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Standing under the roadsign to be installed
this week, are Billy and Sylvia Turnage, and Rep. Charles Jenkins, who
was presented with the framed proclamation and the large framed patent
and drawings of Dyers flying machine. |
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
(Note: I am delighted that Joan Crothers,
reporter for The
Sentinel, gave her permission to reprint this news
article she wrote about the Dyer-Souther
Reunion at which we named a portion of GA Highway 180 in memory of Micajah Clark Dyer, inventor of “An Apparatus
for Navigating the Air.” -Ethelene Dyer Jones)
Relatives honor
a genius
By: Joan Crothers
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Micajah Clark Dyer was finally
getting the
due he deserved as relatives and friends gathered at the Choestoe
Baptist
Church on Saturday, July 15. The beautiful Fellowship Hall was filled
to
capacity with an estimated 300 people, most of them related to some
part of the
Dyer family.
Clark Dyer, as the family refers
to him, is
credited with creating and setting to flight a "flying machine" off
of Rattlesnake Mountain in Choestoe, Union County, sometime in the
1870s. His
patent has also been found and one person, Johnny Wimpy, now deceased,
was 8
years old when "he saw it fly." He had also also helped Dyer build a
large rock wall that is still standing. Dyer is also credited with
creating a
system of logs to pipe running water to his house from a spring.
Neighbors saw
him work on other inventions, but most ridiculed him for wasting his
time on a
flying machine, so he kept it quite secret.
However, when he did get a
patent for his
invention in 1874, he put an article in the St. Louis Globe of July
1975 and
the Gainesville Eagle, some now thinking he was trying to get funds to
build
his flying machine. After he died in 1891 at 69, his wife sold his
plans and
machine to brothers named Redwine and they reportedly sold them to the
Wright
brothers.
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Silvia Dyer Turnage was the
organizer of
this recognition of her great, great grandfather and thanked her family
for all
their support and help. She said she first read about the flying
machine in a
family history book, but it was 25 years later when the 1874 patent for
the
flying machine was found through the internet.
Turnage turned a poem she had
written about
this unusual man into a song, which she sang accompanied by Sam Ensley
on the
guitar.
The highlight of the event was
the
unveiling of a road sign, one of three, dedicating part of 180 to
Micajah Clark
Dyer. This came about through efforts of Representative Charles Jenkins
in
having the Georgia Legislation approve a proclamation honoring Dyer.
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c2006 by Joan
Crothers;
published July 20, 2006 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA.
Reprinted
by permission. All rights reserved.
Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator, freelance wirter,
poet, and historian. She may be reached
at email [email protected]; phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood
Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411
Updated May 27,
2009
Back To Union County, Georgia GenWeb Site
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