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The Madison County Journal
Features
IB
June 29, 2017
A Madison County man and...
The first days of flight
Zumpt Huffs contribution to aviation was lost to history until a local author set the record straight
Pictured is Ben Epps (L) and Zumpt Huff with the first plane (Epps-Huff I) in front of Epps Garage on East
Washington Street in downtown Athens on May 13,1909. This plane, used exclusively as a glider, was the only
biplane the pair built. Photos courtesy of Dan Aldridge
By Margie Richards
margie@mainstreetnews.com
It’s likely that no one
living in Madison County
today (or even decades ago)
ever heard of a man with
the unique name of “Zumpt”
Huff. (His mother told him
she got the name from the
Bible, but no one was ever
able to find such a name in
scripture.)
Zumpt was bom in the
Bluestone Creek/Mason
Mill area of the county in
1889, the first child of a one-
room schoolhouse teacher
(Anabel Wilbanks Huff) and
a farmer turned professional
photographer (James Albert
Huff).
As Winterville author Dan
Aldridge, Jr. says, Zumpt
has not been remembered
for more than 100 years,
even though at the tender
age of 19, he along with
Ben Epps (the aviator for
whom the Ben Epps Airport
in Athens is named), did
something that no one in the
United States had ever done
before - they built and flew
the first monoplane in the
country, and the first plane
of any kind ever flown in
Georgia.
As Aldridge points out in
his 2016 book, To Lasso the
Clouds, The Beginning of
Aviation in Georgia, about
the Zumpt Huff and Ben
Epps partnership, the Wright
brothers and all other avia
tors before them had only
flown biplanes.
Aldridge became interest
ed in Ben Epps when the
Atlanta Journal Constitution
published an article in
2007 (then believed to be
the 100 th anniversary of the
event), along with a picture
of Ben Epps standing next
to a monoplane in front of
his business in downtown
Athens. The photo was
dated 1907.
No particular date for the
flight, or even a season of
the year, was mentioned.
And there was no mention
of a second man. or a part
nership.
“I thought to myself that
surely the newspapers of
the time covered the flight,”
.. - •
ZUMPT HUFF
IN HIS LATER
YEARS
he said. That started what
became a far more compli
cated search than he had
imagined (and the discovery
of Zumpt Huff) and ended
with tracing down Huff’s
family and eventually locat
ing a damaged collage and
scrapbook that Huff had
made at age 81 about his
partnership with Epps and
that first flight.
AN UNLIKELY
PAIRING
The unlikely pairing of
Huff and Epps began after
Huff’s family, who moved
around a lot due to his
father’s photography busi
ness, became residents of
Athens in 1904 and Huff,
at the age of 15, got a job
in downtown Athens with
a start-up electrical compa
ny named Morton & Taylor
Electrical Contractors. In
January 1905, he met the
company’s newest employ
ee, Ben Epps. The pair bond
ed over their shared interests
and talents in all forms of
vehicular travel, particularly
the newest form, aviation.
By the end of 1908, Epps
had started his own electri
cal contracting business and
Huff was working around
the comer at a motion theater
called the Crystal Theatre as
an assistant projector oper
ator.
They continued their
friendship, reading every
thing they could about the
Wright brothers and their
accomplishments and decid
ed to form a partnership with
the goal of building their
own airplane.
The first plane they built
was a biplane glider, which
crashed at the then horse
track in Athens while being
pulled by an automobile.
After that, they decided to
build another plane with a
different design - a mono
plane (with one single, fixed
wing). Neither had ever seen
a picture of such an aircraft,
but Epps created a design
of what he believed one
should look like. That one
was finished in the summer
of 1909. The undercarriage,
Aldridge explained, was
three bicycle wheels in a
triangle. The “cockpit” was
a wagon bench under the
35-foot wing.
It was not a success.
Their third plane was
finished in August. Also a
monoplane, it was lighter,
smaller and more stable
with better balance. It was
powered by a two-cylinder
engine called an “Anzani
engine” that came off a
pacer-motorcycle owned
by Bobby Walthour, a two
time Atlanta world champi
on bicyclist in motor-paced
racing competition, who
Aldridge speculates was
perhaps the greatest athlete
in the world at the time.
