Louis Abernathy and Temple Abernathy were children from Oklahoma who without adult supervision took several cross-country trips. On one trip they rode their motorcycle from Oklahoma to Manhattan in 1910 when they were 10 and 6 years old.
Louis Abernathy was born in 1900 and Temple Abernathy was born in 1904 to Jack Abernathy.
In 1909 the boys rode by horseback from Frederick, Oklahoma, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and back. Louis was nine, and Temple was five.
When the boys completed their Santa Fe journey, they began planning a cross-country horseback ride to New York City, again by themselves, to meet Theodore Roosevelt when he returned from his trip to Africa and Europe. They made that trip in 1910. They were greeted as celebrities, and rode their horses in a ticker-tape parade just behind the car carrying Roosevelt. While in New York, the boys purchased a small Brush Motor Car, which they drove, again, by themselves, back to Oklahoma, shipping their horses home by train.
In 1911, they accepted a challenge to ride horseback from New York to San Francisco in 60 days or less. They agreed not to eat or sleep indoors at any point of the journey. They would collect a $10,000 prize if they succeeded.
After a long trip, they arrived in San Francisco in 62 days, thereby losing the prize but setting a record for the time elapsed for the trip.
New York Times, June 12, 1910: Abernathy Boys Put Ban On Kissing. Fearless Youngsters, Who Have Ridden Here from Oklahoma, Mobbed by Women.
