Wednesday, July 31, 2019 8:27 am

This photo, courtesy of the family of the late Ruth Elizabeth Mathis Witt, who grew up in Auburntown, was taken by Woodbury photographer William Noel Nichols on Aug. 2, 1919, and labeled as the first plane to land in Cannon County. The plane crashed on Albert O'Neal's farm in Auburntown. Charles Runion, who created and curates the Wings Remembered Museum in Lebanon, identified the plane as a De Havilland DH-4. Runion said, "The fellow standing in the photo appears to be a sergeant with an Aero squadron, based on the shoulder patch. Since there were no known sergeant pilots, he could have been a mechanic riding along with the pilot when the crash occurred." Based on the uniform of the main in the photo, Runion believes the plane had been on a military training flight. Auburntown native son Ward Odom was queried about the photograph and responded, "I never heard anyone mention this plane crash, and this is the first I have heard about it. In the '30s, a-single engine, open-cockpit plane landed in a field on the south side of Sanders Fork Creek and about three-quarters of a mile east of downtown Auburntown, and for an afternoon the pilot took locals up for a ride for $1 per trip. We all rushed to this field to share in the excitement. I remember that Adrian Vantrease and Harold Hawkins were two people that were brave enough and wealthy enough to take a ride." Runion shared more details on this model, noting, "American-built DH-4s were dubbed the 'Liberty Plane.' By war's end, 13 Army Air Service squadrons, five of them bomber squadrons, were equipped with them. In addition, four combined Navy-Marine squadrons were flying DH-4s along the Belgian coast. Of the 4,346 DH-4s built in the United States, 1,213 were delivered to France, but of those only 696 reached the Zone of Advance."