Amedee Reyburn
A St. Louis sportsman who won Olympic bronze in his hometown pool before chasing the dawn of aviation across the continent.
1879–1920 (age 41)·American swimmer·Birthday: March 25·The Gilded Age
Biography
Born into a prominent St. Louis family in 1879, Amedee Reyburn was a versatile athlete who seized the moment when the Olympics came to his city in 1904. Competing in front of a home crowd, he powered to two bronze medals in freestyle swimming and water polo, cementing his place in American sporting history. But Reyburn's restless energy couldn't be contained by the pool. He played college football, dove into the automobile business, and was gripped by the new frontier of flight. In 1911, he joined a daring, headline-grabbing coast-to-coast air race, a testament to his adventurous spirit. His life, cut short at forty, was a vivid snapshot of the turn-of-the-century American pioneer, equally at home in the water and the wild blue yonder.
The Gilded Age
1860–1882
Born during or after the Civil War, they built industrial America — the railroads, the steel mills, the first skyscrapers. An era of massive wealth, massive inequality, and the belief that the future belonged to whoever could build it fastest.
Amedee was born in 1879, placing them squarely in The Gilded Age. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Amedee Was Born
The biggest hits of 1879
Amedee's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1879Born
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1884Started school
President: Chester A. Arthur
1892Became a teenager
President: Benjamin Harrison
1895Could drive
First public film screening by the Lumiere brothers
President: Grover Cleveland
1897Could vote
President: William McKinley
1900Turned 21
Boxer Rebellion in China
President: William McKinley
1909Turned 30
Robert Peary claims to reach the North Pole
President: William Howard Taft
1919Turned 40
Treaty of Versailles signed; Prohibition ratified
President: Woodrow Wilson
1920Died at 41
Women gain the right to vote in the US
Home: $3,395President: Woodrow Wilson"Swanee" — Al Jolson
Key Achievements
- Won two bronze medals (freestyle swimming and water polo) at the 1904 Summer Olympics in his hometown of St. Louis.
- Played football for Washington University in St. Louis.
- Served as an executive and part-owner of the Westminster Automobile Company by 1905.
- Participated in a historic trans-continental flight competition across North America in 1911.
Did You Know?
His full name was Amedee Valle Reyburn Jr.
The 1904 Olympics were the first held in the United States outside of St. Louis.
The 1911 air race he was in ended in Los Angeles.
He lived during the very earliest years of powered aviation, with the Wright brothers' first flight occurring in 1903.
“The water in the Forest Park basin felt just like my own pool.”
