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Nebraska's First Aviatrix · Nebraska History Podcast

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The following episode features a historic article from the
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Nebraska History magazine. This article may reflect the
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language and attitudes of its time and while it offers
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valuable insight into the past, may contend expressions or
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viewpoints that are outdated or offensive by today's standards.
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Any outdated terms do not reflect the current views or
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perspectives of the Nebraska State Historical Society.
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Welcome to the Nebraska History podcast.
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I'm your host, Chris Goforth. Each episode we explore articles
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written and published in Nebraska History Magazine.
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In 1928, when aviation was still wild and new, Nebraskan Ethel
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Tillotson chased her dream of becoming the first woman pilot
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in the state. Today we learn about her bold
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story through the 1982 Nebraska History Magazine article
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Nebraska's First Aviatrix Ethel Ives Tillotson written by
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Darlene Ritter In the tilden, Nebraska odd fellow cemetery, a
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tombstone records Ethel Tillotson, wife of Charles E
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Tillotson February 7th, 1894 June 22nd, 1928 Above this
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information is etched the outline of a biplane and the
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epitaph. Nebraska's first aviatrix.
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This claim appears to be valid if first means a Nebraska born
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and Nebraska trained woman flyer who soloed.
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The Nebraska State Journal in Lincoln used the words
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Nebraska's first aviatrix to headline the story of the plane
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crash that took her life on June 22nd, 1928.
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The Norfolk News said in its story of her death that she was
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quote Nebraska's only woman pilot.
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End Quote. Though two young women in Omaha
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and one in Lincoln were in training school who had not
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soloed, perhaps there were other Nebraska women in flight schools
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or in training under veteran Flyers.
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Nebraskans read newspaper accounts of Missus Tillotson's
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flights and of her death in a plane crash.
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But few in 1928 fully apprehended her unique position
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in aviation history. Her name is all but forgotten.
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Today. Nebraskans are likely to think
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of two other women as pioneers in Nebraska skies.
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Ruth Law, an Easterner who flew exhibitions in the state a
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decade before Missus Tillotson soloed, and Evelyn Sharp of Ord,
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who flew planes for the Women's Auxiliary Fairing Squadron
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during World War 2A. Nebraska State Historical
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Society marker at Ord commemorates Miss Sharp's feats.
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By 1928, adventuresome pilots, most of the men had been nosing
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their motor powered flying machines into the Nebraska skies
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for almost 2 decades. It was the Lindbergh era, one
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year following the Nebraska trained aviator's epic flight to
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Paris that had electrified the world when Missus Tillotson,
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caught up in the fever of the times, took up flying at the age
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of 34. To understand such then
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unconventional behavior, one should recall the fascination
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flying had for people, especially the young.
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And Ethel was a young 34. In 1910, not long after the
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aviation age began in America, an airplane was brought to Omaha
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by Glenn H Curtis, later a giant figure in aeronautics.
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He flew what was billed as, quote, the first air show of the
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West. End Quote One of Curtis's
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pupils, Blanche Stewart Scott, supposedly the first female
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soloist in America, was not with him in Omaha.
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There was, however, a woman in the air show, a Misses Mars,
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wife of skydiver JC Mars. Quote the iron nerved parachute
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jumper. End Quote But Curtis was
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bedeviled by a brash Omaha girl, Amy Gilmore, During preparations
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for his flight, she climbed uninvited into the cockpit, the
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Daily News reported. Quote Except for one woman who
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made a flight not in Omaha and the wives of fellow aviators,
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Amy was the only person to have entered the craft.
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The News's picture of Miss Gilmore in his plane sent Curtis
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into a rage. He was furious that she had set
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foot in the sacred machine. End Quote.
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The first Nebraska built plane apparently was flown by Omaha's
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Charles and Gus Baisdorfer, also in 1910 at Ewing in Holt County,
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near Missus Tillotson's home. The Savage brothers, seven of
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them, experimented in airplane construction and on May 7th,
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1911, flew a plane they built. They contributed to the interest
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in aeronautics by flying aerial exhibitions and taking
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passengers for rides in their plane in a new kind of show
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called Barnstorming. Matt Savage was killed in a
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plane crash in 1916, after which the surviving brothers gave up
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flying. Women, too, pilots and
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passengers were frequent casualties of air
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transportation. Harriet Quimby of Boston in
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1911, the first licensed woman flyer, died the following year
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in a plane crash. Thus Missus Tillotson was well
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aware of the chancing nature of flying, but it held a
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fascination for her nonetheless. Newspapers in 1928 were full of
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articles about pioneer women Flyers.
