Tim Lake's Blog

Monitor Mills Dam Breach

117 Years Strong

Monitor Mills Dam in Ellisburg, New York Pushed Through

The Monitor Mills Dam on South Sandy Creek in Ellisburg, NY on February 23, 2022.

Historical photo of the Monitor Mills millhouse, left, and the 1866 wooden covered bridge across South Sandy Creek. The bridge was 62 x 18 feet and 90 feet above the water. It was inspected in December 1894 by the Jefferson County Engineer. He recommended it be condemned for safety reasons. It was replaced soon after. The dam is behind the bridge to the left. Postcard photo.

Monitor Mills Dam 1975

Ellisburg, NY - February 2022. After standing strong for 117 years, the Monitor Mills stone and concrete dam across South Sandy Creek in the Town of Ellisburg, NY, was partially blown out by a winter freshet sometime on February 21 - 22, 2022. It pushed large chunks of ice into the dam spillway and cut off about 2 - 3 feet of the concrete spillway cap. The new opening across the top of the dam appears to be 80 - 100 feet wide. It's believed to be the first breach of the historical barrier since it was last rebuilt by John Quincy Lee and Arthur Eugene Lee of Ellisburg in August - November 1904.
        Historical references for Monitor Mills in Ellisburg show it was operating in 1883 and taking in so many bushels of apples for making cider that the owners took on an apprentice.  The same year a dam was first erected across South Sandy Creek to provide water power for Monitor Mills isn't known. An 1864 land ownership map of Ellisburgh shows a grist mill along the South Sandy Creek at this location. Within a few hundred feet of the mill, along today's Monitor Mills Road, is a residence labeled J.A. Reynolds. On the 1855 New York State census James A. Reynolds, 66, is listed as a miller living among families known to have farms within a mile radius of Monitor Mills. His hired man is William Martin, 18. Many Martins lived within a mile of the mill. On the 1860 federal census, James A. Reynolds, 72, is listed as a miller. Mr. Reynolds died four years later and was buried in the Pierrepont Manor Cemetery. Near the Reynolds home in 1864 is a residence labeled D.L. Cook. In 1850 William D. Cook was listed on the Ellisburg census as a miller. So, it's possible the Monitor Mills and original dam date before 1850.

From the History of Jefferson County, L.H. Everts, and Company, Philadelphia:

  A mile above the village, on Sandy Creek, a gristmill was built by John Shaw about 1827 and is now (1878) owned by J.C. Allen. A distillery was built soon afterward by Alfred and Daniel Stearns and operated for quite a number of years by Stearns. A carding machine stood here in 1820, run by Elam King, and was probably built by him. The only one of these institutions now standing is the grist mill. The creek bed in the neighborhood of this mill is worn by the action of falling water and small stones in place, so that numerous potholes appear, varying in size from a small cup-shaped hollow to a pit eight or ten feet in-depth and as many in diameter. There is a natural fall here of several feet in perpendicular height, on the top of the ledge constituting which the dam is built.
    Many theories have been advanced regarding the origin of the holes in the rock which are found here, but the explanation here is given is undoubtedly the true one, as it is evidencing that the harder stones which are found in all these cavities have, in the motion given them by the constantly falling water, worn the softer lime rock into the curious shapes here presented. The same thing appears at all the falls and cascades above this, but in no place so remarkable, perhaps, as here.

Early news articles say the dam may have first been rebuilt, redesigned, or reinforced in 1887 by stone and masonry contractor J.B. Grow of Smithville for the owner, John Quincy Lee of Ellisburg. Mr. Lee's oldest son, Arthur Eugene Lee, purchased the mill and dam from his father in 1895. The mill was successful, but the energetic Arthur Eugene Lee was still taking a chance. That year, a civil engineer from Jefferson County inspected the Monitor Mills wooden covered bridge (and all other Ellisburg wooden bridges across South Sandy Creek) and found it (them) to be in such poor condition that he recommended it (they) be condemned and rebuilt.

Arthur Eugene Lee's obituary in the Jefferson County Journal says he added a more powerful waterwheel and a steel grinder for grain, increasing the mill's capacity. He also upgraded to a significant capacity cider press, increasing production to three thousand gallons per day. In 1900, Arthur Eugene Lee blasted rock from the mill's sluiceway deepening the canal to six feet. It allowed the mill to operate during the summer dry season. As a result, Monitor Mills was declared the best water power in Jefferson County, south of Watertown, with a 30-foot head.

In 1901, after selling his 65-acre farm near Monitor Mills and becoming successful at milling, Arthur Eugene Lee traveled to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and then to Port Arthur, Texas, where he contracted a disease that claimed his life on October 15, 1901. Ownership of Monitor Mills reverted to the administrator of his estate, his father, John Quincy Lee, but it was operated by Arthur's brother, Manford C. Lee. In 1914, Manford C. Lee purchased the mills and dam, having already paid $550 toward the price. The Lee family operated the mills for many years, grinding feed grains for flour and apples for cider. They advertised Silver Grey Seed Buckwheat and "cider from your own apples, 1 ½ cent per gallon." The date of the last operation is unknown. The heavy beam and wood frame mills are long gone.

          I've not been able to determine the origin of Monitor Mills' name to this date. However, there were several grist mills around the northeast with the title Monitor Mills. The question is: Why?

Crushed in 1904

The original Monitor Mills dam was "crushed like an eggshell and carried away," reported the Watertown Daily Times on March 10, 1904. The spring thaw of March 9 carried chunks of ice down the South Sandy Creek, destroying the 1887 stone dam and heavily damaging the George S. Hudson furniture factory mill dam downstream at the new (Joslyn Road) iron bridge. The ice chunks were reported to be three feet thick. They heavily damaged the Chester Reed and Sons flume to their grist mill. Reed's cider mill (at Hudson Street - Joslyn Road) was torn from its stone foundation and destroyed. The original tannery mill had been built in 1825 and converted to a cider mill in the 1880s.

        The Monitor Mills dam channeled water to Lee's mills. Without a steady flow of water in 1904, they could not operate their business. They contemplated what to do during the late spring and early summer of 1904. They decided to let a contract for a new dam. The present Monitor Mills stone block dam was built from August 10 through November 7, 1904, by the Brennan and O'Brien Construction Company of Watertown, NY. It was described as 158 feet long and about eight feet in height. It was capped with 14 inches of concrete (In 1916, another concrete cap would raise the size to about 12 feet). A coal furnace, steam plant, and sizeable stone-lifting boom were set up in the creek. During construction, cofferdams were washed away twice. The cost to rebuild the dam was listed as $1,200. Even before the work crews had left, the Lees were reported to have made two thousand gallons of cider at Monitor Mills in the fall of 1904. With the rebuilt dam, they were back in business. There was only one injury reported during reconstruction in 1904. Head contractor O'Brien got his foot squeezed by a large stone block. The severity of the injury was not provided. The Times reported that it took eight teams of horses to haul the construction equipment, including a steam shovel, back to Watertown upon completion of the dam.

The mill pond behind the dam was deep and became a popular swimming hole for people in Ellisburg. According to reports in the Lowville Journal and Republican, the Oswego Daily Times, and the Jefferson County Journal, in 1911, Samuel Wheeler, 27, of Adams, was drowned in the pond while swimming with fellow farmhands. Alerted to the tragedy, Manford C. Lee rushed from the mill office to the pond and dragged Wheeler's body out of the water. Wheeler was deaf and could not speak. He suffered cramps in the water. Then, in June 1929, Omar Davis, 19, of Ellisburg, was swimming in the pond with friends Henry and Hollis Veley and Earl Edwards. Coastguardsman Hollis Veley rescued Davis from the depths and performed CPR, but it didn't work. Davis was dead. Omar Davis was the brother of Dennis (Denny) Davis, who lived in the Village of Ellisburg for many years.

Mill Mishaps

Alonzo J. Lee was a carpenter and concrete worker who helped his brothers at the mill. He suffered a few near-tragic mishaps at Monitor Mills. The Times reported that Alonzo was applying tar to the mill's roof during hot summer weather on July 3, 1905. Standing on a ladder fastened with a rope, he tried moving it to another part of the roof. The cord became untied, and Alonzo fell 30 feet to the ground, headfirst. Clinging to one rung of the wooden ladder saved his life.

Earlier that year, on March 25, 1905, both Manford C, Lee, and Alonzo J. Lee were installing wooden planks into the bulkhead of the dam at the outlet which fed the flume. The winter ice in the millpond behind the dam was about to "go out," By closing the outlet, ice chunks would be forced over the spillway and not damage their raceway and flume. However, a piece of ice hit a plank and knocked Alonzo into the pond. When he surfaced, the Times reported that his brother Manford jumped in to save him, and both were carried over the edge of the spillway. They were swept downstream by the rushing current. Alonzo reached the shore near the bridge, but Manford was swept farther downstream, where he grabbed some bushes on the creek bank. Alonzo threw him a pole and then a rope and hauled his brother to safety. They made it just in time. The ice "went out" that evening.

In October 1908, drought and numerous fires were reported in southern Jefferson County. Water was so scarce in South Sandy Creek that the Chester Reed and Son cider mill (at Hudson Bridge/Joslyn Road) had not operated in months. However, because the late Arthur Eugene Lee had deepened the flume leading to Monitor Mills while under his management, his brother Manford C. Lee was able to run the mill daily during that autumn.

On July 5, 1917, The New York State Conservation Commission inspected the Monitor Mills dam and passed it. It was owned and operated by Manford C. Lee. The report said the spillway portion was made of masonry and concrete. The foundation was made of rock. The total length of the dam was 230 feet, with the spillway or waste-weir portion of the dam at 211 feet. "The dam is in good condition." A 30-feet-wide piece of concrete above the opening allows water to flow into a sluiceway/canal, feeding water to the mill wheels downstream. After about 200 feet of the channel, water flows into a wooden flume with an overflow gate at the mill. The dam's height in 1917 (one year after being re-capped) was listed at 11 feet. The size of the concrete abutment is 15 feet.
Another inspection by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation on July 29, 1975, showed the dam and spillway in satisfactory condition. "No defects observed beyond normal maintenance."

In 1983, Gary Beckstead of Smithville, NY, performed concrete maintenance work on the dam abutment and patched the spillway cap for the owner, Mabel Rawlings. He scratched their names and date on the concrete. Descendants of the Bert and Albert Stanley Rawlings family still own the dam as of this writing, February 2022. The dam and surrounding land are private property, but New York State DEC has obtained an easement for fishing access to the creek below the dam.

South Sandy Creek Fishery

In Edgar C. Emerson's 1898 history book of towns in Jefferson County, NY, he quotes earlier settlers saying that South Sandy Creek was well populated with fish, including salmon, from its mouth at Lake Ontario all the way to the source of the creek in the eastern portion of the Town of Worth on the Tug Hill Plateau. However, when the Monitor Mills dam was first built in 1887 (or earlier), game fish from the lake could no longer swim above the dam. As a result, the natural lake-borne fishery above the dam has been non-existent for more than 125 years.

