Glenn L. Martin

MARTIN, LEE, ROWE, WRIGHT

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart (email)
Date: 8/10/2006 at 14:18:09

Winterset Madisonian, Winterset, Iowa
December 7, 1955

GLENN MARTIN Died Sunday

Aviation Pioneer, Giant of Industry, was Native of Macksburg.

One of Madison county's most illustrious native sons died Sunday, Dec. 4, 1955. He was Glenn L. Martin, a native of Macksburg, who probably contributed more to the invention and development of aviation, over a long period of years, than any other man in history.

Mr. Martin's death occurred at Baltimore, where the largest of his great aviation plants is located. Death followed a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 69 years of age.

Mr. Martin was born at Macksburg in 1886, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Y. Martin. His father was a tinner by trade, and was employed at the hardware store operated in Macksburg by J. M. Lee. Mr. Lee was the father of Mrs. Charles Rowe of Winterset. The Lee and Martin families were next door neighbors when young Glenn was born there in 1886. Mrs. Rowe was a young girl at the time, but she distinctly remembers the incident of Glenn's birth.

The Martin family lived at Macksburg only a few years, moving from there when the boy was a baby. They later settled in California, where Glenn Martin spent his early years.

As a boy in California he started experiments with gliders. He was the first person to take a plane off under its own power, although the later flight of the Wright brothers at Kittyhawk was more successful and is regarded as the first true airplane flight. Nevertheless, Martin was one of the pioneer geniuses in the invention and early development of the airplane.

He continued in the field to become one of the industrial giants in the field of aviation throughout his life-time. He developed the first successful parachute which could be opened by the jumper at will. He completed the first extended over-ocean flight. He participated in the U. S. army's first bombing experiments in 1913.

He built the first multi-passenger plane, the first twin-engined bombers. His fighting planes, including the famous B-26, the Martin Marouder, helped the United States win World War II.

Martin developed an aircraft construction empire that did an annual business of more than 250 million dollars.

His last known visit to his birthplace was in 1913. Martin was on a "barnstorming" tour at the time, and was in Creston to give exhibition flights. On that occasion he took time off for a trip to Macksburg to see his birthplace.