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Even her hometown, Tilden Citizen, a weekly not given to
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printing national news, published a succession of photo
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features of women Flyers whose exploits had gained them
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prominence. Amelia Earhart, Taya Rash,
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Mildred Doran, Ruth Elder and others.
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Women Flyers were good copy. Aeronautics was curtailed during
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World War One by a federal ban on civilian flying.
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When it was lifted, flying schools opened and
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experimentation with aircraft resumed.
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The rich sportsman, the women's rights enthusiast, the tinkerer
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all found flying a fascinating pastime.
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An added impetus was the possibility of buying for a few
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$100 surplus planes leftover from the war.
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Barnstorming became commonplace. There were aerial stunts,
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parachuting, sky riding, wing walking and rides.
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For those who were sufficiently air minded, the fare was usually
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$5 for a 5 to 10 minute ride. The 1920s were a period of wild,
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uninhibited flying with ex war pilots free from military
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discipline, giving a passenger a lifetime of thrills.
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There were many fatalities, especially among the less
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skilled pilots and their passengers.
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Soon a toughened group of gypsy Flyers emerged, performing at
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air shows to which the public thronged.
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Ruth Law, a seasoned flyer, first brought her aerial skills
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from the East to the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln in 1916.
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Miss Law, characterized by Amelia Earhart as a quote,
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picturesque figure, End Quote. Once observed while in Lincoln
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that she was quote, not worrying about old age overtaking me, End
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Quote. When informed of the death of
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National Guard Captain Ralph E McMillan, a barnstorming
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acquaintance at a St. Francis, KS fair, she said,
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quote, this 1917 has been a hoodoo year for aviators, so
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many of them have been killed or have had an accident.
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End Quote. Then she went out in bad weather
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and flew exhibitions before State Fair crowds.
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But in 1921, Ruth Law said she was giving up flying because it
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was becoming too business. Like it didn't fit her seat of
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the pants flying style. Quote Things are so proper now.
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A pilot has so many rules and regulations to follow, the good
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crazy old days of flying are gone.
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End Quote. She appears to have been a bit
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premature in her assessment, judging from the sometimes
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bewildering, sometimes zany events that occurred during the
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experimental flying of the 1920s and 1930s.
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The 1920s was a pulsating decade for Nebraska aviation, chiefly
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because of the emergence in Lincoln of the Pages Ray and his
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wife Ethel, who became major figures in the field.
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Between 1920 and 1930, Lincoln was known throughout America as
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an aviation center. The Lincoln Page, the Lark, and
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the Arrow Sport were built there.
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Page manufactured the plane. Ethel Tillotson flew a Lincoln
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Page trainer with an OX5 engine clustering around the Page
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operations. The Lincoln Standard Aircraft
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Company, the Aviation School and Pages Aerial pageant were people
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destined to be famous in aeronautics.
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That list includes names like Charles Lindbergh, John A Auggie
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Peddler, a pilot lost over the Pacific on a flight to Hawaii
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with his copilot and girl passenger Mildred Doran.
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Ira Biffle Lindberg's instructor, Ensel Chambers,
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holder of the altitude record for parachute divers.
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Harlan Bud Gurney, a 16 year old kid parachutist who made a
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career as pilot for United Airlines and now lives in
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California. Lieutenant Charles Harden, World
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War One Army Balloon Corps officer and his wife Catherine,
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parachute manufacturers and parachute jumpers, and many
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others. Missus Harden, billed as quote
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the intrepid lady parachutist End Quote in pageant
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advertising, was the only woman in the Page circus.
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Missus Tillotson undoubtedly observed Catherine Harden jump
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at the State Fair or at a Page air show near Tilden.
