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[[stamp-right margin]]
FROM THE
FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES 
OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE
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water flying operations at Jacksonville. Minnerly assisted in this work and some flying was done along the eastern Florida coast towns south of Jacksonville. In the spring of 1914 the group returned north and in June Herrman and Walter Johnson started the Walter Johnson School of Aviation at Livonia, New York, with Minnerly as assistant instructor. Their water flying base was at The Livingston, Conesus Lake, using a Thomas Hydro and flying boat with Kirkham engines. Operations began May 30th carrying passengers, and the school started with a class of five students. Advertizing of the school had been inserted in the leading aero magazines. The group also did some exhibition work that year. The enterprise operated the full season, then folded when Walter Johnson went with the Curtiss Company. 

  Remaining around the Bath and New York State area Herrman advertized as a consultant in January, 1917, "Design and consulting covering all branches of aviation, C. A. Herrman, Bath, New York", then during World War I he reportedly was employed by the Government on plane construction at Hampton, Virginia and Dayton, Ohio. 

  After the war, while living at Gibson's Landing, New York on the west shore of Lake Keuka, Herrman built a boat for himself, a good one. This led to similar boats for his friends and soon he had a business started. He established a small boat building shop there, it grew and was later moved to Penn Yan when further expansion was necessary. There the Penn Yan Boat Company was organized, but his first factory was completely destroyed by fire in 1923. He then built a new two story factory on the Keuka Lake outlet, the former site of docks of an early Lake Steamboat Line. 

In 1924 a former Thomas Brothers aviator friend, Ralph M. Brown, joined Herrman in the business as an assistant associate. The business grew and in 1929 this plant was found to be too small so Herrman moved to new larger facilities on the Lake, at the foot of Waddell Avenue, Penn Yan, where the firm is still in business today, and one of the major pleasure boat building companies in the United States. 

During World War II the plant was taken over to make power utility boats for the Army Engineer Corps exclusively, and the company was later awarded the Army-Navy coveted "E" award for their excellent contribution to the wartime military effort. Herrman was company President until 1940 when the post wast turned over to Ralph Brown. 

Continuing to reside at Gibson's Landing, Herrman passed away there December 

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Transcription Notes:
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