In 2006, the State of New York commissioned the Monitor Mills Dam Modification State Environmental Quality Review Act to determine if the dam should be breached (with owner permission) to reestablish the trout, salmon, and bass habitat through the entire length of the creek. This report references a dam at Monitor Mills as early as 1854. However, I believe the author may have confused this location with the Hudson mill dam farther downstream near the present Joslyn Road bridge. Cooper Environmental Research of Constantia, NY, offered two options to expand the South Sandy Creek fishery. Open a portion of the Monitor Mills dam spillway with a fish ladder for salmon, trout, and bass to migrate upstream while preventing sea lamprey (eels) from doing the same or leaving the dam as is until it falls apart on its own. No action was taken.

Opinion on future fishing in Upper South Sandy Creek

For 125 years, the Monitor Mills dam has been the demarcation line for fishing in South Sandy Creek. With the barrier now breached, even partially, further erosion of the spillway will rapidly occur, allowing the strong swimming salmon and trout easy access farther up the creek. In the fall and early winter, since re-stocking programs regenerated the trout and salmon fishery in Lake Ontario in the early 1970s, fishers have populated the creek from South Landing near the lake to the Monitor Mills dam. After obtaining easements for fishing access, the state installed small parking lots along the creek, one at Monitor Mills. Downstream from the dam, property ownership boundaries are in the middle of the stream with different owners on opposite banks. However, upstream from the dam and for several miles, property lines extend across the creek, possibly presenting a dilemma for the state and private property owners when fishers discover the many more miles of new fishable waters above the Monitor Mills dam.

I support fishing and the rights of anglers to have access to quality fishing waters. However, the trout and salmon fishery has become so popular and lucrative in the eastern Lake Ontario basin that, frequently, too many anglers populate the banks of the rivers and creeks, and it sometimes causes problems. Some, but not all, are disrespectful of private property. I have fished, swam, hiked, and camped along the banks of South Sandy Creek for more than 50 years, including the millpond behind Monitor Mills dam. Now, with the breach of the barrier, it's the responsibility of New York State and its governing laws of fishing and land access to assess the fishing access to the upper portion of South Sandy Creek before it becomes overrun with fishers who choose not to obey the laws and rights of private property owners.

The historical photographs below are from the Jefferson County Journal via the Lee family of Ellisburg. The Lee grist mill backed up to the creek. This scene is of the front of the mill. Some of the color photographs below are courtesy of Mary Lee Bettinger, granddaughter of the longtime mill owner, Manford C. Lee.

The Monitor Mills dam under reconstruction in the fall of 1904. Mary Lee Bettinger - Manford C. Lee family photo.

Cooper Environmental Research photo for New York State. 2006

Monitor Mills dam reconstruction in 1904 shows coffer dams and equipment washout. Notice the Lee District school house in the upper left corner. Mary Lee Better - Manford C. Lee family photo.

Mary Lee Bettinger photo. August 2020

Is this Ellisburg, New York??

I've had the colorized photo, below, for many years. It was presented to me as an image of the village of Ellisburg, NY. The photograph appears to have been taken from one of the bridges built or rebuilt across South Sandy Creek over many years, which would have been downstream from the current bridge of Route 193. In the early days, Ellisburg had three churches.
Sometimes I think it's possible that it's a depiction of Ellisburg. Other times...not so much. What do you think? Where else could this have been in the Town of Ellisburg, if the original statement about location is accurate? The only other significant communities in the town with a sizeable creek and dam are Belleville and Woodville on North Sandy Creek.
After much consideration, the consensus is no.

Development of Madison Barracks in Sackets Harbor, New York

Since the 1950s, Madison Barracks, a former US Military installation on Lake Ontario, had been abandoned by the federal government. Developers have since done a wonderful job re-purposing the former military fort and making it useful and appealing for today's multi-use residential and business development. Here are some vintage photographs from Madison Barracks in the 1920s and today. The drawings below are dated 1800s. Vintage images from NARA.

History of Madison Barracks can be found at https://madisonbarracks.com/historical-madison-barracks/

Read a diary of life in Madison Barracks in the 1940s. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/jefferson/hounsfield/SHsecor.html

Beer Baron Bought Stony Point Rifle Range For Cottages - Cement Plant.
Thankfully He Changed His Mind.

Aerial overlay of the Stony Point Rifle Range along Lake Ontario in Henderson, NY. Notice the longhouse barracks. US Army photo National Archives.

  Henderson, NY - When Rochester, NY Genesee beer baron Louis A. Wehle (pronounced Whale-ee) and car dealer Thomas Nagle purchased the former U.S. Military Rifle Range at Stony Point, NY, immediately following WW II, they used it to raise beef cattle. Wehle loved the natural two miles of Lake Ontario shoreline and 1,200 acres on Stony Point and initially thought it was an investment to be sold for a cottage community or to mine limestone for cement. However, in a self-published autobiographical manuscript, which carries no date or copyright, Wehle realized that he wished to leave this choice piece of waterfront land to his grandchildren. Eventually, Stony Point went to Wehle’s son, Robert G. Wehle, who, upon his death, donated the land to the public for the Robert G. Wehle State Park.

            I came across Louis A. Wehle’s manuscript during the summer of 2013. It was provided to a Henderson Harbor resident many years ago by the late Robert G. Wehle and was not widely distributed. There was no formal publisher or copyright. It is no longer in print. It appears to have been written by Wehle’s assistants and transcribed from his oral recordings in or about 1959-60.

  While Mr. Wehle tells long stories about his early life, building and operating his Genesee beer empire and officiating as NYS Conservation Commissioner, he details his two northern New York State properties at Henderson’s Stony Point and his St. Lawrence River home and farm near Cape Vincent, NY. The manuscript piqued my fascination with the massive acreage on the lake since I first visited the property as a teenager while delivering building materials to Robert Wehle as part of my summer job at the O.D. Greene Lumber Company in nearby Adams, NY.

            Wehle was an avid outdoorsman who loved to brew beer, make money, and fish. The manuscript portrays that he made his first million, running a bakery and bread distribution service around Rochester. After realizing that Prohibition was about to end, he invested all of his bakery cash into long-idled beer brewery equipment and started the Genesee Brewery. He took such a tremendous risk for abolishing Prohibition that his Genesee beer was brewed, bottled, and on the trucks when the repeal was announced. Genesee beer was the first on the road to supply Rochester area people with their first taste of legal beer in years. The rest is history as Genesee became one of the best-selling regional working man’s beers in the nation.
Black Bass was Wehle’s primary game fish and caused him to build his Cape Vincent cottage home just before the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. From there, Wehle’s boatmen could navigate his 40-foot custom-made Chris Craft diesel motor yacht into the St. Lawrence River or Lake Ontario for bass fishing. His nearby farm at Three Mile Bay was stocked with game birds for hunting with additional fowl stocked on Grenadier Island. While NYS Conservation Commissioner, his choice to stock his farm with pheasants from NYS stockpiles caused significant criticism. Many of the birds died from a pheasant blight. A notorious lawsuit led Governor Averill Harriman to demand Wehle’s resignation as Conservation Commissioner.

            In his manuscript, Wehle says that he and Nagle (a Rochester car dealer) purchased the abandoned Stony Point Rifle Range at a “meager figure. It would be an ideal spot for a huge summer colony,” he wrote. Wehle also pointed out the property’s value in limestone holdings that might be useful for a future cement plant. However, Wehle professed that he and Nagle wished to keep the lakefront property investment for their grandchildren or great-grandchildren. He said the gun “pillboxes” and foundations for the rifle range tents were still there when they bought the land, a water system, and a vast “disposal plant.”

            The U.S. Army had used the rifle range for decades. It was so remote that Henderson locals hid their whiskey stills in the Stony Point cedar thicket during Prohibition. One of them, a Civil War veteran, Jim Jackson, was arrested so many times for selling liquor to the troops that he became notorious as the Stony Point Bootlegger. To arrive at the rifle range, Army troops would march from nearby military bases at Pine Camp near Watertown (Fort Drum) and Fort Ontario near Oswego for weeks-long gunnery training. Engineers carved out a long shooting range north-south, including log bullet traps, distance markers, and positioning mounds. Concrete pillboxes were mounted on the bluffs from where troops would fire at targets dragged by boats in the lake. Several longhouses were constructed for officers and equipment at the cantonment while troops pitched a small city of tents on the limestone ground.

            As it turned out, the Stony Point property was inherited by Wehle’s son, Robert G. Wehle, who used the land for his renowned Elhew Kennels (Wehle spelled backward), where he developed his strain of hunting dogs. Several of his champion dogs are buried in a small cemetery on the Stony Point property. The younger Wehle decided to donate the entire property to New York State for the Robert G. Wehle State Park. It’s considered a passive recreation park with rules against camping, campfires, or other active recreation. It’s an ideal spot for hiking, dog walking and running, birdwatching, picnicking and recreation with young children. However, it should be noted that the high bluffs overlooking Lake Ontario are dangerous. The waves and currents in the water have claimed the lives of swimmers unaware of the difficulty of safely getting out of the water.
Louis Wehle didn’t spend too much time on Stony Point, but he traveled between Rochester, Henderson Harbor, and his summer home in Cape Vincent, frequently aboard his custom-made 40-foot Chris Craft diesel motor yacht, Jenny III. However, one visit is chronicled in the newspapers because when a fire broke out on his Stony Point farm one summer, he notoriously ran a dozer to build a fire break and called in state forest rangers from the Adirondacks to help put the fire out.

Today, as Wehle State Park, the former Stony Point Rifle Range, consists of more than 11-hundred acres of land and 17-thousand feet of Lake Ontario shoreline. Tall limestone bluffs form much of the shoreline with water depths offshore dropping off to more than 150 feet in an underwater chasm called The Trench. From the park, looking toward the northwest, visitors can easily see Stony Island about three miles away. Beyond Stony are Galloo Island and the Canadian border. The park is filled with a delicate balance of wildlife, from deer and rabbits to coyotes who roam and lead the food chain. Native red and white cedar trees have taken over much of the former range of more than one thousand yards. The park is open year-round and, in the winter, is an ideal location for snow shoeing and cross-country skiing.

Thomas Nagle, left, and Louis A. Wehle enjoy an Irish pint of beer at a pub in Dublin, Ireland. 1950s. Wehle photo

NYS Conservation Department publicity photo. 1950s.

Louis A. Wehle, founder of The Genesee Brewery of Rochester, NY.

Robert G. Wehle with three of his Elhew Kennels English Pointers at his Stony Point retreat in the 1960s. Wehle Photo.

Wehle Photo. 1960s.

The Stony Point Rifle Range catonment. Probably from the 1920s. Lake collection.

The Stony Point Rifle Range was originally 868 acres of land. Wehle purchased neighboring farms to increase the holdings to nearly 12-hundred acres. US Army image. National Archives.

Why is it called Log London Bridge?

The article below should explain this question for people in Ellisburg, New York who have a modern bridge across South Sandy Creek named after the British Capital.