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Missus Harden is thought never to have become a solo pilot,
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though she may have been at the controls of planes when flying
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with others. Government regulation of
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barnstorming was non existent until the Air Commerce Act of
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1926 placed licensing of pilots and aircraft under federal
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control. The rash of crashes had spread
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the notion that aviation was a daredevil sport, fit only for
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the young, bold and foolish. Pilots without licenses often
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had flown crates, some of them homemade, which had never been
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inspected, resulting in hundreds of crashes before the
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legislation went into effect. Private air schools were
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graduating pilots with less than four hours of training who had
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risked the necks of thousands of passengers who wanted the thrill
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of going up. The ACT created a Bureau of
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Civil Aeronautics and provided for federal inspection of the
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industry. Grounded until they gained
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greater proficiency were many barely competent pilots of the
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bailing wire brigade of barnstormers who had not yet
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killed themselves in machines that couldn't come near passing
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an air worthiness inspection. This act and the onset of the
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depression following the stock market crash of 1929 brought the
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era of gypsy pilots gradually to a close.
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By the time Ethel Tillotson found it convenient to begin
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lessons, flight instruction was required if Flyers were to meet
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federal standards. Her dream of almost 10 years
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came true when the Norfolk Flying School was established
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early in 1928 by Andrew A Risser of Norfolk, 25 miles east of
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Tilden. Now she can enroll in a school
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near her home and fulfill her ambition to fly.
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Risser, a young farmer living 6 miles southwest of Wisner, had
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gone to Wichita, a major aviation center, in September of
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1926 to learn to fly. He returned to his father's farm
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flying a beach OX Five Travel air by plane in 1927.
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He took up passengers and instructed other air enthusiasts
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until March of 1928, when he moved to Norfolk to found his
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school. Missus Tillotson was one of his
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first pupils. Physical examinations were
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mandated to determine muscular control, eye strength, and
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general fitness. Color blindness tests, general
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vision and visual ability to judge distance were required.
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If a person needed glasses, only a private license could be
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earned. After the candidate had learned
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fundamentals, he was tested by a Department of Commerce inspector
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in both technical knowledge and in actual flying.
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Questions were asked on plane mechanisms, navigation,
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meteorology, air traffic rules, and Department of Commerce
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regulations. Flying tests consisted of
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landings, takeoffs, and air maneuvers to show the pilot's
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proficiency. Thereafter, periodic
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examinations were required. Ethel Tillotson first went aloft
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with Instructor Risser on March 31st, 1928 in his London page
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Trainer A2 place plane, the seat in the front for the student and
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the one in the rear for the pilot Instructor.
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After 9 hours in the air as a student pilot, she made her
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first solo flight on April 24th. Then followed A2 month period in
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which she flew several times a week.
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The Norfolk News on May 11th in an article headlined quote,
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Missus Tillotson is praised for skill and quote commented on her
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flight to the Omaha Municipal Airport.
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They wrote quote mechanics were only mildly interested today
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when a Canary colored biplanes circled the field, dipping her
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nose and settled as gracefully as a bird at the far end of the
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stretch. But when the ship had taxi to
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the hangar, it was disclosed that the pilot was a woman.
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They crowded around praising her skill.
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End Quote. It was her first long flight and
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her first landing at a strange field.
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The trip had followed 38 solo flights in the Norfolk area.
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Her passengers on the flight to Omaha were her instructor and
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his wife, Mr. and Missus Risser. Missus Tillotson was described
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as an especially apartment pupil by Risser.
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A few days before she died, she was thought to have received a
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pilot's license. She had flown to Sioux City, IA,
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sometime previously to perform for examiners at the Bureau of
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Aeronautics at the Federal Aviation Administration in
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Oklahoma City. A search was made in 1981 for
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information about Missus Tillotson's career, and a
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microfilm record was found of her card showing her name and
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the notation. Quote.
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Folder destroyed. End Quote.
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However, the administration's certification office said,
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quote, our historical record indicates that she was certified
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as a private pilot, but there is no indication of her certificate
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number or when she was certified.
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End Quote. Considering the brief length of
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Missus Tillotson's flying career, the examiners in Sioux
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City must have granted her a license in early June 1928.
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Nationwide, she was an exclusive company since by the end of
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1928, only 12 women had been licensed as pilots in the United
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States and only seven women held the Department of Commerce
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Transportation license. At that time there were only
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four types of flying licenses, private, which required 10 hours
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of solo time, industrial 50 hours of solo, limited
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commercial 50 solo hours, and transport 200 solo hours.
