e-Newsletter | November 11, 2022
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Ployer Peter Hill (1894-1935) and the History of the Pre-flight Checklist
By Kristen Fehlhaber, Assistant Director
This Veterans Day, we honor Newburyport-born Ployer Peter Hill (1894-1935), a pioneer aviator with the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Ployer Peter Hill was born on October 24, 1894 in Newburyport. His parents had come to the United States just a few years before - his father was a silversmith from England and his mother came down from Prince Edward Island. The Hills rented at 302 High Street for many years, but tragedy struck in 1902 when Charles died, leaving his wife with Ployer and his younger sister, Malvina. Ployer attended local schools and became president of the Newburyport High School Class of 1912 (a hotly contested battle, reported the paper). He went on to Brown University as an athlete scholar, excelling in gymnastics and earning a degree in civil engineering.
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Ployer "Pete" Hill, Class of 1912, Newburyport High School and later in his career.
With his college degree in hand, Hill took a position as construction supervisor in Norwich, Connecticut and likely envisioned a future career in that field. In May, 1917, just a month after the United States entered World War I, Ployer filled out his military registration card and gave reasons not to be drafted - a dependent mother and appendicitis. Nevertheless, on Dec. 4, 1917, he entered the Army to become a pilot, beginning with training at Cornell. This turned out to be his calling.
He married a 'Port girl, Helen Toppan, and in the following years, they moved with military assignments to Germany, Texas, New York, China, the Philippines, and Ohio. Although he specialized in aerial photography, he also test-flew over 60 models of airplanes, from wood & canvas biplanes to the all-metal planes of the 1930s. In 1923, they had a daughter Helen, who died of meningitis just before she turned one. Just 8 months later, a son, Ployer Peter Hill, Jr., was born.
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Ployer P. Hill on the right during his early flying days with fellow pilots and mascots. Image courtesy Fold3
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Hill, second from right, in 1932 with other test pilots. Image courtesy Fold3
In 1935, Hill got the chance to test-pilot the Boeing Model 299 – the prototype for the B-17 bomber. Boeing was trying to win a contract with the U.S. Army and put all its effort into the Model 299, known already at this stage as “The Flying Fortress.” At the time, Boeing estimated that the plane cost over $500,000 to develop.
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The Model 299 (B-17 prototype).
The plane took off with five on board and Hill as pilot. It rose to 300 feet, stalled, and crashed so close to the base that airmen were able to run and pull out Hill and his co-pilot from the burning plane. Hill did not survive and the Boeing test pilot on board died later of injuries. Three survived the crash.
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Dayton Daily News, October 30, 1935.
Early reports suggested sabotage or engine failure as possible causes of the accident, but the crash investigation quickly discovered that the elevator and rudder locks had not been unlocked. The lock was a new safety feature meant to protect the plane when it was on the ground in high winds. The plane was able to take off with these controls locked but the Boeing pilot, when he realized the mistake, was unable to reach the control in time.
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Dayton Herald, Nov. 23, 1935.
Boeing seemed to be out of the running for the airplane contract with this devastating crash of the only model of plane. However, the Army favored the Boeing plane (it had been the frontrunner in the competition for the contract) and the company got a second chance. The Army ordered 12 additional Model 299s to test. When Boeing delivered, the planes came with something no other plane had ever had – a flight checklist to cover steps to be taken for taxi, takeoff and landing. While some may have thought the plane was too complicated, Boeing wanted to prove that it was simply too complicated for a pilot to perform all the steps from memory.
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From a 1944 training manual. |
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The "call and response" checklist, where the co-pilot calls out the words in black and the pilot responds with the words in red, was developed after the crash of the B-17 prototype.
With the checklist in hand, the 12 test planes flew 1.8 million miles without incident. Boeing went on get further contracts and built over 12,500 B-17s that were critical to US efforts in World War II.
The Army honored Hill by naming a Utah air base "Hill Field" in 1939, later becoming Hill Air Force Base in 1948. Today, Hill Aerospace Museum welcomes over 300,000 visitors each year at its home near Ogden, Utah.
Ployer and Helen's only son was 11 when his father died and the family returned to Newburyport. Ployer Jr. would go on to attend Governor's (then Governor Dummer) Academy (Class of 1941), enlist in the Army at age 18 and fly combat missions in WWII. He left the service to attend MIT but returned to it to serve during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
In an official statement the day after the accident that took Hill's life, Brigadier General A.W. Robins of the Army Air Corps said, "Major Hill came to his death while executing the hazardous duty of testing an experimental airplane. The sacrifice was as great as though he had been lost in the field of battle." Ployer Hill's body was flown home for a service at the Unitarian Church on Pleasant St and was laid to rest at Belleville Cemetery with his parents. We honor him for his service and the legacy that he left all of us.
