William Henderson, born in 1883, built the ‘Duesenberg of Motorcycles’ and should be better known in the motoring world. The idea of designing and manufacturing a motorcycle possessed him from childhood; not an outrageous concept since his father was the vice president of the Winton Motor Carriage Co., one of the oldest auto manufacturers in the world. Alexander Winton, founder of Winton Motors, was William’s grandfather. William joined the firm at 16 but spent his nights and weekends sketching out motorcycle engines. William’s father Tom, an engineer, critiqued the sketches, but by 1909, William laid out a completely new 4-cylinder motorcycle, detailed to the last nut and bolt. While Tom advised against going into the motorcycle trade, he gave his blessing (and no doubt a little money) to build a prototype in 1911, hoping the frustrating process of building the thing would act as a deterrent. It did not. The motorcycle was an unusual design with an inline 4-cylinder motor and belt drive and seating for two on its long chassis with the passenger seated in front of the rider. William Henderson formed the Henderson Motorcycle Co. with his brother Thomas with $175,000 of capital to begin production—an enormous sum at that date. The first production Henderson emerged from their Detroit factory in January 1912, with a 4-cylinder 57 CI (934cc) F-head engine, a single-speed chain drive and clutch, which was started by a folding hand crank—just like the Winton car. Besides the 4-cylinder motor, the most distinctive feature was that very long chassis with built-on passenger seating, with a short leading-link front fork along the familiar FN/Sager/Harley-Davidson lines, and a lovely ‘torpedo’ fuel/oil tank, which was used for one year only. The Henderson was a lovely machine, beautifully built and expensive at $325. That very year, Carl Stearns Clancy became the first person to circle the globe on a motorcycle, riding a 1912 Henderson. He began his 18,000 mile journey in October 1912 and finished in August 1913. This certainly proved the durability of the Henderson, but the American motorcycle market was flooded with competition before World War I, and economic difficulties led the Henderson brothers to offer their company to Ignaz Schwinn, who purchased it in 1917. The 1913 Henderson used a ‘square’ gas tank, and had many improvements over the first-year model, including a better brake, lower seating position and improved girder forks. Early Hendersons are magnificent machines, proving their durability both in 1912 and today as four of the first five places in the 2016 Motorcycle Cannonball cross-USA rally were won by Hendersons!