Grayson County TXGenWeb

Cal Rodgers

Dallas Morning News
December 7, 1941

FIRST PLANE LANDING IN NORTH TEXAS WAS ON SITE OF NEW AIRFIELD

Pottsboro, Texas, Dec. 6 - When training planes of the Grayson County Basic Flying School begin flying over Pottsboro in a few more weeks, They probably will create as much excitement as a lone plane did here Oct. 27, 1911, when Pilot C.P. Rogers set his ship down on the farm of J.T. Bryant after failing to spot a landing place at Denison. It was said to be the first plane landing in North Texas.
The plane, sponsored by a national manufacturer, was due to land at Denison. A train of company representatives accompanied the plane.
Mrs. E.L. French, telephone operator here in 1911, opened her entire switchboard to inform the people a plane had landed at Pottsboro. In less than an hour citizens from five miles around had gathered here to get their first glimpse of an airplane.
During the hour and twenty-eight minute stop, people wrote their names on the wings of the plane. Frances Clement, now Mrs. Len Allen of Houston and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.F. Clement, was placed in the cockpit by her father. Others also climbed into the plane.
Billy French, an elderly man, remarked, "I've lived from the oxcart days to the airplane." Just a few days later Mr. French died.
But tragedy awaited Pilot Rogers on the West Coast. As he flew over the waters near Long Beach, Calif., he lost control of the ship and it plunged into the sea, drowning Rogers.