917,  had four more children, moved to Chick Springs, SC, to start a travel lodge in 1923. His 2nd wife was murdered by a disgruntled renter in 1930. Though he was fifty-five years old, Pop continued to perform on the road in order to afford his children’s education.

https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2011/02/harry-pop-kramer-a-voice-for-community.html