The Savidge Brothers, Aviation Pioneers

There were seven Savidge brothers, Joe, Matt, George, Louis, John, Phil and Dave, sons of Martin and Anna Savidge, and they built their first machines in the hay mow of the family barn south of Ewing. Farm cats rode the early gliders. The powered biplane followed Glenn Curtiss's designs, with wings of shellacked muslin and a pilot's seat salvaged from a mowing machine; their sister Mary sewed wing fabric. They entered the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame in January 2009, and a National Air and Space Museum curator found that the museum had no file on them.

What the plaque says

The Savidge Brothers, Aviation Pioneers Near here was the scene of some of Nebraska's earliest experiments with flight in a heavier-than- air vehicle. Sometime before late 1907, Martin P. Savidge's sons set out to construct a flying machine. They began by studying hawks, then went on to build model gliders, then full size gliders, and finally a self-powered airplane. The first public demonstration was successfully held on Sunday, May 7, 1911. Following this success, the brothers spent five years barnstorming throughout the Great Plains. Matt Savidge was among the first to develop a method of skywriting. During these five years, the brothers built and flew three different biplanes. After a barnstorming tour through Texas, the brothers returned home in the spring of 1916 to make repairs and adjustments on their plane. During a test flight on June 17, 1916, the plane crashed, killing Matt Savidge. After this tragedy, the family of the young fliers insisted that they give up their dangerous pastime. Thus ended one of the earliest chapters of Nebraska aviation history. Ewing Betterment Club Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park — 15 mi
  A watering hole in Antelope County where ash from an eruption in Idaho buried rhinoceroses and horses about twelve million years ago, now uncovered in place under the Hubbard Rhino Barn.
• Neligh Mill State Historic Site — 18 mi
  A brick flour mill on the Elkhorn, begun in 1873, that sold its flour as Gold Medal until 1940, ground until 1969, and still has its original 1880s equipment in place.

More markers nearby

• Page Base Line — 11 mi
• U.S. Highway 281 — 17 mi
• O'Neill — 18 mi
• Ponca Trail of Tears - White Buffalo Girl — 18 mi