THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Highlights of
aviation history
Thanks to Union
County Representative, the Honorable Charles F. Jenkins, Highway 180
will soon be designated the
The resolution
which has passed the Georgia House and Senate will receive Governor
Sonny Perdue's signature at a ceremony at the state capitol on May 31.
Some of the descendants of the Choestoe inventor will be present for
the significant signing.
In this column
several months ago, you read how the patent for “An Apparatus for
Navigating the Air" was registered with the U. S. Patent Office in
1874. In his workshop near
His plans for
the apparatus were drawn to scale and his description of how to build
the machine read like those of a well-educated engineer. For years
"Clark Dyer and His Flying Machine" were treated like legend, a story
passed from generation to generation for the purpose of claiming some
glory from one who had gone before. It has been said that this genius
of the mountains secluded himself to work as much as possible on his
plans for an airplane. As a recluse, he was considered somewhat
eccentric and "different" from his neighbors.
He lived from
1822 through 1891, and got his airship to lift from a take-off runway
he had built on the mountain, aiming the vehicle to his cleared field.
He died before he had perfected the flying machine. His plans were sold
to the Redwine Brothers of Atlanta. It is
believed that this company turned the plans over to the Wright Brothers
of Kitty Hawk fame, who launched their
plane on
The scene at
Kill Devil Hill on that windy December day in 1903 has been noted as
Nowadays, we
take air and even space travel for granted. But thinking back on some
aspects of flight history, it is amazing that by 1927, 24 years after
the Wright brothers' initial flight, and 52 years after Micajah Clark Dyer received the patent for his
"Apparatus for Navigating the Air," Charles Augustus Lindbergh had
flown solo over the
Lindbergh was
an airmail pilot between
Lindbergh
purchased a Ryan monoplane in
An estimated
crowd of 100,000 people had gathered outside the fences at Le Bourget, waiting six or seven hours to see the
American pilot land. Many doubted that he would complete the trip.
Soldiers and guards tried in vain to control the excited crowd. To keep
Lindbergh from being crushed in the press, two French aviators, Major
Weiss and Sergeant Troyer, rescued him and took him in a Renault car to
the commandant's office across the field. The first Frenchmen to "The
Spirit of St. Louis" said, "Cete fois ca va!"
(This time it is done!"). The tired,
disheveled, victorious Charles A. Lindbergh replied, "Well, I made it!"
c2006 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@alltel.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
(Note: I am delighted that Joan Crothers,
reporter for The
Sentinel, gave her permission to reprint this news
article she wrote about the Dyer-Souther
Reunion at which we named a porton of GA
Highway 180 in memory of Micajah Clark
Dyer, inventor of “An Apparatus for Navigating the Air.”
-Ethelene Dyer Jones)
Relatives honor
a genius
By: Joan Crothers
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Micajah
Clark Dyer was finally getting the due he deserved as relatives and
friends gathered at the
Clark Dyer, as
the family refers to him, is credited with creating and setting to
flight a "flying machine" off of
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However, when
he did get a patent for his invention in 1874, he put an article in the
St. Louis Globe of July 1975 and the Gainesville Eagle, some now
thinking he was trying to get funds to build his flying machine. After
he died in 1891 at 69, his wife sold his plans and machine to brothers
named Redwine and they reportedly sold
them to the Wright brothers.
Sylvia Dyer Turnage was the organizer
of this recognition of her great, great grandfather and thanked her
family for all their support and help. She said she first read about
the flying machine in a family history book, but it was 25 years later
when the 1874 patent for the flying machine was found through the
internet.
Turnage
turned a poem she had written about this unusual man into a song, which
she sang accompanied by Sam Ensley on the guitar.
The highlight
of the event was the unveiling of a road sign, one of three, dedicating
part of 180 to Micajah Clark Dyer. This
came about through efforts of Representative Charles Jenkins in having
the Georgia Legislation approve a proclamation honoring Dyer.
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c2006 by Joan Crothers; published