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Holiday Open House
Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 3 & 4, 10am-4pm, 98 High St., Newburyport
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Come by the Museum 10am- 4pm, Saturday, December 3 and Sunday, December 4 to see the 1808 Cushing House, a National Historic Landmark, in all its holiday finery!
Guests will enjoy exquisite decorations, festive music and the company of friends and neighbors for two days of free walk-through tours.
The grand 1808 Cushing House is a perfect space to highlight the talents of area garden clubs and decorators including volunteers from the Newburyport Garden Club, Newburyport Horticultural Society, Newbury Garden Club and West Newbury Garden Club, with designer Lillian Newbert rounding -out the group.
Admission is free. Events during the day include:
Saturday, 10-1 - traditional music by O'Carolan Etc.
Saturday 12-2 - Ghlee Woodworth book signing
Sunday 10-12 - Ghlee Woodworth book signing
Sunday 12-3 - traditional music by O'Carolan Etc.
Museum of Old Newbury hats, tote bags, and copies of signed books by Bethany Groff Dorau, Brief History of Old Newbury and A Newburyport Marine, as well as the 2023 Museum of Old Newbury calendars, will also be available during the open house.
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Members Holiday Party
Sunday, Dec. 4, 4-7pm, 98 High St., Newburyport
Join your fellow members of the Museum of Old Newbury for a special evening in the 1808 Cushing House. Stroll through the glittering, decorated rooms of this grand home at twilight.
The Portermen, Newburyport's own sea shanty and traditional music singers, perform at 5:00 p.m.
Enjoy festive drinks, light appetizers, and good cheer as we celebrate the history of our beautiful community. Admission is free for members of the Museum of Old Newbury. Registration is required and space is limited.
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I Will Be Heard: Antislavery Printing and Youth Activism at William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator Office
At Old South Church, 29 Federal St., Newburyport, MA
Saturday, December 10, 2022, 7:00 PM 8:30 PM. Free.
The 3rd Annual William Lloyd Garrison Lecture, delivered this year by historian Kabria Baumgartner, will examine the lesser known role that Garrison and his radical antislavery newspaper played in teaching Black youth communication arts skills that they used to advance the antislavery movement and their own careers in diverse occupations.
If an antislavery district existed in early 19th-century Boston, it would’ve surely been located near Cornhill and Brattle Streets where Garrison opened his permanent office. There, he published The Liberator, which circulated from 1831 to 1865. Garrison’s office at 25 Cornhill Street was not just home to the Liberator, however. It was also an educational space that attracted Black youth who ran errands and worked as copyists. Some even learned the printer’s trade from Garrison and his coproprietor and fellow Newburyporter, Isaac Knapp. This lecture takes you into the Liberator office to explore the “art and mystery” of printing. It explains some of the technical skills that Black youth acquired, which prepared them to become printers, run their own printing businesses, and later pivot to other careers such as medicine.
Exploring this forgotten history is vital not only to spotlight the power of the press and the impact of a collective voice in Black communities, but it also reminds us of the importance of social movements in shaping youth activism.
Kabria Baumgartner, Ph.D., is the Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Northeastern University where she also serves as Associate Director of Public History. She is a historian of the 19th-century United States, with a specialization in African American history.
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Woman on the MOON
...a blog by Bethany Groff Dorau, Executive Director
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"Those in Peril on the Sea"
Many of you have heard me speak about Eben Bradbury, a young Marine from Newburyport killed in World War One. He is in my thoughts every day, but especially during this time of year. The birthday of the Marine Corps is November 10, Veterans Day November 11, Eben’s birthday November 12.
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Eben Bradbury, killed in World War I, is memorialized on this boulder on the Bartlet Mall in Newburyport, but buried in France. Image courtesy of Cynthia August.
This year, I spent a day with our Allies. For the second year in a row, I joined a group organized by the British and Commonwealth Remembrance Project to honor the British and Commonwealth soldiers, sailors, and airmen buried in New England. Specifically, we went to visit the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Cemetery.
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The poppy is an important symbol of remembrance, particularly in Europe.
