Air travel, just like any kind of transportation, has its inherent dangers. Even the most experienced pilots can deal with disaster.
Chances are many a conversation at our region's Fourth of July celebrations in 1937 were centered around two such aviation disasters, one in the South Pacific and another in the Otsego County Town of Morris.
At the same time the fascination with aviation was still high locally.
Readers of The Oneonta Star learned on Saturday, July 3, how Amelia Earhart, called "the world's best known aviatrix, and her navigator, Fred J. Noonan, were believed forced down at sea … in an $80,000 'Flying Laboratory' somewhere near tiny Howland island on a daring attempt to span the South Pacific."
Since 1932, Earhart had been impressing a generation of early aviation enthusiasts, being only the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic, across the Pacific from Honolulu to Oakland in 1935, breaking altitude records, and then attempting to be the first woman to fly around the world in 1937.
While our area followed the unsuccessful search for Amelia Earhart, they also learned of tragedy near Morris on Saturday, July 3.
"Ironical fate added Otsego County to its scroll of air tragedies when H.H. Linn, 60, Morris tractor-trailer inventor and manufacturer, his pilot and a passenger went to a flaming death Saturday afternoon," the Star reported on Monday. "A fourth passenger is fighting for his life in the Bassett hospital at Cooperstown."
"Despite thousands of miles covered by air throughout the country, and the hazards of many strange airfields, fate selected Mr. Linn's home port on which to write finis to a typical American success story."
Linn's pilot, George Stead of Norwich, and Mrs. Arthur Hansen of Endicott also died in the crash.
Arthur Hansen survived. The foursome had boarded Linn's plane at about 1:30 p.m. at the small airfield atop Patrick Hill, to make a trip to Syracuse.
It was sunny and there was only a gentle wind, so there were no apparent atmospheric dangers.
"The plane took off into the wind, soared aloft briefly and then started downward again. Still no fear held the spectators. They watched interested at what they believed was to be an exhibition of stunting as the plane dipped and rose again."
The crash followed, leaving a torn and twisted mass of steel, fabric and flames.
Morris paid tribute to the victims on Tuesday, July 6.
"In the death of Mr. Linn," the Star said, "Morris lost one of its most prominent residents. A man of humble beginnings, his Yankee inventive genius had carried him to a successful career as a manufacturer and inventor."
Holman H. Linn invented the well-known Linn Tractor.
Despite the tragedies, area residents had the opportunity to see an unusual flying boat on Otsego Lake over the weekend of July 4, Richard Archbold's "monster flying boat, Guba."
Archbold had recently made a transcontinental flight with this flying boat and touched down on Otsego Lake on Thursday, July 1.
He was making plans at the time to explore the interior of New Guinea.
"Several had already been attracted to the spot this afternoon to get sight of the craft," the Star reported, "which resembles in many respects a giant sea-monster of fairy lore. Painted a shimmering gray, it has a wing spread of 104 feet, and a gross weight fully loaded of 27,000 pounds."
Archbold and two other crew members intended to conduct test flights over the weekend.
According to the Star of Friday, July 9, Harry Lance, "noted Oneonta parachute jumper," was set to make his first daredevil leap of the season on Sunday at Keyes Airport, then found on Country Club Road, in the area where NYSEG and several other businesses on Browne Street are found today.
Lance planned to "bail out" of a plane at 2,000 feet, head first, and drop several hundred feet before opening his parachute.
On Monday: An Oneonta Yankee debated over a sports career in 1982.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or email him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Mark Simonson
Despite dangers, aviators still thrilled the masses in 1937
- Mark Simonson
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Otsego County woman drove her way to success
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'Robber baron' helped provide landmark church in Roxbury
Jay Gould was called a lot of things in his day, and not much of it was flattering in the business world, such as "robber baron." In the 21st century some might call him a "one percenter."
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Bridge workers found toxic surprise in Neahwa Park in 1988
Plans were in place to build a permanent bridge over the millrace to enter Neahwa Park from Gas Avenue in Oneonta in June 1988. That roadway is known today as James Georgeson Avenue.
