Doolittle, Perry Ernest

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Dimitry Anastakis and Christopher Pennington, “DOOLITTLE, PERRY ERNEST,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/doolittle_perry_ernest_16E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Cyclist, physician, surgeon, inventor, and automobilist; b. 22 March 1861 in Luton, Upper Canada, son of Ira Scott Doolittle and Sarah Jane Westover; m. 6 Oct. 1886 Emily Esther Pearson (1861–1956) in Toronto, and they had a son and a daughter; d. there 31 Dec. 1933 and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
    • Perry attended Trinity Medical School in Toronto, graduating in 1885 with an md and cm(master of surgery). He then settled in the city and established a practice that he would maintain for the rest of his life, later specializing in electrotherapeutics (used to treat arthritis) and surgery.
    • Doolittle’s first love was not medicine, but bicycles. He was given a bike at the age of seven, and as a teenager, after seeing illustrations in Scientific American (New York) of high-wheelers at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial International Exhibition, he constructed his own model, with a wooden frame and steel tires. His next bicycle, made of iron, had as a backbone the barrel of an old gun. Soon, he was racing. At the 1883 Canadian championships organized by the Canadian Wheelmen’s Association and held in London, Doolittle finished second in the five-mile race. Doolittle was an enthusiastic association builder. Hours after the 1883 race, he was elected vice-president of the Ontario-based CWA, which encouraged the building and maintenance of good roads across the country and briefly published a monthly journal, Bicycle (Hamilton).
    • While on a trip to England in 1896 to obtain a British patent for his invention, Doolittle fell in love with the automobile. He soon became one of Canada’s most recognized car enthusiasts. A nationally recognized figure and a tireless advocate for more and better roads, Doolittle may deserve some credit for the Canada Highways Act, passed in 1919 by the Union government.
    • Doolittle completed several cross-country automobile trips, the most famous of which was made in 1925, when he drove from Halifax to Vancouver in a Model T produced by Gordon Morton McGregor’s Ford Motor Company of Canada, which sponsored the journey. He hoped to claim the gold medal offered by Albert Edward Todd, a founder of the Canadian Highway Association, for the first person to drive across Canada. During the 40-day trip, Doolittle spoke often to crowds who came out to see him, drawing attention to the problems faced by motorists and stressing the need to complete a highway across Canada. Once it was finished, he predicted, “We will be more than ever united by bonds of friendship and acquaintance from coast to coast.” Owing to a lack of suitable roads, however, he had to drive with flanged railroad wheels on tracks for more than 800 miles of the journey, thus breaking a rule that the vehicle must remain on the road at all times, which cost him the Todd Medal. 
  • Second Great Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8940
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73391793/perry-ernest-doolittle