PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2023

PEORIA RETRO

THE SYMPHONY OF FLIGHT … CONDUCTED FROM AN OCTAVE BELOW Peorian Octave Chanute was a significant influence on the Wright brothers and that famous first flight

BY GARY WRIGHT ILLUSTRATION BY SCOTT SHEPLER

T he letter, dated May 13, 1900, was astonishing in its directness and abruptness. It lacked even the customary salutation. “For some years,” it began, “I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money, if not my life.” The author: Wilbur Wright. The recipient: Octave Chanute. It was at the latter’s modest, calf high Springdale Cemetery headstone that I recently stood, pondering the serendipity of time and place and Chanute’s pivotal role in the first successful, powered and manned flight. In 1857, Chanute married Annie Riddel James of Peoria, Illinois. The family lived here for seven years. They now rest for eternity at Peoria’s Springdale, where on the day of my

visit, 16 family markers defined a graceful granite arc in the Mt. Repose section, directly behind the imposing Salzenstein/Lehmann mausoleum. But for the whims of fate, Chanute, a wealthy Chicago businessman, might never have set foot in America, let alone Peoria. Born in 1832 in Paris, France, he immigrated to the United States at age 6 when his father accepted a position as vice president and history professor at Jefferson College, north of New Orleans. Though he was precocious from the beginning, few could have foreseen his capacity to shape destiny. By age 17, the New York-educated prodigy had become a consulting engineer. His brilliant engineering triumphs included the design and construction of bridges and his plans for the Chicago and Kansas City stockyards. His first bridge project was Peoria’s Illinois River rail bridge. He

was the architect behind the Hannibal Bridge – the first to cross the Missouri River – in 1869, as well as a score of others. His proprietary system for pressure treating rail ties and telephone poles with creosote is used to this day. The tenacious, intense Chanute also introduced the railroad date nail to the United States, a system of recording the age of railroad ties by date stamping the heads of nails. Chanute worked his way through the ranks in the railroad business, from chainman (surveyor) for the Hudson River Railroad to railroad civil engineer to chief engineer of the Chicago and Alton Railroad. Chicago was home for the last 21 years of his life. In his twilight years, Chanute developed a consuming interest in gliding and aviation experiments. This was a risky stance in an academic environment that largely ridiculed and

84 APRIL 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE