Article by Karen on the South Gilboa Airport
South Gilboa Airport
By Karen Cuccinello
Dayton Ellsworth Griffin left his hometown of Hunter, NY in 1922 for a job at John Shew’s garage in Stamford. While in Stamford he opened his own shop, got married and opened an airport.
Dayton Griffin was born April 14, 1898 in Hunter, NY to George E. and Emma (Germond) Griffin following his two sisters Daisy and Rose. His 1917-18 WWI Registration Card states that he was an automotive mechanic at E.E. Services in Hunter and he was of medium height and build with light blue eyes and black hair. On October 20, 1925 he married 24 year old Katharine M. Shew of Stamford, daughter of his boss John T. and Harriet (Frazee) Shew.
In 1928 Dayton advertised his radio service and sales shop, and Aircraft Company offering airplane rides out of the Oneonta Airport. In the fall of the same year he advertised airplane sales and transportation, for business or sightseeing out of his new airport on Stamford Hill. A December 1928 article stated that he carried 672 passengers during the year.
June 1928 (Middleburgh News)- Dayton E. Griffin of Stamford, has purchased a new swallow airplane. The plane is a three place bi-plane, with a ninety horsepower motor, Curtis OX5. When the season is at its height in Stamford, Mr. Griffin will do commercial work among the boarders.
In the summer of 1930 he leased the Conrow & Clark field at South Gilboa, about five miles from Stamford, for an airport. The field had an 1,800 foot runway that was in fair condition and a newly built hangar.
July 24, 1930 Stamford Mirror-Recorder (SM-R) -That Mt. Utsayantha eventually will play an important role as a beacon site for night-flying aviators was demonstrated one evening recently.
The three lights on Mt. Utsayantha are visible at night for many miles from any direction. Usually they are turned on at 8pm and turned off at 10:30pm. One evening recently the lighting plant on the mountain became disabled and in order to conserve electricity lights were not turned on until 9pm.
Dayton E. Griffin, the Stamford aviator, whose plane usually is seen returning from Oneonta way just about dusk when the starlings are flocking to their night quarters, had been to Albany. During his frequent trips the Mt. Utsayantha light had been a dependable beacon guiding him to his airport near Stamford. This night, however, he was returning from a business trip to Albany and had gotten a rather late start. He sought in vain to locate the three lights on the mountain and because he was unable to find them he turned back to Albany. The lighting plant on the mountain has since been put in condition.
August 1930 (SM-R)- A cool head and flying skill enabled Dayton E. Griffin to make the most of his opportunity in an emergency landing. Griffin was over the Sexsmith Lake area (in Davenport) when a valve went to pieces and a part of it fractured a cylinder chamber. He was up about 2,000 feet when the motor stopped. Aided by a fair breeze, he started a four mile glide which ended in the Odell Lake section on the Jewett Dyer farm. The lot was rough and it was necessary to land on a down grade. The plane had a bit too much momentum for the landing space and it nosed gently over before coming to a stop. Griffin was not injured. It was necessary to dismantle the plane to get it back to the airport. The engine will be repaired and should be in service again within a week.
October 1931 (SM-R) – Stamford’s first air circus, sponsored by Dayton E. Griffin, manager of the Stamford airport, attracted a crowd estimated at more than a thousand persons.
August 1933 (NY Sun)-An air show will be presented with stunt flying, parachute drops and an assortment of planes on the field. An interesting novelty will be King Louis Bonnette who will be shot from a cannon attached to a hot-air balloon while 4,000 feet in the air. If his parachute is not fouled he will return to earth in a leisurely fashion.
In the 1940 census Dayton, age 41, is a manager of a tire store and Katherine, 38, are in Morris, NJ.
From the Stamford Village Historian scrapbooks, housed by Historian Anne Willis, Griffin went to Fairbanks, Alaska in 1943 and to the South Pacific the following year.
From familysearch.org I discovered that Dayton E.Griffin died June 30, 1983 in Pinellas, FL.