From the former Jefferson County Journal.

Vintage 1960's Thousand Islands, Ontario Film

I found the 8 MM film in an antique shop in Weedsport, Cayuga County, NY. It portrays a summer vacation trip to Ontario, Canada with a crossing of the Thousand Islands bridge. The film shows the former Green Shingle Lodge on Wolfe Lake, Westport, Ontario. It is now the Wolfe Springs Resort.

Curtiss C-46 Commando that Crashed in 1951
Only known photo of the plane prior to the crash

The photograph below portrays the Curtiss C-46 Commando, tail number N 3944 C, when it was in the Riddle Airlines fleet, probably in 1950. Although I have no records of this plane in the Riddle lineup, its whereabouts in mid-1950 were unknown to me.

The origin of this photograph is undetermined. However, it's possible that it's from the Bill Larkins photo collection. It appears without attribution on page 61 of the December 2019 issue of Air Classics magazine, published by Challenge Publications, Inc. The caption below, while misstating the accurate itinerary of Continental Charters Flight 44-2, is gleaned from my book, Hang on and Fly. It's the only place where it's revealed that relief pilots charged the cockpit door and got into an argument with the flight pilots just seconds before the crash.
Magazine courtesy of Hang on and Fly reader, Fred Oullette, Maine.

The Ellisburg Boys
1965 and 2019

David Eastman, Tim Lake, Jan Rogers. 1965 - 2019.

On the left is a photograph from our kindergarten graduation day in June 1965 at Union Academy at Belleville. David Eastman, Tim Lake, and Jan Rogers. We grew up close together in Ellisburg, New York and went through school together, playing sports and summer activities, and then moved on to our professional careers.

David Eastman became a licensed explosives expert, blasting rock for construction projects all over the Northeastern United States. He lives in northern New York State and is active outdoors as a hunter, fisherman, and landowner.

Jan Rogers entered the insurance business and moved to Western New York State. He is the owner of Livingston Insurance Company in Geneseo, New York. He's also an avid boater in the Thousand Islands and Lake Ontario.

Tim Lake is a journalist and author based in Albany and Henderson Harbor, New York.

We've remained close friends throughout our lives. The photograph was taken in Ellisburg, New York in October 2019.

Warner's Farm - Landing - Inn
Henderson Harbor, NY

History of Jefferson County, NY 1797 - 1878. L.H. Everts & Company 1878

Warner's landing, farm, and later, Edgewater Inn was located along Harbor Road about a mile north of Henderson Harbor, New York. It operated at this location from the late 1700s through the 1930s when the farmland was purchased and split into waterfront cottage lots.

Great Lakes Ship Captain Henry R.Warner and his wife, Theda L. Kilby Warner, ran the landing and farm for many years. Later, their son, George Warner operated the farm and inn. Captain Warner was often away on the lakes for months at a time, so you probably understand who ran the landing, farm, and inn during warm weather season.

The landing served as part of a triangular route between Henderson Harbor, Sackets Harbor, and Kingston, Ontario. George Warner built a large Victorian house along the shoreline and called it Edgewater Inn or Warner's Inn. Visitors could also rent rooms in the farmhouse. For a brief time, there was a large waterfront boathouse and sail drying complex on the property, but it burned.

The Warners also owned the large island in Henderson Bay nearly in front of their farm and inn complex. Later, about 1906, this island was purchased by a group of electric light business owners and renamed Association Island.

Warner's Inn is where US Secretary of State John Foster stayed when he visited Henderson Harbor for fishing. Eventually, Secretary Foster purchased a waterfront property from Mr. Warner and built his cottage on the shoreline. His grandson, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and Foster's son-in-law, Secretary of State Robert Lansing, also built cottages on property obtained from the Warners.

A Steinway Piano Company heir, Henry W.T. Steinway, spent summers for fifty years in Henderson Harbor, staying many times at Warner's Inn. In 1939 he rented the cottage known as Rock Ledge. He died there that summer.

John C. Marsellus worked as a laborer at the Warner farm and stayed in the barn before purchasing a waterfront lot near Warners to build his summer fishing cottage. He later became renowned for running the Marsellus Casket Company, which made caskets for many famous Americans, including President Reagan.

In the 1930s, a group of Watertown and Utica business owners purchased the farm and inn properties for their summer cottages. Principals in this transaction included the Johnson newspaper family, owners of the Watertown Daily Times.

(2nd) Oldest Airplane Flying is in New York State

1909 Bleriot XI with a remarkable history briefly captures world title from the Brits

Red Hook, NY - October 2018. The world's oldest airplane still flying is now home at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York State's Hudson Valley. It captured the world title when a similar, but slightly older, airplane
in England suffered engine damage and lost its certification for flight.

Update, March 20, 2019. The British aviation museum (Charlesworth) that has long held the flight record for the oldest airplane flying contacted me to report that their Bleriot XI, which is only a few months older than the Bleriot XI depicted here, has been re-certified and completed a short flight to regain the record as the oldest airplane flying.

The Old Rhinebeck Museum's vintage 1909 Bleriot XI was designed and built by Louis Bleriot, the French aviation pioneer who became the first to fly a plane across the English Channel.

  Check out the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome here .

In the early summer of 2018, the Bleriot XI briefly became the oldest airplane in the world still flying. For a look at the Bleriot XI being tested for flight, watch the video below.

Then and Now
Scene of Elizabeth, NJ Plane Crash 68 Years Later
One of three crashes that closed Newark Airport for four months

March 2019 - I recently made a trip to Elizabeth, New Jersey and the scene of the December 1951 crash of a Miami Airlines C-46 passenger plane. While bridges have been replaced, streets moved around, and older homes torn down, the remaining distinctive landmark is the former Pennsylvania Railroad train tracks and stone arch bridge over the Elizabeth River. The large three-arch stone bridge in the foreground of the vintage photograph is the Westfield Avenue bridge, today replaced by a new bridge.

In the vintage photo, at left, you can see the crash, nearly center, and a crowd of people lined up on the Westfield Avenue bridge, bottom. In today's photo, the crash scene was in the large empty lot on the north (left) side of the Elizabeth River. There is no visible memorial at the scene for the victims of the plane crash. It was the first of three crashes in Elizabeth that led to the four month-long closing of Newark Airport in 1952.

I've written about the crash in Hang on and Fly. Farther below are six more images from the scene today. The stone arch bridge in these images is the former PRR bridge over the Elizabeth River. It was from the track embankment that kids of Elizabeth were sledding on the evening of the plane crash. Additionally, passengers on the Pennsy reported looking down from the platform to see the crash scene as their trains stopped at the Elizabeth station, just off the images on the left.

December 1951 crash scene for Miami Airline C-46 from Newark Airport. Bottom to top, Westfield Avenue Bridge, PRR bridge, West Grand Avenue bridge. The crash occurred on land formerly occupied by the Elizabeth city waterworks plant. It's still city property today.

Scene of the 1951 Miami Airlines crash, circa March 2019. While the Westfield Avenue (triple arches) and West Grand Avenue bridges, bottom and top, have been replaced, you can still make out the PRR tracks and bridge along the tree line, horizontally, in the center of the photo. Roads and the riverbed have been re-configured and single-family homes razed to make way for high-rise apartment buildings.

Scene of National Airlines Crash, Elizabeth, New Jersey
February 1952

February 11, 1952 - A National Airlines DC-6 crashed into an Elizabeth, New Jersey neighborhood between Westminster Avenue and Salem Avenue. Top left, the wreckage narrowly missed the Janet Memorial Home, an orphanage for boys. Top right, the DC-6 clipped an apartment building causing death among residents inside.

Bottom center and left, the scene of the apartment building and Janet Memorial Home then and today. The orphanage has been replaced by a school. It was located where the sports fields are today. Immediately following the disaster, Newark Airport was closed for four months. This crash is part of Chapter 20 in Hang on and Fly.

Lillian Lattimer, 100, Featured in Association Island Book, Movie

February 2019. Lillian (Tiller) Lattimer, Parish, New York, has died at 100.

Lillian contributed details and photographs to my book, Association Island, and I featured her in the movie, Association Island, with an interview describing her time spent on the island. She worked as a waitress at the island dining hall in 1937 and was, perhaps, the longest living person with detailed memories of the GE executives at Association Island prior to World War II.

Lillian kept a scrapbook of photographs from the island and shared them with me. I include a few in the book. She had a wonderful memory, even for the music they used to play on the island boats when ferrying GE employees to and from the island and Henderson Harbor.

Lillian was born and raised on a farm along Tiller Road in the Town of Ellisburg, NY (near Belleville) and it's her family for whom the road is named. Her parents' farmhouse burned in the mid-1930's, forcing her and other family members to seek employment off the farm. She chose Association Island.

At right is Lillian standing at Association Island and, many years later, during her interview for the movie. Also, Lillian's 1937 photographs showing the original Administration Building at Association Island (it burned in 1946), and the Gill House of Henderson Harbor. Lattimer Photos.

See her obituary here.

Lillian Lattimer, left, about 2012. Right, at Association Island in 1937. Lattimer photo

Heading to Association Island

Henderson Bay, NY - The photo below shows a commuter boat taking people to Association Island, probably from Sackets Harbor. Date unknown. But, it appears to be sometime in the 1930s. I think this might be Rudolph I Gowing's boat that was used for many years to transport people from Sackets Harbor to Association Island, Stony Island, and Galloo Island. My records show that Gowing also hauled livestock in an island service boat named Louis Donald. In later years, 1950s - 1960s, Gowing was the boatman for the Earl J. Machold family of Ellisburg, NY.

I have zoomed in close on this photograph but I cannot determine the name on the bow. If Gowing is navigating the boat in this picture, that would be him sitting amidship with his left elbow on the port rail, facing forward in a white hat. On this boat, the controls would have been on the aft section of the cabin. The long dangling tubes on the port rail are bumpers to prevent the boat from scraping against a dock. I'm guessing the LOA of this boat is at least 35 feet. It would have been propelled by an inboard gasoline engine.

Update: I believe this is the Gowing-built naphtha cruiser, Mermaid, a 38-foot cruiser homeported in Sackets Harbor for more than 60 years. It would have been built by Fred J. Gowing and his son, Rudolph I. Gowing, about 1906 -07. It appeared on display at the Antique Boat Show in Clayton, NY in August 1967.

For more vintage boats of Henderson Bay, please check out my books, Association Island and Henderson Harbor. They're now available in hardcover and paperback.

Commuter boat enroute from Sackets Harbor to Stony and Galloo Islands. It's probably a boat owned and operated by Rudolph Gowing, boatman in Henderson Harbor and Sackets Harbor for many decades. These men are probably headed to Association Island. Date and Photographer Unknown. Colorized photo.

Advertisement from the Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper in 1910. Because Fred Gowing built a 34-foot Mermaid II in 1906, I presume he wished to sell this naphtha launch because he built a new boat that was powered by gasoline.

