Volume 14 , Issue 5

Duchess of Weaselskin

According to the New York Tribune, dated Sunday, November 10, 1907, the big headline was reading, "Next Week Oklahoma Becomes the Forty-Sixth State In the Union." The front page also showed a couple of pictures of a typical Oklahoma village of eighteen years earlier of an Arapahoe Indian town; a typical town and street in Shawnee; and the product of a single farm (12 bushels of corn piled on the ground for want of cribs).

Who was the first president of the Oklahoma Flying Farmers? We heard through a comment on OkieLegacy Ezine Feature #1035 that Charles Ray Mickle mentions, "I have a belt bucket that says that H. G. "Heinie" Bomhoff was the first president of the Oklahoma Flying Farmers."

If this is so, we would like to learn more. If you have some facts that might help us sort out this information, we would like to have a copy to share with everyone out there through "The OkieLegacy Ezine."

N. Dale Talkington gave us this information about, "Henry Gilford "Heinie" Bomhoff . . . born June 21, 1898, Oklahoma; USA Died November 15, 1981, El Reno, Canadian County, Oklahoma, USA. He was born Heinrich Gottlieb Bomhoff, but he took a more American name of Henry Gilford Bomhoff. His burial was in the El Reno Cemetery, El Reno, Canadian County, Oklahoma, USA (The Angel Hunter Record added: Nov 28, 2008 Find A Grave Memorial# 31779889 ~N. Dale Talkington"

BUT . . . was he the first president of the Oklahoma Flying Farmers? This is what we found out online at International Flying Farmers

". . . . . On Aug. 3, 1944, the meeting was held and the Oklahoma Flying Farmers Association was born. The following year, after the idea had spread to other states, Bennett's vision became reality. On Dec. 12, 1945, the National Flying Farmers Association was incorporated under Oklahoma law.

"Airplane ownership then was not so very complicated. Farmers fixed their own tractors, and likewise, they fixed their own airplanes too. And, if they couldn't find a part, they made one. Farmers were very creative in their use of airplanes. During harvest time, they would land their airplanes in the fields to talk with the harvesters. One husband-wife team used its Piper to locate 200 prized Herefords scattered throughout a thousand-acre pasture. Sometimes the farmers-ranchers set their airplanes down in pastures during calving time to check on their livestock. As the first leader of the Oklahoma group, Heinie Bomhoff, had 4,000 hours to his credit, most of it flown at less than 100 feet while hunting coyotes. (Bomhoff, a self-taught flier, went on to teach some 200 of his neighbors to be pilots.)"

How's Winter in your neck of the woods? Any rain to measure in the old gauge? We have been hanging in the mid 40's during the day around the southwest corner of Colorado.

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