SMITH, Harry G. (1890-1938)

SMITH

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 12/9/2018 at 16:07:44

Harry G. Smith
(December 8, 1890 – April 1938)

Des Moines Tribune, Des Moines, IA, Tues., Apr 5, 1938, p.13, col.3
Harry G. Smith Dead in China
Typhus Fever is Fatal to Air Line Pilot
Shanghai, China (AP) – The death of Harry G. Smith of Los Angeles, Cal., of typhus fever was reported Tuesday from Chungking by Reuters news agency. Smith was a pilot on a commercial air line. He formerly was the person pilot of Gen. Chiang Kai-shek. The register’s office at Simpson College, Indianola, Ia., said Tuesday Harry G. Smith, a Chinese aviation expert, was graduated from Simpson in 1917. He attended Indianola High School.

Des Moines Tribune, Des Moines, IA, Wed., Apr 6, 1938, p.3
Harry Smith – Flyer Reported Dead in China
Indianola, IA – Harry G. Smith, son of Dr. and Mrs. William Christie Smith here, former air-plane pilot for Chiang Kai-Shek, generalissimo of the Chinese armies, was reported dead of typhus fever in a news report Wednesday. The report is unconfirmed.
According to the report, Mr. Smith died at the Chinese air base at Chunghang, China, where he was employed by the Chinese government in air service. Dr. and Mrs. Smith had received no confirmation of the news Wednesday, but wired Mr. Smith’s wife at Glendale, Cal., for further word.
Mr. Smith went to China in 1929, after the Chinese government wrote to United States officials telling them they wanted to establish an air route through China. As a result of this the inquiry was turned over to one of the major airplane companies who sent Mr. Smith. In July of that year he and several engineers went to China and inside of two years had established routes in different cities, all under Mr. Smith’s supervision. After he had established these routes he planned to come home but some of the Chinese officials employed him to run their private airplanes and for three years he was pilot for Gen. Chiang Kai-Shek and flew the eight passenger planes used by him in his war against bandits in China.
Back in 1935
He and his family consisting of one girl and two boys and wife, returned to the United States in 1935 and spent two years in the United States, most of the time at Belleville, N. J., where he was in an automobile shop. In July 1937, the family left Seattle, Wash., on the Dollar Line for China, where he was to have employment as a pilot. When they were two days out a typhoon struck the ship and their car which was in the hold was badly damaged. They landed two days before the uprising in China, and two days later Mrs. Smith and children were taken on tugboats to a steamship and transported to Manila. Just before they got to Manila a violent earthquake occurred. Finally they got to Manila, found a place to stay near a sugar plantation, but they decided the war would not end in as short a time, so the Pan American provided a ship which took passage to Los Angeles. Mrs. Smith and the children are living in Glendale. Mr. Smith was born in Diagonal, Iowa, Dec 8, 1890. He was graduated at Simpson College in 1917, and in the fall of the same year enlisted as a soldier in the World War, in the aviation section of the United States Army. He became a flying instructor in March 1918, and instructed in flying until the armistice, Nov 11, 1918, and returned home and taught in Milford, Iowa High School for a year and a half. In 1920 he entered government airmail service and for the next seven years was air mail pilot on the several different divisions between New York and Salt Lake City. The government selected him and another air mail pilot to meet Charles A. Lindbergh on his return from his Atlantic flight, and escort him to meet the president, in Washington, D. C.

Des Moines Tribune, Des Moines, IA, Thurs., Apr 7, 1938, p.22
Death of Harry Smith in China Confirmed
Indianola, IA., - Dr. William Christie Smith and Mrs. Smith, parents of Harry G. Smith, flyer in China, said Thursday they had received confirmation of their son’s death of typhus fever. The confirmation came from Mrs. Harry G. Smith of Glendale, Cal., who has been living there with her three children.

Des Moines Register, Des Moines, IA., Wed., Apr 13, 1938, p.1
Indianola Pilot Buried in China
Indianola, Ia. – Friends here have been informed that Harry G. Smith, Indianola boy who became an aviator in China and died there last week of typhus fever, has been buried in Foreign cemetery at Chungking - 1,000 miles inland. At one time he was the private pilot of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek.