Legends Worth
Remembering
Mary Ann Hadley
Aug. 8, 1996, Keene Star Reporter
Old Soggy
Did you know that the first airplane to be built in Texas was
built in Ed Wallen's blacksmith shop in Keene? At least that's the claim made by
Slats
Rodgers in his book called, "Old Soggy No.1, The Uninhibited Story of
Slats
Rodgers."
I first heard about Old Soggy from Glenmore Carter, who wrote a
short story
in Lest We Forget, a 1984 book of stories published by Southwestern
Adventist
College that same year. Some time later, I discovered Rodger's book at
the Layland Museum in Cleburne.
It seems that Slats was a rather salty
railroad engineer, making the run from Dallas to Cleburne, when he
concluded that it seemed a shame to waste all the power in the engine
"just hauling something around on the ground."
"I scared the chickens out of the hen house and cleaned it out and
got
it ready to use as a workshop . . . I spent a lot of time in Libraries
reading
all the stuff I could find about airplanes that was written by the
Wright
Brothers," says Slats. After completing a model plane, which he
fastened to
an engine tank, he began looking for a place big enough to build a plane
he
could fly, and began ordering materials - - spruce from Oregon,
turnbuckles from
France, etc.
He describes the engine, "I bought the
engine in St. Louis for $750. It was a six-cycle engine, weighing
287 pounds, and was rated at 100 horsepower, only it never got very
close to that so far as I could tell. There weren't any other
airplanes being built in Texas then, mine was the first. So
everybody was mighty curious."
According to Slats, he began construction in
Cleburne. "People began crowding around all the time, blocking the
sidewalk. So the city decided that my airplane was a public
nuisance and told me I would have to move it out of town. I told
my dad about it and he got hot under the collar and said he would fix
things. So he went to Keene, about five miles from Cleburne, and
rented a big old house to put the airplane in."
How did Slats' father know about Keene? According to Glenmore
Carter's
story, "Early in the 1900's the Rodgers family moved from Georgia to
Keene
to educate their children. One of the daughters later married Fletcher
Judge
who for several years headed the Brandom Manufacturing Corp. Another
daughter
married Mr. Plemons of Grand Prairie, and their daughter, Evelyn became
the wife
of Vernon Becker. Both Vernon and Evelyn graduated from Keene."
Carter continues his story, stating, "One Rodgers boy,
Floyd H.
(nicknamed
"Slats") distinguished himself in an unusual way. In 1911 the residents
of
Keene were surprised to see the youthful Rodgers building an airplane in
Ed Wallen's barn near the school farm."
An editor's note in "Lest We Forget" states, "So far as we
have been
able to determine "Slats" Rodgers built the first airplane ever
constructed
in Texas in Ed Wallen's blacksmith shop in Keene. That Blacksmith shop
was
located about where the Plant Services Department has its offices and
shop.
Both Howard Mattison and Glenmore Carter vividly recall many hours spent
watching "Slats" at work on his flying machine.
To Be Continued Next Week. . .
Legends Worth Remembering
Mary Ann Hadley
Aug. 22, 1996, Keene Star Reporter
Ed. Note: This is the fourth of a continuing series about the Keene of
yesteryear; stories from the collection of
Mary Ann Hadley a 1979
graduate of
Southwestern.
"Old Soggy" Part 2
Last week we introduced the story of Slats Rodgers, who, in 1911,
built an
airplane in Ed Wallen's blacksmith shop on Magnolia street in Keene.
I first heard about Old Soggy from Glenmore Carter, who wrote up a
short
story in "Lest We Forget," published by Southwestern Adventist
College in
1984. Sometime later, I discovered Rodgers' book, "Old Soggy No.1,
The
Uninhibited Story of Slats Rodgers."
"We loaded all the parts and tools and stuff
on a mule wagon and moved out there and started working again. But
moving to Keene did not cut the crowds down any. They kept coming
. . .
"Finally we got it finished and set it up
on the outside of the building.
"Here came the people and the Newspapermen.
I never did exactly figure newspapermen as people. They count
separate. All the newspapers were running stories and pictures.
It was a big story in Texas, the first airplane ever built in the state.
And there weren't many airplanes in the state, no matter where they were
built.
"I was flat broke by the time we finished the ship, so I had to do
something in a hurry. I went back to Cleburne and rented a vacant lot
to park
the ship in. Then I found out I had to go to the county commissioners
and get a
permit to move the plane along the highway to town. . . . They gave me a
permit,
but they told me I would have to move the ship at night. . . . I got two
little
mules and hitched them to the ship and started out for town right after
midnight. . . . I met only one wagon, pulled by steers. The steers
didn't pay
any mind to the airplane, but the man in the wagon did. . . . but there
wasn't
any place to go. I managed to seesaw past him in the narrow road and
got into
town. . . . just at daylight. Six hours to go five miles with an
airplane."
According to Rodgers, he called his first
plane "Old Soggy" because one wing hung a little lower than the other.
Legend has it that Slats Rodgers, the Texas Barnstormer, was a civilian
flying instructor in World War 1. Rather a daredevil in his
flying, once he took up the challenge of flying between two downtown
skyscrapers in Dallas, barely clearing the wings. On another
occasion, he was forced down where there were only scrub oaks below.
Choosing two oaks just the right distance apart, Slats guided his dead
plane down between them, shearing off both wings, but slowing the plane
sufficiently to save his life. He walked away from 29 plane
crashes.
