The American Philatelist May 2018

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York and Chicago in twenty hours, but trains carrying mail make the trip in twenty-four to twenty-six hours.” Burleson’s announcement added that POD representatives would be visiting Lehighton, Bellefonte and Clarion “before the end of November” to arrange for acquisition of land and airfield construction – and not a minute too soon, for a service intended to start in the first half of December. The meeting on November 7 in Bellefonte included a request from the POD for help in funding the airfield, in the sum of $2,000 (about $33,000 today). The November 14 Bellefonte Republican report said, “This was done because the government appropriation for the installation of the service was more than exhausted by the purchase of ten airplanes.” The Post Office Department formally took delivery on August 6, 1918, of six, not 10, airplanes manufactured by Standard Aircraft Corp. in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Pilot Eddie Gardner took one of the new planes up and performed some stunts for the crowd of postal and other dignitaries. Figure 2. An aerial view of Beaver Field in Bellefonte showed how pilots needed all of the navigational help they could get. Although houses were close by, all reported crashes were into nearby fields and not neighborhoods. In its November 14, 1918, issue, the weekly Bellefonte Republican reported that George L. Connor, chief clerk to Second Assistant Postmaster General Praeger, and Charles N. Kight, special representative of the aerial mail service, had visited Bellefonte on November 7 to select a landing site, meeting with a five-man committee appointed by the local board of trade. Family Farm Becomes Pennsylvania Pit Stop The agreed-upon site was the farm where Miller had landed on September 20, owned by Thomas Beaver, son of General James A. Beaver, Civil War hero and Pennsylvania governor from 1887 to 1891. Thomas had attended the Pennsylvania State College and earned a degree in general science, but chose to manage the family farm a few miles from downtown Bellefonte. The Post Office Department signed a two-year lease with Beaver for use of a portion of the farm, while the remainder continued to be a working farm. Horses and cows were pastured nearby and allowed to roam at night, keeping the grassy landing field (600 yards by 200 yards) trimmed. (On one occasion in 1923, a private plane was using the airfield overnight and its pilot refused to use the hangar. The night watchman found several of Beaver’s horses chewing on the linen covering the wings and tail.) Figure 3. Mechanic Ellis Hines, left, and pilot George Bradford, who was only part of the airmail service for a month in the fall of 1919. Promising that the aerial mail would be “a splendid advertisement for Centre County,” the citizens’ committee persuaded the county commissioners to appropriate $500, and Bellefonte’s borough council chipped in $300. The remainder of the funding came from individual subscriptions. It seems rather hard that the Post Office Department would not fully fund its own facility, but displaying their allegedly empty pockets to Bellefonte’s citizens did work. The airfield site was a few yards from the road leading from Bellefonte to Lock Haven, with houses on the opposite side of the road. Amazingly, the numerous plane crashes at 448 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / MAY 2018
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The American Philatelist May 2018

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