Harris Whittemore Jr., aviation pioneer – Part I

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The Nixon Plane is on display at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. It was home built by John F. Nixon of Naugatuck in 1918, and he used it until 1926 in his work for Colonial airlines. (Robert Rafford photo)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

The Whittemore family has been a prodigious benefactor to Connecticut, especially throughout the Naugatuck Valley. John Howard Whittemore (1837-1910) and his wife, Julia Anna (Spencer) Whittemore (1839-1915) were the progenitors of a large family of entrepreneurs and philanthropists. They funded and built roads, bridges, schools, parks, libraries and other treasures in both Naugatuck and Middlebury. Many were designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, including the present Middlebury Historical Society building in 1897 (formerly Center School).

In the 1920s, the Whittemore family’s aspirations began to soar, literally. Harris Whittemore Jr. (1894-1974), the grandson of John and Julia Whittemore and son of Harris Whittemore (1864-1927) and Justine Morgan (Brockway) Whittemore (1866-1940), became a significant pioneer of American aviation, perhaps the most important in Connecticut history.

Harris was trained as a flyer during World War I and was an instructor of bomber pilots. He met John Francis Nixon (1890-1969) of Naugatuck, who built an aircraft in 1918 that is now on permanent display at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The plane, it is said, inspired Harris, and he forged a friendship with Nixon as he began looking into aviation and its future for American business after the war.

On August 14, 1922, Harris purchased a 48-acre farm on Straits Turnpike in Bethany, Connecticut, from the family of Kate Emeline (Woodward) Brown (1848-1936) and Frederick Hotchkiss Brown (1848-1926). Seven months later, on March 16, 1923, he filed a certificate of incorporation in Naugatuck, and subsequently with the office of the Connecticut Secretary of the State, establishing the Bee-Line Inc. with $50,000 in capital. It became New England’s first airline.

He turned his farmland purchase into Bethany Field, later known as Bethany Airport, which became New England’s first licensed airport. One of the original purposes of the airline was to take aerial photographs. John Nixon became his chief mechanic, rigger and a flyer.

By June 1923, the Bee-Line began establishing regular air service for passengers between New York, Hartford and Boston, using three planes. The Bee-Line offered sightseeing excursion flights over Hartford by famous pilot Bertrand Blanchard “Bert” Acosta (1895-1954) in a two-passenger cabin Fokker biplane for $5 per person. On May 8, 1924, the Bee-Line Inc. formally changed its name to Colonial Airlines Inc.

Acosta became a Bee-Line flyer and was an excellent aerial stunt performer, often seen performing above Bethany field and at other locales. Together with another famous aviator, Gus Graf (1903-1992) of Waterbury, they flew to dizzying heights, parachuted from balloons and set world records. These were the “barnstorming” days of flight when daredevil artists thrilled crowds at aviation shows. Graf became a flyer and manager of the Bethany Airport.

In January 1925, Connecticut Governor John Harper Trumbull (1873-1961), addressed the legislature, encouraging the development of air transportation, and he cited Bethany Airport, where “private capital has established a permanent airport at Bethany.” Airmail service had begun about 1918 in this country, but the United States government was about to take charge of it. In February 1925, Congress passed and President Coolidge signed the Air Mail Act, known as the Kelly Act, allowing the postmaster general to contract with private companies to carry airmail.

On May 15, 1925, Harris Whittemore purchased from Chester P. Isbell of Naugatuck three more parcels of land totaling 167 acres adjacent to his original purchase in Bethany, greatly expanding the original airfield. On October 7, Harris Whittemore’s Colonial Airlines flew into history when it was awarded contract number 1, becoming the first American airline with an airmail contract. The contract allowed Colonial to fly all airmail between New York and Boston, stopping in Hartford. Later that month, Colonial Airlines merged with Eastern Air Transport of New York, and the company became Colonial Air Transport Inc. Harris’ aviation business was soaring, and the sky was no limit.

You are urged to join the Middlebury Historical Society by going online at MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or visiting them on Facebook. Questions about membership can be sent to Bob at robraff@comcast.net.