I came to this event through a circuitous route. An English friend of mine invited me to attend and then was unable to go herself. I went along anyway. As I claim a certain amount of Canadian identity, having spent my childhood in British Columbia, Ontario, and Manitoba, I was adopted by this crew of ex-pats and pay particular attention to the Commonwealth citizens buried there – the Australians, New Zealanders, and yes, Canadians. It helps that my longtime friend Adam, whose association with the British Royal Navy goes back decades, is also part of this group. It also helps that I know all the words to God Save the Queen, although now we must sing God Save the King, which I will admit was a shock when the word first passed my lips.
We met in a parking lot in Kittery, Maine. We had already passed a background check. We were loaded into an unmarked van and driven on to the Portsmouth Naval Base. Our IDs were taken away, then handed back after we were through the checkpoint. We were reminded not to take pictures of the base as we passed through. This is not an easy cemetery to visit.
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A New Zealand flag flies behind the stone of John David Wallace, a member of the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve, who died in 1943, age 21.
The cemetery is small and quiet, a few stones on a hill above the river. The stones are from a variety of time periods, and most of them are American. There was one section, however, where most of the stones look the same - concrete blocks with metal plaques affixed to them. Each stone is a memorial to a young man that died in World War II, and many of these are British and Commonwealth citizens.
It was a beautiful day, the last of the leaves still clinging to the trees and casting an orange and yellow glow. The weather was too warm for the coats we all wore, and I watched as one person after another carefully removed their poppy pin from their coat and then carefully re-pinned it to their shirt. We weren't exactly joyful, but we weren't somber either. Some members of the group were old friends, some went directly to the stone of someone they had researched or were connected with in some other way. It felt like a kind of reunion.
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There was a short service, a song, a prayer. And then, a moment of silence, and that was when, in the playful light of late fall in New England, we brought the young men buried here, many of them just teenagers, into full consciousness. The silence was broken by a bugle playing the Last Post, and then we all took poppies and placed them on the graves, taking time to think of each one. The youngest I could find was sixteen – the oldest forty-five. Some were lost at sea and washed ashore, others were killed in training exercises or while defending the coast. All are here, on our soil, forever, so far from home, in a place that is hidden away and hard to visit. I was so grateful to the group that organized the trip and thought of the sons and daughters of Old Newbury buried abroad. Of course, I always think of Eben in France, unvisited for so long, but now remembered by so many. |
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Most societies have established rituals for remembering those long dead. We Americans seem to be a people of relentless motion, of expansion and forward propulsion. I often think of what is lost in this desire to leave the past behind – whether we can still believe as we once did that we would carry on into the future. The residents of Old Newbury burying grounds centuries ago had good reason to believe that their grave had something to offer the living. They offered advice to their descendants, reprimanded the frivolous and admonished the sinner. Later, they planned garden cemeteries like Oak Hill – public parks to lure in the public, to be remembered by picnickers and dog walkers. They speak to the primal hope that they will be remembered, propelled into the future with a plaintive “remember me as you walk by”. |
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The graves of Danish and British sailors from the freighter Empire Knight.
Tonight, I am thinking of a row of graves across a gravel path from the main graveyard, marked with concrete stones with names like Jens George Dahl and Leonard Johanis Hansen. These men were the crew of the Empire Knight, a 7244-ton British ship that went down off the coast of Maine on February 11, 1944. Twenty sailors were rescued. Twenty-four were killed. Sixteen are buried at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Many of the crew of the Empire Knight were from Denmark. When the Nazis occupied their country, many Danes who were at sea chose to join the British Navy rather than sail home and live under Nazi rule. They were fighting for the freedom of their occupied homeland when they died, and it seems doubly tragic that they were fated never to return, even in death.
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Sonar has captured the wreck of the Empire Knight on Boon Island Ledge, Maine.
In America, Veterans Day is for the living, for those who served the country in war and peace, at home and abroad. Remembering the dead is not enough, but it is how I honor the living. I will never forget that it was a living Navy veteran of the Korean War who put Eben Bradbury’s medal in my hand and sent me on this path.
But tonight, I will think of the brave Danes who met their death fighting fascism. And I will add them to the young men and women who I hold in my memory, and in my heart.
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Something is Always Cooking at the Museum |
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Soul Cakes (makes 18)
MOON Board Member Monica Reuss brought these delicious Soul Cakes in to the office. They were tradionally given out for All Soul's Day and that custom is thought to be the precursor to trick-or-treating. They have a nice hint of spice and are not too sweet. She used currants and they were delicious! -Kristen Fehlhaber
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Click on image above to play the puzzle |
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The 2023 Calendar is here!
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Museum e-Newsletter made possible through the
generosity of our sponsors:
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Museum of Old Newbury
98 High Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
978-462-2681
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