46 Nebraskaland • October 2023
commercial fisherman in Florida.
"I lost everything when I fell in Vermont nine years ago,"
Charles told the World-Herald in 1925. "I was in the hospital
six months, and my spine is still out of alignment from that
fall."
Otto and Gus remained in Omaha, where the World-Herald
profiled them now and then as local heroes of invention. In
a July 10, 1949, interview, Gus told a reporter of Charles's
latest invention: an anti-whirl fishing float that prevented
backlash. "Charley … just loves to fish," Gus said. The
daredevil-turned-fisherman died in 1962 at age 84, the last of
the Baysdorfer brothers, and having outlived his wife, Artye,
by 30 years.
N
Visit History Nebraska's website at history.nebraska.gov.
BELOW: Though Baysdorfer made a powered fl ight fi rst,
the best-known early Nebraska aviators are the Savidge
Brothers of Ewing. They built their fi rst glider in 1907
and made their fi rst powered fl ight in May 1911. They
barnstormed Nebraska and the Midwest until Matt Savidge
(shown here at the controls) died in a crash in 1916.
Read more about
early Nebraska
aviation in "Wings
Over Nebraska:
Historic Aviation
Photographs," by
Vince Goeres with
Kylie Kinley.
UPPER RIGHT: A Curtiss "aeroplane" at the Nebraska State
Fair, 1910. The Baysdorfers modeled their plane on Glenn
Curtiss's design, which had diff erent controls than the rival
Wright fl yer. HISTORY NEBRASKA, RG2929-0-390
Read
early
avia
Ove
Hist
Pho
Vin
Ky
