Viewing page 5 of 125

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Rambling Reminiscence and Right Up to Date
Earl Steimnhauer
Assistant Manger of Operations, Washington-Hoover Airport
To have the editor of U.S Air Services request of me my memories of the early days of air porting, so that the readers of the publication might have before them an authentic as well as inimitable story of the conception, development, and operation of the Washington-Hoover Airport, at the other end of the bridge from the nation's capital, is only a little less absurb [[absurd]] than for the Ladies' Home Journal to order me to contribute an article on What Every Women Knows. With this in mind, and the readers forewarned, I hereby swear to do my best as follows:
Remember, dear readers, Americans want beer, something more than froth, which makes me a bit foggy and forgetful, although I am assured there is not such thing as ultimate forgetting. Traces once impressed upon the memory are indestructible, so I go back, back to the winter of 1918 where just across the south end of Highway Bridge I see Alexander Island on the left of the road and on the right a few boat houses and an undeveloped beach; below or to the west of this beach another tract of land, swampy and at one time a brick yard, with a few storage sheds, along a channel of the Potomac where river tugs would haul their barges for a load of fresh bricks. Okay, have it your own way, a fresh load of bricks. 
Here on these tracts of swampy land is the foundation of our story and if any of you bench warmers differ with me about the following dates, occurrences, et cetera, write to the Mayo Brothers and they will straighten you out. I do owe a lot of gratitude to Mr. Webster for this unabridged assistance and to others who have given me a memoir here and there. So here goes. 
Do you remember in the winter of 1918 when Leon Smith operated a Jenny off Alexander Island and has as his mechanic C. D. B. Collyer? Or probably you will recall about the same time when our friend Bill Payne (now at Congressional Airport) bought a surplus Navy F. boat with OXX6 engine and mags that refused to fire if a cloud appeared in the sky, and operated off the undeveloped beach, later called Arlington Beach, and now the site of the Airport Swimming Pool. 
Do you know that Bill had 3 1/2 hours of dual and eight minutes solo when he began carrying passengers for hire, and that he had a lease agreement with the owners of this tract of land for the exclusive privilege of operating "flying machines" dated, signed, and sealed in the year 1920? During this same year, Hamilton Lee, an air mail pilot stationed at College Park, Md., and the proud owner of a Canuck, would fly over to the race track and carry passengers during his off hours at the small price of $15 to $25 for each passenger wife by the name Pickup. We cannot forget the wife, for all those who knew this combination remember these words: "Ah, my master, I am thine helpmate, 'tis I who shall guide thee and care for thy vast stores and treasures. What I shall pickup is nobody's business. Selah!"
Later Elvin Robertson, the big president of Mt. Vernon Airways at Hybla Valley, and Pickup hook horns because there is some misunderstading about who is to receive the $10,000 which has been paid by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit for operating rights of this tract of land for their proposed Philadelphia to Washington Air Line. Nevertheless, there are always two sides to every piece of meat and one side gets the gravy, so the story goes. This occurs in the spring of 1926 and we see Tony Fokker casting a covetous eye over the field planning locations of a runway and the size for hangar and administration buildings. 
Along came Bill Arthur, the big airport construction mogul, who designed and built one hangar and the administration building which is yet located at Hoover Field. Everything was in readiness for the inaugural flight except the name for this Washington terminal. After a few huddles and much discussion it was unanimously decided to christen the site Hoover Field in honor of our President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce. 
Followed a tall lean fellow with a little mustache, the Count himself, Bill deWald, big operations manager, who had been with Uncle Tony and knew