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[[stamp]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/stamp]]

JAMES J. WARD
Early Curtiss Exhibition Pilot 

[[image]]

James Ward was born in Chicago, Illinois, January 7 [[strikethrough]] th [[/strikethrough]] 1882. In his youth he raced bicycles, was a jockey, then turned to motorcycle and automobile racing. He loved automobiles and later became a taxi driver. 

While Bud Mars and the Curtiss aviators were flying at an air meet in Memphis, Tennessee, in April, 1910, Ward was driving a taxi there and became their driver. Mars took a liking to Ward and offered him a job as one of his mechanics, which Ward accepted. He soon became eager to learn to fly and remained with Mars until the Sheepshead Bay, New York, meet in August and there Mars recommended Ward to James [[strikethrough]] Plow [[/strikethrough]] Plew, a wealthy Chicagoan who owned a Curtiss plane and was interested in helping young aviation hopefuls. 

Plew took Ward on and he started teaching himself to fly at the Hawthorne Race Track, Chicago. The plane was one of the very first Curtiss biplanes, with a 4-cylinder 25-30 [[strikethrough]] H.P. [[/strikethrough]] hp., engine. It was one Curtiss had used to fly some of his first exhibitions and Plew had purchased it from Curtiss earlier that year. Ward was an instinctive, natural-born flyer and was doing so well by himself that when Curtiss discovered him there some time later, he was engaged for exhibition work with the Curtiss team. Ward reportedly

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Transcription Notes:
[[image: image of Ward driving]] Made a complete word at end of page per transcription guidelines