Walking to Fame: Edward Payson Weston and the Story of a Drunken Wager that Created America's Most Popular Sport in 1861
Door to door salesman Edward Payson Weston is twenty-two years old. He has been scraping out a living in and around Boston, Massachusetts, walking from house to house attempting to sell books--sometimes Bibles and religious tracts; sometimes racy semi-pornogrphic pamphlets and scandalous newspapers--whatever, as long as he can make a buck and sell something.
Weston is also a gambling young man, immensely handsome, popular with the ladies and a bit of a dandy--he is often in debt and always behind on his bills.
In late October of 1860, Edward Payson Weston, believes that Abraham Lincoln will lose the upcoming Presidential Election that November and, as always, he’s willing to bet on it.
Weston and his friend George Eddy, an idealistic young man and a fervent abolitionist, are downing shots of whiskey at a Boston tavern when the subject of the upcoming election arises, as it always does in the weeks and months leading up to the War Between the States.
Eddy is convinced that Lincoln will win the election and the two young men, each teetering on the edge of poverty and without a penny to spare, make the most unusual of wagers over who will be the next President of the United States.
Weston and Eddy agree that whoever loses the bet will have to walk from the State House in Boston to the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.--a distance of nearly 500 miles--in 10 days or less and attempt to arrive at the Capitol in time to attend the inauguration on March 4, 1861.
Years later Weston would recall, “I do not suppose that either of us at that time had the remotest idea of ever attempting such a task.” Eddy also admitted years later that if Lincoln had lost the election he, “most decidedly would have preferred to get excused.”
Lincoln wins the election by the narrowest of margins, and Weston, both sure of his athletic stamina and seeing a potentially profitable marketing opportunity for himself at hand, chooses to stay true to his bet with Eddy and follow through on their wager.
To practice, and to generate publicity, Weston walked from Hartford to New Haven in Connecticut on New Year’s Day 1861, a distance of nearly 40 miles and said, “I did not feel the effects of the walk at all.”
The next day, January 2, 1861, Weston walked back to Hartford from New Haven in just over 11 hours, handing out posters advertising his upcoming walk from Boston to the Inauguration Ceremony in Washington D.C. along the way and afterwards wrote that, “After this I thought I could walk from Boston to Washington without injury to myself.”
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| Old State House in Boston |
On February 22, 1861, ten days prior to President Lincoln’s inauguration, Weston stood on the steps of the Boston State House and announced to a large throng gathered there, “I have made no money bets, but I have wagered six half-pints of peanuts that I can do it in ten days.”
There was uproarious laughter and cheering.
Then, at exactly 12:49 pm on February 22, 1861, Edward Payson Weston set off on his 478 mile trek to the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., hoping to arrive in time to witness Abraham Lincoln being sworn in as our nation’s 16th President on March 4th.
Two men, friends of Weston, riding two carriages filled with supplies such as extra clothing, shoes and whiskey followed close behind the pedestrian at all times to ensure not only that Weston was safe, but also that he held true to his word and walked the entire distance between Boston and Washington.
Ever the showman, Weston, as he set off from the steps of the State House on Beacon Hill at 12:49 pm, was patriotically dressed in blue wool tights, a white shirt, matching blue jacket with a red sash and sturdy leather boots that went up nearly to his knees.
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| Edward Payson Weston |
He had intended to begin his long walk promptly at noon that day, but forever in debt, when Weston’s creditors caught word of his planned adventure, two Boston constables had been dispatched to the State House to arrest the young man for his debts. He owed one creditor $80 and another $10 for money that he had borrowed the year before.
Just before noon the constables placed Edward Payson Weston under arrest and dragged him off to the police station.
Somehow, by promising future payments on his debts, the smooth talking Weston was able to talk his way out of being put in jail and able to begin his journey only forty-nine minutes behind schedule.
That evening Weston reached the town of Framingham several miles outside of Boston and stopped at an inn for dinner. Having heard of his impending arrival a number of women, members of the Framingham Women’s Club, met the pedestrian in the parlor of the inn. Each one of the women kissed Weston and requested that he, “deliver their kisses to the President upon his arrival in Washington.”
Weston didn’t kiss Abraham Lincoln when he saw him, so he couldn’t quite deliver on his promises to the Women’s Club of Framingham, Massachusetts, however to every single person that he met along the way Weston made sure to hand out a flyer advertising his primary sponsor: The Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Company, who had agreed to pay for all of Weston’s expenses along his journey to Washington, as long as he promised to distribute 10,000 flyers advertising their latest sewing machines during the course of his 500 mile journey.
Through the cold New England nights, through snow and ice, rarely stopping for more than an hour to rest, Weston continued his walk toward Washington. He didn’t eat much during the walk. Most often he would stop somewhere to simply have a glass of milk or water or a shot of whiskey and then continue on his way.