New 42-foot Commuter Yacht Plies Eastern Lake Ontario

Summer of 2018, spied this beautiful commuter yacht at Phillips Petroleum's Stony Island Lodge. It was
parked at a small cottage in the Stony Island pond, a long lagoon in the middle of the island. Phillips apparently uses it to ferry VIPs to the island.
The boat manufacturer says it was designed specifically to provide a luxurious ride from Henderson Harbor to Stony Island in all kinds of weather. Details on the custom-made Lyman-Morse boat are here.

Who Will Save the Galloo Island Coast Guard Station?

Galloo Island Coast Guard Station 2017 - 2020

July, 2017. September, 2018

Galloo Island Coast Guard Station boat house, 2007. From the PanAmerican architectural survey.

2007 image of the Galloo Island Coast Guard base. PanAmerican architectural survey.

Galloo Island Coast Guard Station Boathouse. July, 2020.

Hounsfield, NY - 2017-20. High water and ice have finally taken their toll on the 1936-37 Galloo Island Coast Guard Station. The south wall of the three bay boat house, clad in weathered gray cedar shingles, has buckled, dropping the three dormers on the similarly shingled south side roof to precarious angles. Three overhead doors which were raised
many times to allow Coast Guard patrol boats to seek salvage from the brutally cold northern New York winters, are twisted, rotted, and have fallen off their tracks. A triple bay of six over six double-hung windows stare out from the peak with a gaping hole in one of them. It looks like an angry mouth wailing for help. Yellow D-E-C placards are nailed to the walls. "No Trespassing." It's obvious that not even the Department of Environmental Conservation has come near the boathouse in years. Neglect is taking its toll. In a matter of time it'll be gone. This station performed a vital role in marine activity on eastern Lake Ontario for fifty years. Will someone save the Galloo Island Coast Guard Station?

Built in 1936-37 on a bluff overlooking Gill Harbor
on the eastern shore of Galloo Island and across a deep trench in Lake Ontario from Stony Point, the Galloo Island Coast Guard station includes a two-story, five-bay Chatham-Type Life-Boat Station House with a three-bay entrance porch. It was probably designed by Coast Guard architect Victor Mendleheff, as cited by Ralph Shanks, Wick York, and Lisa Woo Shanks, in their 1996 book, The U.S. Life Saving Service. The same Chatham-Type Station House can also be found at Munising, Michigan, Pamet River, Massachusetts, and Fire Island, New York.

The shore boathouse with its three large overhead doors each displaying 21 lights, six dormers protruding from the roof, and two-prong wooden dock reaching out to a large concrete mooring platform made up the larger structures on the Coast Guard property. A small shed and a three-bedroom dormitory-laundry were included, along with a four-legged 50-foot steel communications tower with antenna displaying a large cross. The only other figure on the one acre fenced in property was a large round fuel tank that resembled a giant red Tootsie roll on the shore near the boathouse. It's been long gone, a requirement of conservation laws to clean up fuel repositories.

The Galloo Island Coast Guard Station served fishermen, sport mariners and marine merchants with navigation and rescue operations on the eastern portion of Lake Ontario from 1937 until it was initially closed for budgetary reasons in 1973, then sporadically re-opened under political pressure, and permanently abandoned in 1981. Since then, it had been sitting as derelict excess federal government property, and now NYS DEC property until it's nearly ready to fall in. It should be saved!

September 2018

Approaching the Galloo Island Coast Guard Station from my boat in the summer of 2017.

Summer of 2017. A Chatham-type station house built in 1936-37.

Galloo Island Coast Guard Base and Gill Harbor. 2009.

Summer of 2017. The boathouse was completed in 1939.

The Big Sandy Life Saving Station at the mouth of Big Sandy Creek. An 1875-type station house. CG Photo

The Galloo Island Coast Guard District was established
in 1876 but it was not located on Galloo Island at that time. The island also had a lighthouse and keeper's house for navigation warnings for mariners on the lake. There were a handful of farms on Galloo Island owned by families who rented rooms to fishermen in the summer season, and a shingle mill that cut roofing and siding shingles from the large and abundant cedar trees on the island. There was a schoolhouse, a large barn, and the P.K. Clubhouse (a fishing camp) at North Pond. The P.K. Club was founded by Watertown, New York businessmen, including Secretary of State Robert M. Lansing, whose family also had a cottage on the mainland at Henderson Harbor. Read more about Henderson Harbor and Association Island in my book.

What is now the Galloo Island Coast Guard Station originated on the mainland, a few miles south of Galloo Island, in the Town of Ellisburg at the mouth of Big Sandy Creek. In September 1876 large vessels carried a pre-fabricated 1875-type U.S. Life Saving Service Station across the Great Lakes from Bay City, Michigan to Big Sandy Creek where the structure was assembled into one of the most architecturally attractive waterfront station houses on the lakes.  It was named the Big Sandy Life Saving Station, and it was nestled in the sand dunes at the mouth of the creek. Surfmen assigned to this station performed many rescues of stranded mariners whose sailing vessels were blown off course and into the sandy shoals of Mexico Bay, the graveyard of Lake Ontario.

During the long dry years of Prohibition, Big Sandy played a significant role in capturing booze smugglers on the lake, especially in the middle years of Prohibition when the U.S. territorial limit on the Atlantic Ocean was expanded
and many smugglers shifted their trade from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes. Read more about Big Sandy in my book. Major lake storms in 1929 and 1935 (flooding) severely damaged the Big Sandy Station and the nearby keeper's house. Because commercial lake boating traffic had shifted from sailing vessels to propeller driven ships, the need for a surf rescue station in Mexico Bay was greatly diminished.

From the 1920s onward, the lake rescues in this region were mostly for fishing and recreational mariners around Henderson Harbor and Sackets Harbor. Therefore, the decision was made to move the Coast Guard Station to Galloo Island where guardsmen could easily keep watch on the eastern shore of the lake. Surveys were performed around Gill Harbor, and in 1936 construction on the Chatham-type station house began. The boathouse construction followed, lasting well into 1938 when the area was hit hard by the remnants of a major Hurricane.

Below are a few comments from Galloo Island Coast Guardsman, Gerrett Gregory, who, in 2010, told his story about the 1938 Hurricane:

Darkness was falling fast. The copper color sky encompassed everything. It was very depressing. The velocity of wind was increasing by the second. Mr. Wilson (the Captain) headed outside, opening the main door of the dwelling. He then opened the heavy screen door which disappeared into the night torn from its hinges. He stepped back staying inside.  The wind velocity increased to around 80 mph, the Weather Service reported.  Wind velocity is forecast
and read as nautical miles per hour. However, we are used
to reading speed in statute miles per hour, so if the wind velocity is said
by the Weather Service to be blowing at 95 this in our world is well over a hundred miles per hour in statute miles.

  Gregory also gave a description of the Galloo Island station while it was under construction:

At the edge of water, where the boat docks were situated, a boathouse was in the final stages of completion. Near the boathouse a dredging barge with an enormous dredging bucket was secured /anchored in a small body of water known as Gill Harbor whose perimeter was defined by either a man-made or natural reef between it and Lake Ontario.

In most of the Life-Saving Stations or Lifeboat stations, at that time there were eight personnel. Each was numbered
. The number one guy was the Captain or the Skipper who ran the Station with an iron hand. “Colors,” both morning and night, were closely observed. At the Galloo Island Lifeboat Station the crew sang patriotic songs and whatever other songs the Skipper wanted sung from 0730 to 0800 colors.

Each crew member was supposed to have one day off each week if he could be spared. These Surfmen stood continuous lookout watches and after dark made foot patrols to the Canadian side that is the side facing Canada or north side of the Island every two hours. The lookout watches were generally two hours as well. These five men who did the tower watches, patrols by boat or on foot were always sleep deprived.

For many years, large electricity-generating wind farms have been proposed for Galloo Island. At least two proposals have been turned down and a third was pending into early 2019 when the developers withdrew their application for environmental permits.  Read the details here. Part of the approval for development on Galloo Island must come from the D-E-C which oversees the environment and owns the Coast Guard base property. State documents are linked here. While historical site surveys conducted on the island during previous wind farm development projects found nothing of great significance except for abandoned farm foundations and crude tools from the Wattam, Gannett, Luff, Gill, Stevens, and Wescott families, the survey did not include the Coast Guard Station. At the very least, if the D-E-C considers a wind farm proposal on Galloo, it ought to arrange for New York State Parks Historic Preservation Division to attach a condition that the developer contribute generously to a fund to restore the station house, if not the entire property. A new roof, windows, paint and waterproofing to preserve a small piece of Galloo Island's recent history.

1939 photo by Captain Robert Fitzpatrick via the USCG.

Galloo Island Coast Guard Station House 1937. C.G Photo

Galloo Island Coast Guard Station House 1938. C.G. Photo

The Galloo Island Coast Guard Station in the 1970's as it was about to be closed. The sailboat may be Jack Machold's boat, Promises. Photograph courtesy of the Watertown Daily Times.

Galloo Island Slide Show

The mouth of Big Sandy Creek from Lake Ontario. North Sandy Creek is on the left. South Sandy Creek is on the right. The Big Sandy Life Saving Station was located on the sand dunes just inside the mouth on the left side. This was also the scene of a great military battle between American and British naval forces during the War of 1812.

New Artwork at the Cherry Tree Inn

A rather calm and quiet day at Henderson Harbor, NY on December 2, 2017.

Michael Bellinger, co-owner of Colleen's Cherry Tree Inn, displays some new artwork that hangs on the wall of the very popular Henderson, NY restaurant. It's located at the intersection of Military Road and Route 3 in Henderson.
This restaurant is so busy that there often is no place to park on a summer weekend morning.

Vintage Galloo Island Fishing Cabin Nearly Gone

The last of the Galloo Island fishermen's cabins. Summer of 2017.

Since the beginning of the 20th Century, fishing guides have maintained small cabins on North Pond, a large and shallow lagoon on Galloo Island in Eastern Lake Ontario. The cabins were necessary for shelter during long fishing trips for bass and perch, cisco
and trout, in the lake. The fishing guides kept a small cluster of cabins, boat docks, and picnic grounds on the western side of North Pond while a group of Watertown, New York businessmen kept a large cottage known as the P.K. Club on the eastern side of North Pond. They used the pond and their cabins for refuge when storms blew into the lake during the fishing season.
In an emergency, anyone could seek shelter in the buildings. However, you had to know how to navigate your boat into the pond.

Today, the last remaining fishing cabin is nearly gone. It won't be long before the P.K. Clubhouse is gone too
.