The pair announced a
test flight of the plane to
be held in Lynwood Park
in Athens on the morning
of Aug. 28, 1909. A num
ber of newspapers covered
the event and a large crowd
assembled to watch the
Epps-Huff III plane’s “first”
flight. The plane, with Epps
in the pilot’s seat, made it a
distance of 150 feet.
Unbeknownst to everyone
except a then editor (a man
by the last name of Rowe) at
the Athens Banner Herald,
who acted as witness, the
pair had made an earlier test
flight at 3 a.m. in the park
under a full moon. Both
Epps and Huff sat side-by-
side on the bench seat as the
Epps-Huff HI took off on
its maiden flight. It traveled
a distance of 300 feet. It
was this flight that was the
first flight of a monoplane
in the nation and the very
first airplane to take to the
air in Georgia, according to
Aldridge’s research.
Before Aldridge proved
otherwise the flight was
believed to have occurred
sometime in 1907. By per
forming many hours of
research over several years,
coupled with careful obser
vation of the changing sky
line of buildings in photos of
downtown Athens that had
been in Huff’s possession
and elsewhere, he was able
to determine that the flight
actually occurred in 1909.
He also discovered from
Huff’s scrapbook that he had
come up with the correct
year (though he missed the
exact date by a few days)
before his death. With only
his memory to rely on and
a handful of pictures from
more than 60 years ago,
Huff had also been uncertain
of exactly when the flight
took place.
Once he had the correct
year and a date, Aldrich dis
covered that papers all over
the state and beyond had
covered the event and that
it was sent out over the AP
wire service. He also dis
covered that it was always
reported that the Epps-Huff
II was the plane flown that
day.
“It was actually the third
plane they made that flew
that day. the papers never got
that right.” he said.
After completing his book,
Aldridge submitted an appli
cation on Huff’s behalf for
him to be inducted into the
National Aviation Hall of
Fame in Dayton, OH.
Epps and Huff built three
more monoplanes after their
history-making flight, per
fecting their design a little
more each time. The last one
was finished in 1910.
“But building planes was
expensive and time consum
ing,” Aldridge said. “Neither
Epps nor Huff had the finan
cial means to turn their air
plane hobby into a commer
cial venture.”
The whole enterprise,
from start to finish, was
financed using their own
meager incomes.
After they parted ways,
Epps remained in Athens
and continued his involve
ment in aviation for the rest
of his life, but for Huff, who
moved to Atlanta and later
to Florida, his aviation days
were over.
“The accomplishment
of these young men, Epps
was 21 and Huff 19, was
nothing short of miracu
lous,” Aldridge said. After
all, neither had any formal
education or training in
airplane design or aerody
namics, and except for one
suggestion about building a
“pusher-type” design, they
received no third party help.
Instead, they relied on trade
journals, their imaginations
and God-given talents,
along with characters of
“tenacious perseverance.”
Aldridge noted.
The magnitude of their
accomplishment was
noted by one local paper.
The Oglethorpe Echo, in
September 1909, which
proclaimed them “a second
pair of Wright Brothers.”
“Their achievement
opened the door that
brought the age of air trav
el to Georgia, the state that
would one day lay claim
to the home of the nation’s
busiest airport,” Aldridge
said.
Zumpt Huff died in at the
ripe old age of 86 in 1975.
“The greatest benefit to
me personally has been the
people I have met, partic
ularly the Huff and Epps
families,” Aldrich said.
“The aviation community
is also huge, and it’s been
a real thrill hearing from so
many of them.” As president
of the Friends of Georgia
Libraries. Aldrich has also
traveled around the state
giving presentations and he
has had articles published
in the magazines Georgia
Backroads (Spring, 2017)
and in the Smithsonian Air
and Space (May. 2017).
Copies of Aldrich’s book
are available on Amazon
or by going to danaldridge.
org.
After a public flight of 150 feet, the Epps-Huff III crashed into a terrace as the crowd looked on. Ben Epps (L)
and Zumpt Huff inspect the damage.