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[[newspaper clipping]] 
Melita Road Boy Flew First Air Mail Here

The daily papers of the last few days tell a story of how they're celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first air mail flight in New York City. It was a flight of mail from Garden City to Mineola, N. Y. on September 23, 1911 by one Earle Ovington.

They're all wrong!

An East Santa Rosa boy Fred J. Wiseman of Melita road, flew the first air mail in history on February 17, 1911. Fred flew a bag of mail, including a letter from the mayor of Petaluma to Mayor Overton of Santa Rosa. He took off from Petaluma and landed in a field south of Santa Rosa.

MR. WISEMAN, who now lives in Berkeley, has a letter from the U. S. Postmaster General confirming his as the first air mail flight and Wiseman's plane is now in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, labeled as the first to fly mail.

A brother, Emmet Wiseman and sister, Mrs. Juanita Wymore, now live here at 1792 Geary drive. The old Wiseman home recently sold by Finlaw Geary, is now occupied by Norman Hoffman, factory representative of the General Tire Co. in Northern California and Nevada.

The letter from mayor to mayor, is now in the pessession of Mrs. Beatrice O. Green, daughter of Mayor Overton, who works in the ofice of Santa Rosa Police Chief Flohr.

[[/newspaper clipping]]