I first began going to North Pond on Galloo Island in the summer of 1978. During college breaks, they employed
me as a handyman in '78 and '79 for Watertown and Henderson Harbor trucking and travel agency businessman, Larry Smith. Larry was gray-haired and heavily tanned with his deck shoes, khaki trousers and blue blazers with silver buttons accented by a stiff white-collared button-down shirt. He built and maintained a large eight-slip boathouse in Henderson Harbor and owned the old P.K. Club cottage at North Pond. We (I was the assistant handyman to my former hometown neighbor and farmer, Frank Trowbridge) would go out to Galloo Island in Larry's shallow draft Boston Whaler in the late spring to mark the North Pond entrance channel with white Clorox jugs. Larry piloted the boat while I would lean over the bow and drop the jugs and their weights whenever he would say "drop it." Later, we would go out there with his 30-foot Lyman cruiser to perform maintenance work on the cottage during the summer. It was a wonderful experience. Looking across the lake toward the west we could see lake freighters plying the shipping channel to and from the St. Lawrence River. The Edmund Fitzgerald ore carrier pushed through this same route. Large snakes lived under the dock for the old P.K. Club and we would often wait until they were sunning themselves and then blast them with Larry's .45 pistol. I remember that the gun's recoil would nearly knock me backward but I loved the excitement of the blast. We put a lot of holes in the dock. We rebuilt the dock each summer but today the dock is almost gone
.

The fishing cabin you see here was still intact in the late 1970's and was accessible from a small wooden dock. It was in the most protected portion of the pond. The old P.K. Clubhouse, dating back to the early part of the century, was already in poor condition, mostly because of the erosion of the shoreline along the lake. Henry Edmund (H.E.) Machold, Ellisburg, New York farmer, New York City banker, and former Speaker of the New York State Assembly had purchased the P.K. Clubhouse in the 1940's for his twin children, Earle and Doris Machold. They used it for many years. Larry Smith purchased the property in 1966 and used it primarily for fishing excursions in the summer and duck hunting in the fall. The property has always consisted of the main clubhouse and a small outbuilding for the electricity generator. I remember that one of my jobs was to oil and tighten all the bolts and nuts on the generator before testing it for the fall hunting season. It was a small generator driven by a belt-driven gasoline-powered engine that sounded more like an old boat motor. It did not produce much electricity, just enough for a few lights, a water pump, and a radio.

During its heyday as the P.K. Clubhouse, there were several members who used it for fishing, playing cards, and drinking. Former U.S. Secretary of State Robert "Bert" Lansing was a prominent member.

Eventually, Larry Smith sold the Clubhouse and today the fishing cabin, P.K. Clubhouse cottage, and most of the rest of the island are owned by the Galloo Island Corporation of Fayetteville, New York. North Pond is accessible by boat through a shallow channel. The Henderson Harbor Fishing Guides Association has an agreement with the current owners to maintain small docks and "shore dinner" picnic grounds on the northern shore of North Pond. It was one of these fishing guides who provided permission for me to land my boat, Big Sandy, at a North Pond dock and go ashore to take pictures of the old fishing cabin before it falls in.

In 2017, like it was previously in the early part of the 21st Century, Galloo Island is now up for consideration for large wind turbines to generate electricity. It will change the character of the island forever.

Next: The old fishing cabin and the P.K. Clubhouse are not alone on Galloo Island. I soon will post some great old and new photographs of the Galloo Island Coast Guard Station and the Lighthouse, including photos of the Coast Guard Station under construction in 1937. Come back soon to see them.

Vintage Lake Ontario Fishing Cabins Are Gone

The Sixtown Island fishermen's cabin in 2016. By the flood of 2017 it was gone.

Two small fishing guide cabins that stood for many years on islands in Lake Ontario are gone by 2017.
One cabin was located on Sixtown Island between Henderson Bay and Lake Ontario. Sixtown Island has long been owned by descendants of the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles family, for whom Dulles International Airport is named. Sixtown (and neighboring Association Island) was once used by French soldiers as an observation post prior to the War of 1812.
Sometime in the first half of the 20th Century, a small fishing cabin was built on the western tip of Sixtown Island, facing the beautiful sunsets of Lake Ontario. It may have been utilized by Henderson Harbor fishing guides such as Myron Barney, J. Aiken Montague, Ross White, and Will Stevens. However, because it appears to date to the '30's and '40's, it probably was more often used by Dr. Terry and Harriet Montague and members of their fishing parties on the lake. They likely used it for duck hunting too.
For as long as I can remember, the cabin has been locked and boarded up. While boaters often visited the island, for many years no one violated the sanctity of the old fishermen's cabin.
Then came 2016 and '17.

Someone tore the boards off the windows in 2016 and gained entry. Others followed. The roof developed a leak and the cabin became dangerous. The high water flood of 2017 inundated the foundation. The owners determined it necessary to tear down the cabin. Now it's gone. I know the island owners and, with their long-standing permission, visited the cabin for the umpteenth time in late 2016 to document it on the inside. I too violated the sanctity of the ole' fishing cabin but only to record its appearance and contents. I knew it wouldn't last much longer. It looked as if it hadn't changed in decades. There was a beautiful hand crafted fireplace made from stones picked up along the shore of the island. There were fishing net weights in a bucket, and a ladder with the initials "H.B." Gas lamps once provided light. You can see the rest in the photographs below.

This Old Barn....

I remember this small barn from when I was a kid. It's always been locked and unused. The owner has not done anything with it in years.
Despite the quality metal roofing, this barn is in danger of collapsing because it needs shoring up on the foundation. I've offered to buy it from the owner but no response.
Notice the details in the trim. It's a small barn, about 15 feet x 20 feet, and I would love to be able to move it to a stable foundation and restore it to a rustic but usable condition. What do you think?

Historical Narrative Nonfiction Books
A list of recently read books

Reading Hang on and Fly on Live TV!
Albany, NY television reporter Jimmy Marlow, V, takes a break during the May 2017 Albany Tulip Fest to catch up on Hang on and Fly.
Marlow spent two nights in a tent to promote the festival and to raise money for charities. Hang on and Fly kept him busy during his down time. While the story takes place mostly in Western New York, Canada, and New Jersey, it has a reference to Albany. Can you find it?

Tim's Hometown Cemetery Gazebo Restoration

My Brother, Greg Lake, looking over the Ellisburg, NY cemetery gazebo prior to replacing the roof. May 6, 2017.

Vintage Gazebo Pumphouse

May 6-7, 2017 - The statue of a little girl watched over us. It poured rain. Absolutely poured!
Cold air moved in and, carrying bundles of shingles from the occupied cemetery vault, my brother, Greg Lake, and I spent the first Saturday in May rehabbing a beautiful old pump house gazebo at our hometown cemetery in upstate New York. We were miserable in the cold and rain but we pushed on. We figure that we'll be full time residents of the cemetery some day.

The vintage early 20th century gazebo is a small, very attractive and architecturally appealing structure we just don't see anymore in modern cemeteries. As far as we know, it's always been white with a green roof. The stylish foundation blocks were popular in the 1920's. I remember pushing the long-handled pump as a kid to get a drink of water.

It was the second time I had done the job, first replacing the shingles in 1996 with my childhood friend and neighbor, Joel Bettinger, along with my sister and his sister-in-law, the late Julie Lake Bettinger. We noted then that it coincided with the crash of TWA Flight 800. I wrote that milestone on the boards of the gazebo roof. They're still there.

Sometime prior to 1920, we believe, funding for the pump house gazebo was donated to the Ellisburg Cemetery. It's for visitors to fill their jugs with water to sprinkle on flowers and shrubs around the graves. The original cast iron hand pump broke and was replaced by a smaller and rudimentary indoor hand pump that works well but does not match the outdoor setting. We decided to look around for someone to donate another large hand pump. If you have one or know somebody who has one they might donate, please let us know.

Famous and not so famous

The Ellisburg Cemetery is populated by some famous and not so famous people. Perhaps the most renowned are Harold Edmund Machold and son, Earle John Machold. The elder Machold was a wealthy banker from Amsterdam and New York City, who rose up to become Speaker of the New York State Assembly. He was considered as a potential candidate for governor but declined to run. He and his wife, Jenny Ward, assumed ownership of her family's farm and they greatly expanded their holdings, creating a large and prosperous dairy farm in the lush fields of Ellisburg with Lake Ontario visible from the upstairs bedrooms of their large farmhouse. Earle became the chairman of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation and is responsible for ushering in the age of nuclear energy in upstate New York.

The Ellisburg Cemetery, as small as it is, also contains a large number of U.S. Life Saving Service surfmen. The Life Saving Service was the precursor to the Coast Guard and many of the surfmen in the cemetery got their start at the nearby Big Sandy Life Saving Station a few miles away on the shore of Lake Ontario. A few of them died while on duty and all of them bravely rescued sailors from the lake.

Our father, Warren Clayton Lake, is also buried there in a plot that will hold 15 others. There were 15 in our family but not everyone will end up there. It's a long story.

Beauty in a statue

On May 6th, we thought we would have a few hours of rain free weather to get the old roof ripped off the gazebo and the new roof started but we were dead wrong. Pun intended. We were the only humans in the cemetery complaining, however. All others were silent. Looking away from my perch on the gazebo while carefully removing nails from around the spire, I could see the statue of a little girl, her arm broken, watching over us. There is no inscription on the girl's statue. We have no idea who she is or who put her there. She just stands there watching.

Despite the constant rain we got the job nearly done before realizing we were short on shingles. We failed to consider the amount of cutting needed to make the standard shingles fit on a hip roof. It adds up quickly. Because there is nothing inside the gazebo that can be damaged by a few days of a leaking roof, the job will be finished when the weather improves.
Next job for us is the cemetery's storage and equipment shed. It needs help.

Donations by O.D. Greene Lumber Company

The materials for the gazebo and caretaker's shed job were donated by Sally Stevens, longtime Ellisburg resident, our family friend, and the owner of O.D. Greene Lumber Company in Adams, NY. The Ellisburg Cemetery Association and its president, Mary Lee Bettinger, are grateful for O.D. Greene's generous contribution each time we've asked them to help out. O.D. Greene truly knows how to give back to the community. We donate our labor as a fitting contribution as well.

The author, Tim Lake, hanging on while prepping the gazebo spire for repairs.

In 1996 I wrote on the roof boards, "TWA Flight 800 Crash. 230 dead. Doris Washburn, Ellisburg, 100 years old. Doris was my neighbor when I was a kid. She lived to be 100 and is buried in this cemetery.

Statue of a little girl in the Ellisburg Cemetery. Any inscription that might have been on this statue is gone.

Finished. Hot weather will lay down the ridge caps. Painting is next.

Sister, Jill Lake Lang, donating a new-old hand pump to be installed in the pump house.

Next project. The Cemetery storage shed also needs a new roof and a coat of paint.

Greg Lake gets work on the Cemetery caretaker's shed roofing underway in September, 2017.

Local boys' labor. l-r, Kevin Lake, Jon Lake, Joel Bettinger, all raised in Ellisburg, NY, volunteer to restore the cemetery caretaker's shed.

l-r, Jon Lake, Joel Bettinger, Kevin Lake, fitting the final part, the ridge vent for the Ellisburg Cemetery caretaker's shed. September 2017. All volunteer work.

Craig Veley, long-time resident of Ellisburg, NY, served as the ground man, cutting shingles, measuring, and rescuing dropped tools. Craig and his family have been steady supporters of the Cemetery Association.

