The first time I saw this photograph it was my understanding that the man in the middle of the picture was none other than one of the greatest fliers who ever lived; Glenn Hammond Curtiss. I also gathered that this photo celebrated the very first plane to land in Vermilion. That information, however intriguing, is only partially true. It is very much a pictorial recording of the first plane and pilot to alight on village soil, but it is not Glenn Curtiss.
August 1914 was a rather exciting time for Vermilion villagers. A Firemen's Convention was coming to town, and the people had been in preparation for weeks. Cheerful signs of appreciation were everywhere. Welcome banners hung across Liberty and Division (Main) Streets. American flags dressed the porches of homes and businesses along the parade route where convention attendees, in full uniform, would march behind the G.A.R. Band and Vermilion's proudly displayed steam pumper fire engine drawn by two white horses.
Some miles to the west, at Cedar Point, Ohio, a young flier from Washington D.C. named Antony "Tony" Jannus (b. 6-22-1889) had been contracted by the manager of the Breakers Hotel to provide airplane rides for guests in his Benoist [ben-owah] Airboat Number 43. He had been working and living there since mid-July. [Note that early aviators were impelled by simple circumstance to use air exhibitions/races and provide persons with rides to help finance their craft, trade, and livelihoods.] Precisely who from Vermilion contacted Mr. Jannus is not known. But it is known that he was contacted and hired to bring his airboat to Vermilion on August 30, 1914 to open the Firemen's Convention.
Landing near the mouth of the Vermilion River Jannus drove the plane upstream, past Cloudy Noel's Ferry Dock, where he moored it just across the river from the spot where a new village water plant was under construction.
Later he would again take flight and land on the lake just off the beach at Linwood Park. There the Benoist Airboat would be beached and Vermilion News Editor-Publisher, Pearl Roscoe, would take this well known photo of Tony Jannus flanked by Vermilion's Charlie Trinter (left), and Lewis Englebry (right).
Late Vermilion historian George Wakefield told me some years ago that Mr. Englebry weighed about 300 lbs. What he failed to tell me is that Jannus took him as a passenger and flew him back to Cedar Point with him. It may very well be that Lewis Englebry was (to that date) the heaviest man to ever have been transported by air.
As mentioned at the start of this article, "it was my understanding that the man in the middle of the picture was none other than one of the greatest fliers who ever lived". And although it is not Glenn Curtiss in the photo the pilot is in fact, and in deed, one of the greatest fliers who ever lived.
Aside from being a contemporary of Glenn Curtiss (for whom he later worked), the Wright Brothers, and, of course, Tom Benoist (his first employer), Tony Jannus is recognized as being the very first commercial passenger airline pilot in the world. At exactly 10 a.m. on January 1, 1914 he had given throttle to his Benoist Airboat in the waters of a yacht basin in St. Petersburg, Florida and took off on the first round-trip commercial passenger airflight in history; the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line was born.
On October 12, 1916 Antony Habbersack Jannus was killed when a Curtiss H Airboat he was testing for the Russian government experienced some mechanical problems and crashed into the Black Sea. His remains were never recovered. He was 27 years old.
Ref: The Vermilion News; 1938; Jannus an American Flier, Thomas Reilly; 1997 Appeared in the 5-19-05 issue of the Vermilion (Ohio) Photojournal
Written on 5/15/05 @ 9:57 AM
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© 2006 Rich Tarrant
