Charles K. Hamilton, Daredevil of the Air (1885-1914)

Much of Connecticut’s--and, in some cases, the world’s--history was shaped by people who now rest in Cedar Hill’s burial grounds. One of these was Charles Keeney Hamilton. Born in New Britain, Connecticut in 1885, Hamilton was the grandson of Hartford merchant, Lorenzo Hamilton. Interested in flying at an early age, Hamilton became active in hot-air ballooning and parachute jumping at circuses and fairs when he was eighteen. Three years later he teamed up with Roy Knabenshue and began piloting dirigibles.

Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio solved the problem of controlled powered flight in an airplane beyond all doubt on December 17, 1903 but their accomplishment was not generally accepted until the fall of 1908 when the brothers made their first public flights–Orville at Ft. Meyer, Virginia, and Wilbur in France. Not until then did aviation burst upon the world as a practical reality.

In Connecticut, as throughout the rest of the country, the flying fever gripped the imaginations of men. Charles Keeney Hamilton, Nels J. Nelson, Frank Payne, George F. Smith, Peter Dion, Howard S. Bunce, Christopher Lake, Percival Spencer, and others. Hamilton of New Britain was the first. Abandoning his dirigible, he learned to fly airplanes under Glenn H. Curtiss in late 1909 and within six months his daring flight exhibitions throughout the United States made him perhaps the best known American flyer at that time. Known as a daredevil pilot who would fly anything anywhere, Hamilton repeatedly crashed his “Hamiltonian,” a biplane powered by an eight-cylinder, 110-hp motorcar Christie engine termed “too hot to handle.”

By this time, many in the United States had grown tired of just watching aircraft fly. Charlie responded with what was then daredevil stuff. People were convinced that if the engine stopped, the machine would crash; the idea of gliding was still only vaguely comprehended. One of Hamilton's first and very successful stunts was to climb to some 1,500 feet above the exhibition ground and cut his engine. Then he would dive steeply, pull out--as the newspapers invariably claimed--at the last possible moment, then land. Spectators, convinced that he was diving to destruction, displayed gratifying reactions. Strong men shouted in dismay and, all over the grounds, if the newspapers are to be believed, young women fainted. On some occasions, pilots emulating Hamilton did fail to pull out, but there were ample incentives to take risks because exhibitions were very rewarding financially. A pilot could earn as much as $10,000 for two or three flights of 10 or 15 minutes duration--a great deal of money in 1910 dollars. Also in 1910, Hamilton participated in the Dominguez Field Air Meet, won a prize of $10,000 for flying from New York City to Philadelphia and made the first documented night flight over Knoxville, Tennessee.

The following year Hamilton joined Moissant's International Aviators, a group of flyers who toured the United States performing daredevil exhibitions, hawking barnstorming flights and reportedly earning $100,000 a year. During a performance with the group in El Paso Texas, he flew over Cuidad Juarez and observed engagements between the Mexican militia and rebels, which is one of the earliest recorded uses of an airplane for military purposes.

Although Hamilton’s aviation career was undoubtedly spectatular, sadly, it was cut short on January 22, 1914 when he died at age 28 from a lung hemorrhage after a long bout with tuberculosis. We’ve been told that, in a fitting tribute at his funeral, a group of aviator friends flew over his grave site and dropped flowers from their planes.