Several roof boards had to be replaced on the Cemetery caretaker's shed. Leaks in the previous roofing allowed the boards to become wet and rot.

Ready for Paint. The roof is one and the Ellisburg Cemetery Caretaker's Shed is scraped and ready for paint. Next.

Article from the South Jeff Journal, November 22, 2017.

Plaque on the Ellisburg, NY Cemetery Pump House. It's believed to date to the 1920's.

The final product. It should last another 50 years.

Hang on and Fly meets Cat Country in Albany, New York

Talking about the great story in Hang on and Fly with Dana Race at 100.9 The Cat. April 24, 2017 in Albany-Latham, New York.

Book It club meets in Newport with Hang on and Fly

Submitted Photo

Book It book club members in Newport.

Nine members of Book It book club meeting in Newport, Rhode Island on April 1, 2017, and discussing everything they loved about reading Hang on and Fly.
Members are from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Georgia.
Marie Barry Trudeau said, "Reading Hang On And Fly for our book club. Can't put it down!"
Women readers, such as members of Book It, have provided some of the most detailed feedback on Hang on and Fly. They are greatly moved by the heroism and emotionally tragic events involving two of the main characters in the book, Pearl, and Ruby.
Thank you, Book It!

The Original Ruby Bryant Plane Crash Notes

Ruby and Otis Bryant at Letchworth State Park, about 1951. Bryant family Photo

A diary provides the most emotional information from a source in historical narrative nonfiction. For Hang on and Fly, I was able to absorb information from Ruby Jewel Bryant's diary and notes that she had written on a calendar.
The details were remarkable.

The pictures here show Ruby Bryant's notes that she wrote on a wall calendar from 1951-52. She details her family events and personal and medical health issues while performing the role of heroine during the crash of Flight 44-2. Her diary is much longer and detailed.

Ruby was also a victim. She was a simple farm woman caring for her family in a rural and very remote region of Western New York State in the 1940s - early '50s. Ruby probably knew or feared that she had breast cancer when she sprang into action as plane crash survivor George Albert suddenly showed up at her farmhouse door.

Ruby's diary and notes (below) were passed down through her family for many years and then provided to me by her children to write Hang on and Fly. It takes a lot of courage and trust to give someone a diary. I appreciate the Bryant family trusting me with their mother's most private recollections.

When people send me comments about the story in Hang on and Fly, they are most sympathetic with Ruby; then George; then Pearl.
I think it's because they easily identify with Ruby's simple but personal comments in her diary.

Ruby was a remarkably brave woman! And, she saved lives while knowing that hers was about to end.

Wreckage remains from Continental Charters Flight 44-2

One of many pulleys used to control flaps and ailerons for Flight 44-2.

Authentic Parts

Since Hang on and Fly was published, people have turned my attention to some of the wreckage from the crash of Continental Charters Flight 44-2.

I suspected that parts of the wreckage were still out there because many plane crash tourists in 1952 carried wreckage from the top of Bucktooth Ridge as souvenirs. One reader recalls seeing airplane seats at the Herrick farm many years after the crash. They're long gone.

Without revealing where these small airplane parts are today, I've included some photographs here that I've checked out and determined to be authentic.

There are more. I plan to go see the parts in person.

This machine saved lives!

Click on the picture to enlarge it

The Herrick's Oliver HG on New Year's Eve, 1951-52.

 The Herrick Family's Oliver HG

Wrapped in cobwebs in a small barn in Western New York State is the vintage 1940's Oliver HG crawler-tractor that saved lives in Hang on and Fly.
I had known about this farm and logging vehicle being stored away for quite some time. However, I finally got the time to go see it. It was formerly owned by the Kenneth and Margaret Herrick family of Napoli, New York. They used it for logging and hauling farm materials in the cold winters and muddy springs in the Allegheny Mountains.

When rescuers determined the location of the crash of Continental Charters Flight 44-2 on New Year's Eve - New Year's Day, 1951-52, they all gathered at the Herrick farm to trek up the side of Bucktooth Ridge.

For a few more images, click here.

In the book, Hang on and Fly, I explain how the Herrick teenage boys, Robert and Marion, drove their Oliver HG, with a trailer attached, up the side of the ridge to carry out survivors, including Stewardess Pearl Ruth Moon. Later that night and early the next morning they returned with the crawler-tractor and helped carry out the dead. In the following weeks, the Herrick boys used the HG to carry out the plane's wrecked engines and other parts, for salvage.

The Herrick brothers passed the Oliver HG down in the family. It is now owned by Will Herrick and is stored in his barn in Western New York State. Will has plans to restore the old tractor...sometime in the future. Covered with dust and cobwebs, the lifesaving crawler-tractor is actually in very good condition. The pictures here are from a visit to see it on October 1, 2016.

Vintage 1920's Association Island Cabin Moved to New Location

Jerry Kitto of Kitto's Quality Structures moved Cabin #30 with his special trailer. It worked flawlessly.

After replacing the floor and stabilizing the walls, I finally was able to complete the move of Cabin #30, an original Association Island sleeping cabin from the 1920's. It went off without a hitch.
The cabin was originally moved from Association Island sometime in the early 1970's and positioned along Snowshoe Road in Henderson. It was used as a craft-making and sales cabin. Then, it sat vacant for all these years. Because it was placed upon concrete blocks, the cabin's floor eventually slipped into the ground. The floor decayed and crumbled. However, the rest of the structure remained solid, including the wainscoting interior. It needed saving.

After reading my book, Association Island, the family of Jean Gerace agreed to give up the cabin to my proposed restoration and removal. Jean was a Rounds, a descendant of Dr. Rounds who purchased the Brooklyn House Hotel on the bluff along the northwest side of White's Bay. The Brooklyn House was torn down sometime in the 1960's. For many years the Rounds family owned much of the land on the northwestern side of White's Bay leading to Dings' and Hovey's Cove.

It took a few years to prepare the cabin for removal. However, in May 2016, Jerry Kitto of Kitto's Quality Structures, backed up to it with his long red trailer and craftily hoisted the cabin on board. With a short drive along Snowshoe Road, Cabin #30 is now at home along the shore in nearly the same position as the old Brooklyn House Hotel. It still needs restoration work but, when completed, it will make excellent storage space and provide comfort for occasional overflow sleeping.

There were 160 of these cabins built for campers on Association Island. Not many are left. You can find pictures of them in my book, Association Island, here on TimLakeBooks.com. For more photos and video of the preparation and the move, scroll down.

Hang on and Fly featured at Book Expo America for cover design

Hang on and Fly was one of several books featured at Book Expo America, May 12-14, 2016 in Chicago. Cover designer Renee Barratt included the book as one of her many cover designs at the expo.
Book Expo America is the largest publishing expo in the U.S. Renee did a great job with the cover of Hang on and Fly. She used it at the expo to illustrate to authors and publishers how she can do the same for their great books.

Examples of Renee Barratt's work on book cover designs. Hang on and Fly is at the lower right.

Renee Barratt, right, from The Cover Counts, along with author AJ Norris, writer of Healing Hearts. Barratt image

**1948 Film of Hang on and Fly family's abandoned Pennsylvania hometown**

A short film from 1948 shows abandoned Josephine, Pennsylvania. It was the hometown of the Abe and Elizabeth Albert family, including George, the hero of Hang on and Fly. Taken in 1948, the film depicts Josephine just three years before George returned home for Christmas with his family, and before the crash of Flight 44-2.

The film does not appear to show the former Albert family store but, rather, it shows the homes built by a steel/coke company for its employees and the site of the former blast furnaces along Black Lick Creek.

The brief story of Josephine, Pennsylvania is portrayed in Hang on and Fly. View the film here or click on the movie below. Courtesy of Ruth and Roy Thompson and Tube Engagements via YouTube.

**Radio Interview about Hang on and Fly wins Hermes Award**

Paul Ladd of World Christian Broadcasting holding the Hermes Gold Award he won for a radio interview on Hang on and Fly.

World Christian Broadcasting Network host Paul Ladd won a prestigious award for a radio interview with Tim Lake discussing Hang on and Fly!
Congratulations, Paul. Well deserved.
In November 2015, Ladd did a radio interview with Tim where he asked several questions about the origin of the story and Tim's exhaustive research into the nonscheduled airlines of post World War II America. Ladd edited the interview prior to air and played it in multiple parts on the WCB Network. It reached a worldwide audience.
In April 2016, Ladd was informed that his interview was the Gold Winner for the Hermes Award of 2016. Ladd said the competition is judged on the quality of the hosting (Ladd), the interview subject (Hang on and Fly), and the guest (Tim Lake). "I couldn't have done it without you," Ladd proclaimed.
The Hermes Award is part of the Addy Awards, the advertising industry's largest competition.

Interview with Crash Survivor Pearl Ruth Moon

The senior stewardess/flight attendant of Continental Charters Flight 44-2 describes the crash and how the survivors managed to live for two nights and three days stranded on the top of Bucktooth Ridge in the final hours of 1951.
This interview was conducted in December, 2010 and is the only recorded interview of her memories of the crash. She becomes very emotional in the third clip when she talks about those who perished in the crash.
Pearl Ruth Moon died of age-related natural causes in 2012 in her home state, North Carolina.

Phila Airport declines memorial upgrade for stewardess in Hang on and Fly; Hometown honors its hero, Mary Frances Housley

Philadelphia Daily News columnist, Stu Bykofsky, has written articles about the small and rather insignificant memorial at the Philadelphia Airport fire station for stewardess-flight attendant, Mary Frances "Frankie" Housley. Stu's columns have advocated a larger and more prominent position for the memorial.
Read his latest column, here.
Initially the airport agreed. However, it appears that new airport management has no interest in a memorial upgrade for a true American hero. That's a shame.
I wrote about "Frankie" Housley in Hang on and Fly. She was just one of the heroic stewardess/flight attendant figures of the most tragic of years in American commercial passenger aviation history. She posthumously received the Carnegie Medal for Heroism.
Frankie's story begins in Chapter 15 of Hang on and Fly.
Update: In 2017, led by Chris Hammond and the Fountain City, Tennessee Central High School Alumni Association, the Mary Frances Housley Memorial Bridge in Fountain City was dedicated. The bridge is a short distance from "Frankie's" high school. Read about it here.
Hammond and other local residents of Fountain City, Jacksonville, and Knoxville are searching for a missing eight feet by six feet oil painting completed in the 1950's that depicts Housley with outstretched arms to save passengers. More information about the oil painting and the search can be found here.

Mary Frances "Frankie" Housley, stewardess for National Airlines in 1951. National Airlines flight crashes in Philadelphia, 1951. Mary Frances Housley portrayed in Heroic Comics.

Newspaper profile of all three books by Tim Lake

Front page article from reporter Angela Underwood in South Jeff Journal on January 27, 2016 profiles Association Island and mentions Henderson Harbor and Hang on and Fly.

