William Sachtleben

William Lewis Sachtleben (March 29, 1866 in Alton, Illinois – December 13, 1953 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was a 19th-century American journalist and lecturer who was one of the early globe-circling bicyclists, at one time holding a world record for long-distance bicycling.

William Sachtleben
William Sachtleben in Asia.
BornMarch 29, 1866
Alton, Illinois
DiedDecember 13, 1953(1953-12-13) (aged 87)
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWashington University in St. Louis
Occupation(s)journalist, lecturer and cyclist

He was a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. His attempt in 1895 to rescue, recover, and achieve justice for fellow cyclist Frank Lenz, who had disappeared in Turkey (then in the Ottoman Empire) at the time of the Hamidian Massacres,[1] was seen as akin to the earlier search for David Livingstone in Africa. He later went on to explore for fortune and entered the business world.

William Sachtleben was sent to Erzurum to investigate the circumstances of Lenz' disappearance. Sachtleben had completed his own bike journey around the world in 1892, along with his friend Thomas Allen. He sailed to Europe in March 1895, and traveled to Erzurum, having to forge papers to gain entrance to Ottoman Kurdistan.

In Erzurum, Sachtleben learned that Lenz had somehow insulted a notorious local Kurdish chief when passing through a small village there. The local Kurds then apparently ambushed and killed him, burying his body on the bank of a river in the forest.

The Kurdish bandit believed to have killed Lenz was charged and convicted by the Ottoman authorities, but later fled. Some of the Armenian locals who had helped Sachtleben uncover Lenz' fate were also imprisoned, a couple of them dying in prison.

Eventually some eight years after his death, following pressure from the U.S., the Ottoman government agreed to pay a compensation of around $7,500 to Lenz' mother.

Notes
  1. Aivazian, Gia. "The W. L. Sachtleben Papers on Erzerum in the 1890s" in Armenian Karin/Erzerum. UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series: Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, 4. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2003, pp. 223-251.

Bibliography
  • Allen, Thomas G. and William L. Sachtleben. Across Asia on a Bicycle. New York: The Century Co., 1897.
  • "TO SEARCH FOR F.G. LENZ; William Sachtleben to Try to Find the Missing Bicyclist. WILL PROCEED DIRECT TO ARMENIA Lenz Was Last Heard from at Tabrees, and May Now Be a Prisoner -- A Difficult Undertaking". The New York Times. March 1, 1895.
  • Herlihy, David Herlihy. The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. ISBN 978-0-547-19557-5.
  • Across Asia on a Bicycle: The Journey of Two American Students from gives date and place of death.
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