[GLLUG] Interesting Story

Tue Aug 14 13:56:04 EDT 2007

I had a tale something like that.  I had an uncle who was big into trying to find ways to get rich quick.  I have started to pick up on being the family historian, slowly taking over the role from my father.  At my grandmother's funeral, someone had brought a box full of family related items to give to my father which contained a number of documents and notes that had apparently been collected by some similar historian in a previous generation.
Included in those were some additional birthdates and death information on some family members that I was also very delighted to find. (more info below)  Additionally were a number of letters and an envelope full of stock certificates that had apparently belonged to my great uncle whom I mentioned above.  One stack of letters involved his trying to search down a potential inheritance from a scottish lord of which he was a descendant.  Apparently that branch of the family tree is descended from the bastard sun of a scottish lord named Allan Gordon.  He named his son Gordon Allan.  Apparently we even have a coat of arms and a kilt pattern attached to it, although the 'bastard' descendants (yes, they had a protocol for that) wore a 'reverse' plaid form of the family color. (i.e. instead of blue stripes on black, they would wear black stripes on blue, etc.)  Apparently he gave up his quest to get a stake in the Duke's estate upon learning the back taxes from
 the crown would have exceeded the worth of whatever land he might get.

However, there was an additional envelope that included a small stack of circa early 1900's stock certificates and a number of letters from the board of directors for a company known as the "Arizona Aviation Company".  Upon some calling and searching I learned that the 'Arizona' apparently only applied to the fact that the fledgling state of Arizona was offering corporate shelters at the time, much like Nevada does today.  The company itself was located in a backwater town of Girard, Kansas.  (also of interest, the town and some of the founders of the company were the central location of the socialist party of the united states at the time - ironic because my Uncle seemed to be quite the venture capitalist based on what have found)
Needless to say I did some calling to Girard to see what I could find out - the Chamber of Commerce immediately knew what it was and referred me to a woman at the local library who was delighted to tell me the story.  This was all going on at or shortly after the time of the first Wright Brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk.  Many companies were springing up trying to get in on the race-to-flight.  The Arizona Aviation Company was no exception.
Their flying contraption, dubbed the 'Mayfly' by the locals (who scoffed at it's design saying "well... it 'may' fly, probably won't though), was their main project but apparently the efficiency of their powerplants (engines) was the only thing worthy of note and generating any revenue.  This 'Mayfly' looked basically like a large wooden frame, only midly resembling a modern day airplane, strewn with kite like fabric peices.  She also told me that a number of students from the University of Kansas (aeronautical engineers?) had once done a school project studying the design and determined that it probably would have had a better chance of flying if they had tried propelling it in the opposite direction!
The company's socialist founders wrote of great claims in the letters they sent to their investors (followed by begging for more investment funds) of how they intended to get the contraption off the ground with the intention of flying two of their delegates to the annual socialists convention in Kansas City.  Needless to say, the farthest the thing ever flew was 18 feet before crashing.

Just before 9/11 I did a motorcycle trip to visit a friend in Denver, Colorado and stopped through Girard and just happened to arrive while they had a number of large glossy photo prints of the invention and some of the company/family members on loan from a descendant and I got the honor of parousing them before they were sent back to the family.
Consequently (as eluded to above) I also learned that my Great-Great-Great grandfather (who was one of the original 300 founders of the city of Livonia, MI and it's primary brick mason for decades) had taken a trip to Fort Scott, Kansas not far up the road and died shortly after arriving.  It was my hope to try to fill in some of the blanks as to 'why' as long as I was in the neighborhood.  I searched a number of the old newspapers that were still on file with their historical society (if you've never read an 1869 newspaper, it's quite an interesting experience - nothing like we see today - it's like a modern paper's feature section 2-5 pages long)
I found no mention of my ancestor (which I was told was common - only notable community members were ever mentioned by way of an obituary) but did find stories of a severe cold streak around that time causing a dozen or so deaths from pneumonia so I assume this was the fate of my 60+ y.o. g-g-g-gf.  The only other clue was that Fort Scott was at the time the edge of the western frontier to some extent and was it's primary source of bricks!  The railroad had arrived by then and it's likely he went down either to work as a consultant, hoping to wreak more profit then at home or perhaps due to lack of work.  There were no cemetery records and the historian also told me that since the railroad was reaching Fort Scott, it's likely that the body was sent home and to check back in Livonia for obituary and death records.  (as of yet I have not found any but have not yet taken the time to search in detail)

----- Original Message ----
From: Julie Code <jewels9321 at hotmail.com>
To: linux-user at egr.msu.edu; woodslj at msu.edu
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 11:55:28 AM
Subject: [GLLUG] Interesting Story

Hi Guys,
         This will be off-topic but makes a very interesting story.  I found 
some info about the guy that made my violin! I know Mary Lawton, and Brian 
etc and many others may find this interesting.  I ended up calling the 
Argus-Press-- a newspaper that services Owosso and Shiawassee County.  I 
asked them if they knew of any websites that I could search for an obituary 
on G.W. Palmer.  The argus ended up sending me to the story writer. I told 
her some information, she got really excited and really wanted me to come in 
with the violin to get pics taken and have my own article in the paper.  The 
county fair was last week, so it took a little while to get me in so I ended 
up in the paper just this last sunday on the front page! The shiawassee 
historical society found record of him as a violin maker, a curio dealer, 
and worked at two furniture factories.  But really what makes the story even 
more interesting, is they left a number to call just in case if anyone knew 
about him etc.  I ended up going to the argus-press building yesturday to 
pick up some more copies of my article, and the lady at the front desk told 
me that her mom wanted to talk to me.  She called her mom and I talked to 
her on the phone.  She told me that G.W. Palmer was her grandmother's best 
friend.  She told me that she called him "uncle" and had many fun times with 
him.  She also told me that he was a 4 ft tall dwarf, that was just a very 
very talented artist.  I think that is really cool that G.W. Palmer was a 
dwarf, just a really special and talented person.  His first name is Guy.  I 
think I have a real gem in my posession! She, her name is Velma (and 77 
years old) told me that when she was really little, she would go over to 
Guy's house and paint ceramics, then they would go and sell them in the 
neighborhood.  She does know of one person that may still have one of the 
ceramics--- a 18 inch tall painted parrot.  She also says she may have a 
picture of him in her ma's or gma's photo album.  And she also knows where 
he is buried.  He is buried next to her grandmother, and she was going to 
see when he was born -- probably around 1890 or something I am thinking.  
The historical society doesn't have any more directories of him after 1953, 
so he lived a long time for someone growing up in that time period.  But 
anyways, the argus is interested in making a follow-up story.  I guess we 
are going to have a big get-together of people who knew Guy and write a 
second story.  Isn't that neat?! I am really excited about it, and I hope 
she finds the picture and I think I made a good purchase! lol =)

Julie

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