He was arrested again when he arrived in Worcester, Massachusetts, a distance of some 50 miles from Boston. A few years earlier, while living in Worcester for several months, Weston had skipped out on owing his landlord some back rent and when he entered the town limits of Worcester, that landlord had the local police place Weston under arrest.
Amazingly, with his fame now spreading across the northeast United States, while he was in police custody in Worcester, two complete strangers agreed to sign a promissory note on Weston’s behalf for the back rent that he owed, and Weston was released from jail after having only been in police custody for a little over two hours!
A day later Weston reached the state of Connecticut. While walking through Connecticut Weston sprained his ankle after being chased for some distance by a wild dog and was soaked by torrential rains. When he entered New Haven, he was followed through the city by a marching band.
With his fame and celebrity growing along the way, at just before 10 in the morning on February 27, 1861, five days into his journey, Weston reached New York City. His first stop was the New York City offices of the Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Company where Weston was given 10,000 more flyers to distribute on his walk to Washington after he took a nap on top of a table.
When he entered Newark, New Jersey the next day, police had to be dispatched to control the crowds that came out to greet him. It is estimated that perhaps as many as 100,000 people came out across New Jersey to watch Weston walk. The nation was captivated by Edward Payson Weston’s walk to Washington.
Not only did it seem to bring the people of the North together on the brink of the impending Civil War, but back in 1861 it was really easy for people to relate to Weston because at that time, almost everyone still walked almost absolutely everywhere.
Only the wealthiest of American’s, maybe about 2% of the nation’s total population, could afford a horse or carriage and in 1861 the vast majority of Americans, both North and South, still lived in rural settings where means of public transportation were nonexistent. In an era when everyone walked everywhere American’s could relate to the struggles whether they be rough weather, wild dogs or even angry creditors that Edward Payson Weston encountered along his walk to Washington.
On Friday, March 1, 1861, Weston reached Trenton, New Jersey. The New York Times that day reported that, “Weston, the pedestrian, arrived here [Trenton] at about 9 o’clock to-day and attracted a large crowd of spectators.”
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| Lincoln's Inauguration on March 4, 1861 |
However, despite all the applause and accolades, there was one huge problem for Edward Payson Weston--he was way behind schedule and in danger of losing the bet entirely if he didn’t reach the Capitol Building in time for Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4th.
And after crossing into Pennsylvania things only got worse for Weston. In Philadelphia he got completely lost and walked for 12 miles in the wrong direction before he realized his mistake. After getting lost in Philadelphia on March 2, 1861, Weston no longer had any chance of reaching the nation’s Capital in time to witness Lincoln’s inauguration.
He had lost his bet with Eddy, but Edward Payson Weston had won the heart of America, and he decided to press on anyway.
At 5 pm on March 4, 1861, five hours too late, Weston reached the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building and became an instant celebrity.
Though he didn’t get to see Lincoln be sworn in as President, Weston was invited to an inaugural dinner in the nation’s Capital where he got to meet with the President. Lincoln, ever magnanimous even despite the fact that Weston had bet on him to lose the Presidency, offered to pay the pedestrian’s train-fare back to Boston, but Weston politely declined saying that he wished to walk back to his home town starting on April 23rd.
However, in the interim, on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked Union troops stationed at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, sparking the start of the American Civil War.
At that moment, in the words of Weston himself, “I thought it proper to forgo that task for some future occasion and to use my pedestrian abilities in serving our government.”
During the war Weston would go on to have a colorful career in the Union Army as a spy working behind Confederate lines. He would publish a book during the war years detailing his famous walk from Boston to Washington D.C. and in 1866 after, “entrusting his money to certain other parties,” Weston once again became mired in debt and he resorted to distance walking, and endurance walking full-time, as a way to pay off all the money that he owed.
In 1867, sponsored by The New York Herald, Weston would go on to win a $10,000 prize for walking from Portland, Maine, to Chicago, Illinois, in less than thirty days. And by the end of the decade Edward Payson Weston, was considered the most popular athlete in the United States of America.
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| Edward Payson Weston as an old man in 1910's |
During the 1870’s both competitive distance and competitive endurance walking called “Pedestrianism” in the parlance of the time was America’s most popular spectator sport. Pedestrianism was wagered on more heavily than horse racing or boxing and it was the nation’s true passtime long before baseball gained nationwide popularity.
Among sports in the United States Pedestrianism would reign supreme for the rest of the 19th century until being supplanted by more popular team sports such as baseball and football at the turn of the 20th century prior to being almost entirely eliminated as a competitive sport altogether with the invention of the internal combustion engine.
For a quarter of a century “Pedestrianism” may have been the most popular sport in the United States, and to think, it all began with a crazy bet in a bar between two drunken friends on the eve of the American Civil War over who was going to win the Presidential election.
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