1868-1914 |
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Collection of Jerry Blanchard, 8-17-07 |
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Collection of Jerry Blanchard, 8-17-07 |
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Collection of John Davis, 6-20-09 |
via email from John Davis (Great-Great Nephew of Frank Terrill), 9-20-09 Here is the information that I have. I hope this is helpful to you. Frank Terrill was the son of John Terrill Jr., and his wife Maria (Margaret) Long Terrill. John and Maria had five children: William L. Terrill, Ida Terrill, Flora Terrill (Who was my Great Grandmother), Frank J. Terrill, and Martha Terrill. (Most information has the name spelled Terrill, however some records use the spelling Terrell which is how the English Ancestors spelled it) So Frank was my Great Grandmother's younger brother. The Terrill family grew up in Western Pennsylvania (Cambridge Township. Crawford County, PA), with several daughters moving to the Baltimore, MD area (My Great-Grandmother included, which is where she met my Great-Grandfather James Armitage. James was killed in a boiler explosion when my Grandfather was very young, and Flora remarried to a Thaddeous Van Tassell. I believe he met her in Erie,PA when they were both working at a cigar factory. I know very little of Frank's childhood, but my information says that he moved to Kentucky and flew planes at County Fairs. He was married twice. His frst wife left him and moved to Erie, PA with their two daughters Helen Terrill and Juanita Terrill. I have no information about his second wife. I have attached a pictures of a post card I have of Frank in his plane at one of the fairs. I also have attached a picture of the Western Union Telegram that his daughter Helen Terrill sent to my Great-Grandmother (her Aunt) Flora Armitage Van Tassell in Erie to inform her of her brother's accidental death. As the information states, the funeral and burial were to be in Worcester, MA, which is where my information ends. I do not know what the connection to Worcester is, or why Frank was to be buried there. I can only assume that perhaps that is where his second wife was from. I hope this information has been helpful. Regards, John Davis |
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Collection of John Davis, 6-20-09 |
Contributed by John Underwood, 2-4-13 Ralph, There is not much information available on Frank J. Terrill, who was killed in a crash in his Curtiss Pusher in 1914, age about 46. He held FAI License #108, issued by the American Aero Club and was trained at the Curtiss School at North Island, San Diego, in 1912. My guess is that Terrill's exhibition pushers were actual factory-built Curtisses, using the 60-hp Curtiss OX and Hall-Scott V8 engines. In the Dec. 6, 1913 issue of Aero & Hydro is an item about his accident at the Charleston, S.C., fair where he crashed into a group of spectators, injuring several and wrecking his machine. My interest in Terrill has to do with one of his pupils, William H. Alexander, who seems to have thrown in with Terrill to barnstorm the Northeastern states and "learn the game". Alexander was from Maine and about 26 years of age when he started flying with Terrill. It's quite possible he was with Terrill when he was fatally injured at Chesterfield. Incidentally, there was confusion over what happened and where it happened, with the obit reported in "Aeronautics" being a near duplication of the Charleston incident, except that Terrill swerved to avoid the crowd and in so doing sacrificed himself to prevent harming spectators. Cy Caldwell did a write-up on Alexander in the April 1934 issue of Aero Digest, which indicates that Alexander qualified for his FAI license under Terrill in 1912, which would have made him eligible for "EB" membership. I couldn't find him on any of the EB lists, but do know that he joined the Navy as an instructor in April 1917, at which time he was designated as Naval Aviator #175-1/2. His flying career involved flying big 'boats for Aeromarine Airways and Fairchild 71 floatplanes for Coastal Airways, plus the first NY-Bahamas flight in a Stinson SM-1F floatplane with Capt. Yancey navigating. Alexander was on the point of making a goodwill flight to Russia with Bill Brooks et al, but that did not come off and I have not picked up his trail. By then he was about 48, which was considered old for a pilot. He does not appear on the Jan. 1940 roster of active U.S. pilots. Can you put me in touch with Terrill's great grandson? I think his name is Davis, but unable to access your EB website for some reason. |
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Knoxville Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Tennessee: November 14, 1914, Transcribed by Bob Davis - 3-14-07 |
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