The South Jeff Journal issued a front page story about all three books by Tim Lake on January 27, 2016. Reporter Angela Underwood focused mostly on Association Island but she also mentioned Henderson Harbor and Hang on and Fly. Her profile detailed the many changes that have occurred on Association Island since it was used as an employee conference center and resort for The General Electric Company for more than 50 years from (1903) 1906-1956.
The South Jeff Journal does not have a website but I have posted a few photographs above. There is also a link to the paper's FB page, here.

December 29, 1951. The fateful day that led to Hang on and Fly

A Continental Charters C-46, similar to the plane that crashed as Flight 44-2 on December 29, 1951. Bill Larkins photo. Used with permission.

After two aborted take-offs for a malfunctioning airplane, Continental Charters Flight 44-2 finally took off from Miami for Pittsburgh and Buffalo at 3:40 pm on December 29, 1951.
It was 5 1/2 hours late.
Landing safely in Pittsburgh where it loaded more passengers, it took off again and headed into severe winter weather.
It never made it to Buffalo.
Pilot error, a newly refurbished C-46 cargo/passenger plane, bad weather, and "get-thereitis" all led to it's crash and disappearance late that night. It was the final major passenger plane crash of 1951, a period that shook the fledgling airplane travel industry with the first "deadliest year" for American aviation.
Despite a three-state, two-nation search, the missing plane couldn't be found.
Forty-three hours later, a brave passenger walked off a mountain, found a simple farmer's wife, and told the world about the loaded passenger plane that simply disappeared.
Three passengers and the farmer's wife became national heroes.
It scared Americans into our long-time fear of flying; it was the longest stranding of a large group of plane crash survivors in North America without rescue; it gave us our perception that we're always safest in the back of a plane; it was the precedent-setting first time the nation's top plane crash investigator personally visited the scene of a crash; it led to Hollywood's popular plane crash movie genre; it caused the President and his White House staff to crack down on lax federal regulations on passenger aviation; it led to many, many aviation safety regulations that we all take for granted as we fly safely today.
You can read about the dramatic story and the many other emotional details of the crashes of 1951 in Hang on and Fly.

Front Page News in the Jamestown Post-Journal

A big thank you to Deb Everts for writing a great article about the background of Hang on and Fly in the Sunday Jamestown Post-Journal on December 27, 2015. It was a wonderful surprise for my birthday. The story goes into the background of how Hang on and Fly made it to print in a book. Please take a few minutes to read Deb's story in the Post-Journal.

Article about the book, Hang on and Fly, in the Sunday, December 27, 2015 edition of the Jamestown Post-Journal. Written by Deb Everts.

A Comical Disaster in Canada

December 21 is the anniversary of the crash landing of a Robin Airlines C-46 into a farmer's field in Ontario, Canada. It happened in 1951, just four days after the Miami Airlines fatal crash in Elizabeth, New Jersey and just eight days before the Continental Charters fatal crash in Napoli, New York.

It was a disaster where everyone survived without a scratch and it was such an unusual and unbelievable event that it was comical. However, it was a perfect example of how the nonscheduled airlines, the first budget airlines of North America, scared the daylights out of early travelers. Many of them were your parents or grandparents.

The photographs here are from the Toronto Star. The full story and more original photographs are in the book, Hang on and Fly.

The two photographs on the right portray a passenger, carrying the suitcase and seated in the front of the bus with a big grin, who was interviewed extensively for the book.

Can you imagine a rent-a-pilot taking over your flight at mid-continent, getting lost in a snowstorm, and then running out of gas while thinking Lake Ontario was the Atlantic Ocean? It happened in 1951. Read about it in Hang on and Fly.

What are you reading now, Tim?

The original date for this entry is Summer, 2013. Updates include a listing of book titles.

It's a question alot of people ask me when I'm at a book signing event or doing an interview about Hang on and Fly. People presume that I'm a pilot or that I'm reading about airplanes but that's not the case at all. Hang on and Fly is as much about human spirit, drama, and emotion as it is about early American passenger aviation. It's a great story for everyone, not just people interested in aviation.

I read everything. It's usually historical non-fiction but occasionally I'll read modern non-fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed Keith Richards' autobiography about his life in The Rolling Stones. I also loved Joe Perry's autobiography about Aerosmith, and Ozzie Osbourne's tale about his wild life, I am Ozzy. He really made me laugh.
Take a look at the photograph here. It's a pile of books on my vintage 1920s cherry wood nightstand. On the left is Devotion, by Adam Makos. Adam is a talented and top quality writer and he's capturing the audience that loved Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. I'm in the pages of Devotion about once a week.

The Hidden White House, by Robert Klara, has really grabbed my attention lately because I just finished so much research about Harry Truman for Hang on and Fly and because I just finished reading (finally) The Roosevelts, An American Saga, by Peter Collier. What a dysfunctional family they were, especially the Hyde Park FDR and Eleanor Roosevelts. When FDR died and Eleanor moved out of The White House, she delivered a message to Bess Truman. The executive mansion was infested with rats! And, because of the war and because Eleanor was always traveling with her women companions, The White House living quarters were a dump! Hence the Truman's did a complete upgrade and that's what Klara's book is all about.

Teddy Roosevelt's sons were so intent on keeping up with dad's image and reputation as a hunter and adventurer that two of them went hunting in Asia and bagged a Panda! They shot and killed a Panda bear! Times were certainly different in the Roosevelt era.

One trip I must take is to see Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill on the north shore of Long Island, New York. It's been recently renovated and is open again for tours by the National Park Service. FDR's Hyde Park estate along New York's Hudson River is also open to the public but the book reveals that FDR and Eleanor's son, Elliott, sold off much of the family's Hudson Valley land to make a fast buck.

I've also just been reading about Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy's family and its origin in France with John Davis' Bouviers. We all know how to pronounce the famous First Lady's maiden name but in Philadelphia it's still Boo-veer. The Bouviers were related by marriage to the Drexels of Philadelphia and produced Katharine Drexel, who later became a Catholic Saint. From incredible wealth, her family built an enormous country house on the Northeast side of Philadelphia which became the location of her shrine. In 2016, it was revealed that the Drexel fortune apparently was running down. The massive stone Drexel home was to be put up for sale along with some 2-thousand acres of Drexel land in Virginia that Mother Katharine had turned into a school for African-Americans. Davis' book provides a great deal of background and intimate information on the Bouviers and Drexel's, including the source of their immense wealth.
If you want to read some great intimate and personal information about Jackie Kennedy, get a copy of Clint Hill's Mrs. Kennedy and Me. Clint was Jackie's personal Secret Service agent and he came this close to becoming very personal. You'll love his book. I read it in just a few days because I could not put it down.

I still go back to Phil Brown's Bob Marshall in the Adirondacks about three times a month for updates on one of my favorite places on earth. Marshall was an early environmentalist who traipsed around the Adirondacks and the Northwest Wilderness in the early 1900's. Several years ago while hiking a small knob above Saranac Lake with my young children, I ran into Marshall's grandson hiking the same knob with his son. We had a great visit. Marshall was staying at the family's camp on Saranac Lake where his grandfather and great uncles were regular visitors to the Knollwood Club. Mount Marshall in the Adirondacks is named for Bob Marshall, who died very young. The book's (editor) author, Phil Brown is the long-time editor of the Adirondack Explorer, a bi-monthly newspaper about environmental and political issues in the Adirondacks.

And finally, take a look at the black and white cover on the bottom right of the photograph. The Perennial Philadelphians, by Nathaniel Burt, is the Bible on all the wealthy and influential families of an emerging and modern Philadelphia, although by the time of the book's publication, in 1963, most of them had fled the city for the splendid estate life on the leafy Main Line or the Cotswolds' imitator, Chestnut Hill. In the book, which is thicker than most Bibles, Burt explains how the Philadelphia aristocrats have always lived in the shadow of New York and Washington but that when any famous or wealthy New Yorker or Washingtonian got into trouble, he always went to find a good "Philadelphia lawyer." Burt expertly portrays the great disparity between Philadelphia's "haves" and "have nots." With a large population still in abject poverty in Philadelphia in 2015, not much has changed.

For more on what I'm reading and have read in the past, please check out my Good Reads page. I'm adding to it every week.

Hang on and Fly at Chester County Book Company

Saturday, December 12, 2015

11 am - 1:30 pm

Had a wonderful time signing books and meeting readers and fellow authors

Independent Book Store: Chester County Book Company
On Saturday, December 12, 2015 I spent a few hours at Chester County Book Company in West Chester, Pa signing books for buyers of Hang on and Fly and making new relationships with fellow authors.

Books and authors included Bill Shull with Philadelphia Television; Bryan Kolesar with Beer Lovers Mid-Atlantic; Edwin Garrubbo with Sunday Pasta; David Chauner with High Road; Claudie Brock with The ABC's of William Penn; Ruth Zavitsano with The Valley Forge Dog; Cassandre Maxwell with Fur, Fins, and Feathers, Lynmar Brock with Must Thee Fight; Daphne Benedis-Grab with Clementine for Christmas and The Angel Tree; and Diane Casenta Galutia with Dominique's Strange New World.

Special Visitor from Nashville
We had a special visitor in Paul Ladd, from World Christian Radio, who is formerly from the Philadelphia region. Ladd has interviewed hundreds of author's for his world-wide radio audience. He left Chester County Book Company with a copy of Hang on and Fly tucked under his arm for reading on the flight back home to Nashville.

School Teacher's Love Great Books
School teacher Betty North purchased two copies of Hang on and Fly, one for a Christmas gift and one for herself and husband, Bill, to read at home. Retired school teacher Pat Schnure bought Hang on and Fly for a friend.

Bill Shull sold several copies of Philadelphia Television to people with nostalgic memories of the Philly TV stations (they make great Christmas gifts), and beer lovers chugged Bryan Kolesar's Beer Lover's Mid-Atlantic book about brew pubs in the region. I observed a man walk in and purchase five copies of Fur, Fins, and Feathers as Cassandre Maxwell set to work signing each book for him.

Chester County Book Company manager Thea Kotroba was very pleased with another annual multi-author book event considered a success at her thriving independent book store. The store appeared to be busier than the up escalator at your local B & N.

**Promoting Hang on and Fly among Book Clubs**

On Thursday, December 3, 2015 I was invited to Pat Schnure's vintage 1800's farmhouse home in Chester County, Pennsylvania for a discussion about Hang on and Fly among the members of a small book club.
They like both historical fiction and nonfiction and they seemed intrigued about the human drama in Hang on and Fly and the early aviation elements.
Some of them talked about flight plans in the near future. I explained that they are safest today traveling on an airplane because of the events from 1951 that are profiled in Hang on and Fly. They also seemed intrigued to read about the heroics of stewardess Pearl Moon, and the heartbreaking story of Ruby and her misdiagnosed medical condition.
They each got a copy of the book and they agreed, in return, to convince their husbands that it's a great story worth reading.
Want a visit to your book club? Send me an email here.