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The transport license permitted its holder to fly passengers for
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hire or to give instruction. Missus Tillotson hoped to make
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aviation her life's vocation. Her plans were to pilot her own
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plane and eventually take up passengers.
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She had built up more than fifty solo hours in the air by June,
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but her dream of owning a plane and extending her flying
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experience to the level necessary to obtain the
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prestigious transport license were never realized.
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It was six weeks after her flight into Omaha and less than
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three months after she took her first lesson when she crashed
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the news of June 22nd reported. Quote Death rode the wings of an
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airplane flown by Mrs. CE Tillotson, 34, Battle Creek, as
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she was making a practice flight about 8:00 last evening.
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Nebraska's only licensed woman pilot was killed instantly when
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she apparently lost control at an altitude of about 400 feet.
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The plane plunged to earth and landed in a ditch at the South
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edge of the Norfolk Airport landing field.
16:11
End Quote. Risser, her instructor,
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explained that Missus Tillotson, who was, quote, doing figure
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eights, evidently banked too sharply and slipped off.
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This caused the machine to go into a spiral and not a
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nosedive. After coming out of the spiral,
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she must have pulled the wrong way, thus causing the plane to
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turn over and crash into the ground.
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And quote. As news of the tragedy raced
16:35
through the community, hundreds of curious persons drove to the
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airport to see the demolished plane.
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Quote. Souvenir hunters started their
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work, shortly ripping pieces of canvas from the plane.
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Even pieces of apparatus on the instrument board were taken by
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vandals. End Quote.
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As reported by the Tilden Citizen, Tilden, the small town
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where she was raised, and Battle Creek where she lived, have been
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quietly proud of their woman flyer, the Tilden Citizen wrote.
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Quote. There was a feeling of great
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sorrow and regret over the death of this intrepid woman aviatrix.
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She has grown to womanhood in this community where she was
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loved and respected for her fine womanly qualities.
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End Quote. Her funeral held and the
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Tillotson Home in Battle Creek was conducted by her uncle, the
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Reverend Joseph Cossert of Liberty, MO Hundreds of persons
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were unable to gain admittance to her home during the service.
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The long cordage of Otto's followed the body to the Tilden
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Cemetery for the burial. Survivors were her husband,
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father, a brother, two sisters and nieces and nephews.
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Missus Tillotson's family felt the loss so deeply that her
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nephew, Darrell Horrocks of Columbus, said over 50 years
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later. Quote.
17:51
We never talked about it. She was our idol.
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End Quote. Though finding it difficult to
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talk of her death, he did reminisce about some of her
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experiences. He remembers her as quote, not
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being afraid of anything. End Quote.
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Her father, Frank J Ives, and her husband were automobile
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dealers and Horrocks remembers that she preferred to drive the
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big fast models. When the Ford Model A replaced
18:16
the Model T in 1928, she drove with the salesman, her
18:20
brother-in-law, to her sister's place.
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To demonstrate the car, she took her brother-in-law and two
18:25
nephews for a ride over hilly roads at 70 mph.
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Her brother-in-law acknowledged the car's speed, but reminded
18:32
her that advertisement said the Model A would travel easily over
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rough fields. He opened a gate and she drove
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the Ford over corn stubble at high speeds to prove that the
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advertisement was true. She once accepted a challenge to
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race from the owner of a Studebaker car and beat him in
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her Model A. As a teenager, Missus Tillerson
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drove a big steam engine from one farm to another, helping her
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father do custom grain threshing.
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Ethel Tillotson first helped her father sell cars in Tilden.
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When she and her husband went into the automobile business
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together, he encouraged her to demonstrate automobiles.
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She became as proficient A salesman as her father or her
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husband. In the 1920s, when it was
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unusual for women to drive alone for long distances, she
19:20
transported cars from Omaha to the dealership in Tilden.
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One of the reasons she had made her flight to Omaha was to
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accept delivery of a new car and drive it back to Battle Creek.
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This time she had Missus Risser as a passenger on the return
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auto trip and Risser flew the plane back to Norfolk.
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The Tillotson's had no children, but they were ever delicious of
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their nieces and nephews who remember them fondly.
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A niece, Missus Jean Rige of O'Neill, believes that if her
19:48
aunt had children, she would not have been so brash.