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Oneonta became a movie set in June 1918
In "real life" Oneonta, you'd never have found an automobile plant manager facing a crisis of having his young daughter kidnapped by two disgruntled employees. However, it would make for a good movie plot, and that's exactly what took place in Oneonta during June 1918.
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Local marbles players sought national championship in 1948
Louis Parisi and Eugene Platt of Oneonta had good aim when it came to the game of marbles. So good, in fact, their skills earned them an all-expenses-paid trip to Wildwood, N.J. in June 1948.
- Saturday, June 1, 2013
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Samuel Morse's telegraph plans perfected in Cherry Valley
In late May of 1988 Cherry Valley received some welcomed news that the village had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A most fitting designation, considering its history dates back to 1740 and all that happened here during the Revolutionary War, for starters.
- Saturday, May 25, 2013
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Blackmail scheme failed to hurt Richfield Springs resort season in 1888
The timing simply couldn't have been worse. Thousands of visitors were making plans for their summer vacations to Richfield Springs in 1888 when a bombshell of a newspaper article hit the newsstands of New York City. The article appeared in The New York Sun that stated typhoid fever and diphtheria had a "heavy presence" in the resort village, known and respected worldwide for its cleanliness and good health.
- Monday, May 20, 2013
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General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
- Saturday, May 18, 2013
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
- Monday, May 13, 2013
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Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
Area residents mulled over the idea of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as their next President of the United States. New fitness opportunities emerged for all ages. One area landmark was saved while another was razed. It was only a part of our life and times in May 1968.
- Saturday, May 11, 2013
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Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
In the economy that was the Great Depression, there were times people would do what it took to try to earn some money.
- Monday, May 6, 2013
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Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
I realize I've got the wrong month in mind when I say "May came in like a lion." However, that's what happened in 1983 as a number of twisters moved through our region, leaving plenty of damage behind in their trails. Add some melting snow and heavy rain, and scenes of cleanups were widespread 30 years ago this month.
- Saturday, May 4, 2013
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Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
- Monday, April 29, 2013
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Job opportunities abounded in area 45 years ago
If you were looking for a job in April 1968 in our area, or perhaps looking to change your employment situation in the near future, opportunities were pointing in your favor.
- Saturday, April 27, 2013
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Oneonta greeted an aviation giant in 1928
An early aviation superstar came to Oneonta in 1928.
- Monday, April 22, 2013
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Area saw its own armed standoffs 30 years ago
This past Friday, we watched how the Boston area went into a lockdown during a tense search for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Had I still been living and working in that area, as I was in the early 1990s, I would have had a day off from work Friday, as police scoured the city of Waltham.
- Saturday, April 20, 2013
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U.S.S. Maine explosion, war drew much local sentiment
For most people in our area in early 1898, a growing conflict between two distant nations probably didn't get much attention, other than some glances at the newspaper. When a young Oneonta man was one of many injured or killed in an explosion of a battleship he was aboard, the local attention increased markedly to what was soon to become the Spanish-American War.
- Monday, April 15, 2013
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Oneonta river walking path came from a surveyor's daydream
Leon Kalmus of Oneonta spent a lot of time surveying land near the Susquehanna River in the early 1970s around the time Interstate 88 was being planned and built in this area. What he saw along the shores of the river, he called “pristine,� and soon had an idea for some kind of walking or hiking pathway along the shores of the river in the town of Oneonta.
- Saturday, April 13, 2013
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Decline of Prohibition led to return of beer in April 1933
“I think this would be a good time for a beer,� remarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933. This marked the beginning of the end for Prohibition that year.
- Monday, April 8, 2013
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Dietz Street shifted from residential to commercial through the years
By taking a walk along Dietz Street today, heading north to Walnut Street, one can see a lot of businesses and the recently refurbished parking lot on the east side of the street. It would take some imagination to see this street lined with houses and a church, but prior to the late 1940s, that’s what was there.
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