George Albert: From Syrian refugee family to American Hero

George Albert is the main character-hero of Hang on and Fly. He was born in 1921 in the United States to Syrian immigrants who came to America during a wave of Ottoman Turk migration between 1905 and 1907. His parents fled the Syrian Arab Republic much the same as Syrians were fleeing their war-torn country in 2015.

By all accounts, the Albert's were hard-working dry-goods store merchants in Western Pennsylvania. Although the marriage of George's parents didn't last, the Syrian-American Albert family grew and spread through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Florida by 1951.

In Hang on and Fly, I describe how George Albert became an American hero and a celebrity after the plane crash of December 29, 1951. "If not for George Albert, I don't know how I would have survived...," said one crash survivor.

Today, the debate continues about allowing Syrians, who are fleeing the bloody civil war in their country, into America. The Albert's emigrated to the United States and, as a result, they produced an American hero.

Read about him in Hang on and Fly. Chapter 4 is titled George Albert.

Hang on and Fly discussion on WJTN Radio, Jamestown, NY

With Jim Roselle, 60-year radio veteran in Jamestown, NY. His voice is as strong as ever.

On Saturday, November 14, I was invited to WJTN radio in Jamestown, New York for an hour-long discussion about the story in Hang on and Fly.

Many thanks to the show's host, Jim Roselle, and Russ Diethrick for their interesting questions and conversation about the crash story in Cattaraugus County. Thanks also to Dennis Webster and Dan Warren from www.radiojamestown.com.

I've already had alot of feedback from listeners. Thank-you for your support.

Update: Sad to hear that Jim Roselle died in March, 2016. Jim was a true broadcasting professional and is remembered fondly by all of us who follow in his footsteps at the broadcasting microphone.

The Beginning of Hang on and Fly

Hoxie Hill Road in 2012.

Hoxie Hill Road in the early 1950's. The David and Rosa Shenefiel farm is near the top of the hill.

Bucktooth Ridge from Hoxie Hill, Napoli, NY

The view of Bucktooth Ridge from Hoxie Hill in the winter.

Grandfather David Shenefiel on the farm with most of his children in the 1950's.

The David and Rosa Shenefiel farmhouse in the 1950's. From here you could not see Bucktooth Ridge but it was just over a mile away.

Grandfather David Shenefiel looking from Hoxie Hill toward Bucktooth Ridge in the 1950's.

Grandfather Shenefiel plowing the road in Napoli in the 1950's. Possibly a similar plow that he used to clear Sawmill Run Road for the crash rescue teams.

During a genealogy trip to Cattaraugus County, New York in 2008, I was standing atop Hoxie Hill in the Town of Napoli with my uncle, Randall G. Shenefiel, when he mentioned that I should "look into the plane crash that happened over on that hill." He was pointing to Parker Hill, site of a cell phone communications tower and where he had gone deer hunting as a teenager in the early 1960's.

"Your grandfather was called to go over there with the town's road equipment and help dig a path up the hill to get the plane crash survivors," my uncle said as he continued with this astounding story. "I think it was a big plane with about 40 people on board. Most of them were dead," he recalled. And then he delivered the most incredible part of the story. "They were stuck up there for days and nobody could find them." Nobody around here knew the plane had gone down on the mountain."

Together we gazed across a wide valley at the forested land atop what appeared to be a long, flat mountain in the distance. In all the years visiting on my grandparents' farm and riding around New York State with my grandfather, David G. Shenefiel, he had never mentioned this incredible story of a plane crash and survivors trapped high on the mountain above his home. My uncle was very young in 1951 and remembered little of the crash events. As I looked at the mountaintop in the distance of only a mile or two, I could also see the valley lands of my great-grandparents' farm, their woodlot on the mountain, and the farm of another aunt and uncle in the valley. To my right, just down the hill on which I was standing, was the farm of my other great-grandparents. My family had settled here in 1839. My family farmlands surrounded the crash site in 1951 but no one in the family saw it or heard the plane, despite the fact that they had a bird's eye view of the mountain from their front porches.

I was determined to find out more.

Sawmill Run Road in Napoli, NY where it takes a sharp curve into the top of the hollow. Dan Syrcher photo

Bucktooth Ridge. Dan Syrcher photo.

Sawmill Run winds up through the hollow with Bucktooth Ridge in the distance. Dan Syrcher photo

The B-17 Flying Fortress is portrayed in Hang on and Fly

B-17G at the Chester County Airport, October 7, 2015

CJ Webber, one of the pilots profiled in Hang on and Fly, at the controls of a B-17 in Florida about 1948. How this plane was connected to the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 is revealed in Hang on and Fly. Webber family photo.

There are several pages in Hang on and Fly that tell the incredible forgotten story about B-17's that helped form the first Israeli Air Force.
One of the pilots profiled in Hang on and Fly had a unique connection to Florida men who provided and illegally flew the B-17's to Europe where they were refitted as bombers and used in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The pilot, CJ Webber, pictured in one of the B-17's on the left, was very likely aware of and somewhat involved in the caper, but he was kept out of it when FBI investigators came snooping around because he had something of great value at home.

In the narrative, a pilot who actually flew one of the B-17's to Europe that were used by the new nation of Israel for bombing raids on Arab targets, tells his story publicly for the first time. The planes' owner went to prison, but this pilot has laid low for all these years. In Hang on and Fly, he comes forward and reveals the identities of the two other pilots who flew with him. It's just one of the many fascinating parts of the story.

On October 7, 2015, I was able to get some up close and detailed photographs of a B-17-G within minutes of its landing at the Chester County Airport near Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

Scroll down to see it on the left.

Tim's Vintage 1920's Association Island Cabin Project

Association Island Cabin #30, about 2013.

Restoration of an island sleeping cabin
Unique Architecture was a summer home to many famous visitors

Since I published the historical nonfiction book, Association Island, in 2013, I came across a small cabin from the island that was on its last legs, literally. It was slowly falling apart in a hay field not far from Association Island. The owner agreed to give it up provided I could move it.

It was cabin number 30 of more than 160 that were built and used for sleeping quarters for General Electric employees during their summer camp sessions on the 64-acre island in Lake Ontario. The 12-foot by 14-foot cabins were designed from the tents used on the island that dated to GE's original summer fishing encampments in upstate New York and in Canada. I've determined that the cabins date to the early teens. They initially had canvas-made roofs, then wooden roofs with canvas sunshades on the front, and then by the early 1920's, most of them were all wood with a long wood frame overhang on the front. I estimate that cabin number 30 is from the early 1920's. All but a few of these unique cabins were removed from the island in the 1970's. I remember it well. They were sold for $75 to $100 dollars each. Many were hauled off the island on trailers or flatbed trucks. There are a few sprinkled around Henderson Harbor but the others are scattered far and wide. One can be seen along Interstate 81 just north of Syracuse, NY. Look for a small airplane sitting in a field about two hundred yards from the edge of the southbound lanes. You will see the Association Island cabin nearby.

When I first examined number 30, I found most of the upper structure (except for the roofing shingles) to be in good, solid condition. However, the original floor was rotted into the ground. If Number 30 was to be saved, it would need a new floor. So, with my DeWalt ripping saw, I gutted the floorboards and floor joists. Then, with help from my brother, Greg Lake, to jack it up, I installed new floor joists and rim joists and secured the corners with half-inch galvanized bolts. I installed two long skids beneath the floor joists and screwed down a plywood sub-floor (which will be covered later with vintage flooring) for stabilization. Except for my brother helping me with the initial jacking, I did all of the work by myself. It took awhile.

Moving the cabin will not be an easy task. A special trailer will back up to the skids and carefully lift them until the hydraulics of the trailer can slide the bed beneath and gently pull the skids onto the trailer. Thankfully the move is only about a quarter mile in distance. There along the shore of Henderson Harbor it will be laid on the skids until I can jack it up again and place it on concrete blocks similar to its original foundation. Fully restored, old number 30 will make a great storage location for boat materials such as oars and life jackets, outboard motors, water skis and other items that we use during the summer but need to pack away for the long northern New York winters.
Below are photographs of the Association Island cabins and the restoration of Number 30. I will add to the collection as work progresses. Enjoy.

The original Association Island tents were used from 1903 through the early teens when they were gradually replaced by the wooden cabins.

Tommy Hutterman building out an Association Island cabin in 1937. Lillian Tiller Lattimer photo

In this vintage 1920's image, cabin #30 is near the end of the long row of cabins with canvas roofs on the right side of the photo.

This drawing shows the Association Island cabins laid out as they were built. Each cabin held two beds. Campers shared the room and had to leave their cabins for the shower and toilet. Emily Anthony drawing based on photos and documents.

Aerial view of Association Island in the 1940's shows the layout of the small sleeping cabins. Dwight Church photo

This row of cabins is nearly the same image as the colored photo above and to the left. Cabin #30 would be near the end of the row, at right.

Association Island cabin #127 shows a solid foundation and rather new construction in this vintage 1950's image. The long overhang is a unique feature of the island cabins. miSci GE image.

The two photographs here are nearly identical. The black and white photo on the left was taken in the 1950's while the photograph on the right was taken in the mid-1970's. MiSci and GE and Keck Family Photos.

Inside cabin #30 in 2013. It sat like this for about 35 years. This is the original floor but, unfortunately, it had to come out. It was rotten underneath.

When I found cabin #30 it had been nearly overtaken by nature. Notice the sagging and the poor conditions of the shingles on the roof.

I felt that saving cabin #30 was important because famous visitors to Association Island such as GE's wizard of electricity, Charles P. Steinmetz, left, and Thomas A. Edison, visited the island in the late teens or early 1920s and most likely stayed in one of the cabins. Here they are pictured on the steps of the island administration building. miSci GE image.

The sophisticated electrical system in the cabin.

New roofing added in December, 2016.

Watch short videos of the restoration of #30 and the move.

Click on the picture to see the car unveiled.

The Mystery Car

What's beneath the cover?

I've been asked to help a friend sell her vintage 60's Mercedes-Benz Sedan. I thought you might like to see the photographs of this fine classic automobile, manufactured at the Mercedes-Benz factory in Sindelfingen, Germany (near Stuttgart).

The Binghamton, New York family that owned the car wrote in a diary of a trip to Germany in 1964 to pick up their vehicle and take it on a tour of Europe.
They sat with the daughter of the ousted Chancellor of Austria on the plane trip to Europe and then traveled to the Mercedes plant to buy the car and tour the factory. This was when Mercedes-Benz was still recovering (financially) from near total destruction during World War II.
The family drove through West Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Holland before shipping the car back home. It was used strictly for pleasure and has less than 100,000 miles on it.

It has remained in the family ever since. Now, it's time to go to a great owner for (hopefully) a complete restoration.

The car will be listed on eBay for 10 days on November 22.

Jump in and take the car for a ride. She purrs!

Update: The car sold for $9,100 to an Austrian man who has an antique car collection in Hungary. He got into a bit of a bidding competition with a man from the United Arab Emirates. The buyer had the car trucked to Linden, New Jersey and prepped for shipping to Hungary in a container from the New York Container Terminal across the Arthur Kill from Linden.