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Quote She was a daredevil. Things challenged her.
19:55
End Quote. The immediate family, especially
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her sister Byrd, with whom she was very close, did not
20:03
encourage Ethel in her aspirations to become a flyer.
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Yet there was an ambivalence in the attitudes of her immediate
20:09
relatives. They did not condemn her,
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neither did they praise her. They were always apprehensive
20:15
about what could happen, but there obviously was an
20:18
underlying current of pride at her grit.
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This was especially true of her husband, who recognized quote
20:25
his wife's skill, but was not a flying enthusiast.
20:28
End Quote. No one in the family ever flew
20:31
with her, nor is it believed that they went to the Norfolk
20:33
airfield to watch her fly. Parks said that some days
20:38
preceding the crash, Missus Tillotson said that at high
20:41
altitude her plane had fallen about 1000 feet before she, with
20:45
difficulty, was able to bring it under control and land.
20:49
When she appeared at the airfield the evening of the
20:52
crash, she was thought to have wanted Risser to accompany her.
20:56
He was unable to do so. Having agreed to instruct
20:58
another student, William Luckey of Pierce, aloft at the time
21:03
they saw Missus Tillotson's plane go down, they immediately
21:06
landed nearby, where they were among the first at the crash
21:09
site. She had died instantly.
21:12
Horicks believes she may have had the premonition of death the
21:15
day of the crash because of having lost control of her plane
21:18
for an interval the last time she flew.
21:21
Her movements the day of the accident were evidence of it.
21:25
She first went to the home of her sister, Bird, Yeoman, and
21:28
chatted for several minutes. She also drove to the home of
21:31
her father and Tilden and talked to him at length.
21:34
Missus Tillotson's hired girl later told the bereaved family
21:38
that Missus Tillotson, while preparing to go to Norfolk, had
21:41
taken so long to emerge from her dressing room that the maid had
21:45
gone to summon her. The hired girl recalled that
21:48
Missus Tillotson, after examining herself in a full
21:51
length mirror, went outside and spent some minutes walking
21:54
around the yard before she got into her car.
21:58
She wore her usual khaki flying outfit, jot purse, jacket, laced
22:02
boots and helmet with goggles. She had arranged to arrive in
22:06
Norfolk, 10 miles from Battle Creek, in the early evening, the
22:09
time of day most flying students practice, because the air
22:12
currents were then smoother. Delivery on the new plane that
22:17
she had ordered was scheduled to arrive that day in Norfolk, and
22:20
she had pinned a $1000 check a down payment on the plane inside
22:25
her dress. The aircraft, a page PT, had not
22:29
arrived as expected at the airport.
22:32
It is not known whether she expected to go aloft in it that
22:34
day. Had it come?
22:37
Missus Reggie, only nine years old at the time, remembers that
22:41
the new plane arrived Saturday and was flown by a fellow pilot
22:45
on Sunday, the day of her funeral.
22:49
Seven years after Ethel Tillotson died, Nebraska's most
22:52
celebrated woman flyer, Evelyn Sharp of Ord, soloed at 16 years
22:57
of age. 2 years later, she was among the youngest women ever to
23:01
complete requirements for a commercial license.
23:05
Planes, becoming more reliable year after year, were destined
23:09
to play a significant role in destroying the Axis in World War
23:12
2. By then, women were no longer
23:15
mere novelties in aviation. At 20, Miss Sharp became one of
23:19
the instructors at the Spearfish SD Flying School, where over 350
23:24
men learned to fly. In World War 2, she joined the
23:27
Women's Auxiliary Fairing Squadron, as did many women
23:30
Flyers, to fly planes from factories to Army airfields and
23:34
to perform other stateside services.
23:37
Miss Sharp was killed in Pennsylvania in 1944 when the
23:41
twin fuselage P38 fighter that she was piloting went down.
23:46
Had Ethel Tillotson lived until the 1940s, she quite likely
23:50
would have been engaged in some aeronautical pursuit during
23:53
World War 2. Thank you for listening to the
23:57
Nebraska History Podcast. To learn more about Nebraska
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History Magazine, to listen to more podcast episodes, or to
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support our podcast by becoming a member of the Nebraska State
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Historical Society, go to history.nebraska.gov/podcast.
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Until next time, I'm Chris Gopher.