John Livingston was born on November 30, 1897, in Cedar Falls. He attended Lincoln School and completed one year of high school. John began working as a bicycle repairman at George Fagan’s bicycle shop when he was thirteen. Later, he left to become a mechanic at Ike Albert’s Harley Davidson. Following World War I, Livingston began his long career in aviation working as a mechanic at Miller Scales Aviation Company. He started flying airplanes himself in 1919. Soon, he went to work for the Iowa Airplane Company as an aircraft salesman. Later he bought out the company and re-named it the Midwest Airways Corporation. In 1928, Livingston and his brother Aden took over Chapman Field, Waterloo’s airport. During the 1930s, Livingston became a national celebrity as an accomplished race and test pilot. From 1928 to 1932, he won 79 first places in the 139 race events he entered. He then worked as a test pilot for Waco Aircraft Company from 1935 to 1937. During World War II, he trained students to fly with a contract from the War Training Service at the Iowa State Teachers College (today UNI). Following the war, Livingston returned to aircraft sales and eventually retired to Pompano Beach, Florida. In 1959 he served as National President of the OX-5 Club of America. In 1974, while testing an aerobatic monoplane, Livingston suffered a heart attack. He was able to land the airplane, but collapsed immediately after he stepped out of the airplane. His brother Aden remarked in his obituary: "In all of his years of flying, he never scratched an airplane."[1] John Livingston was inducted into the Iowa aviation Hall of Fame on April 27, 1995.
1. Cedar Falls Historical Society Archives: Series III: box 7c: Funeral Sermon folder (Funeral Program)
Bibliography
Cedar Falls Historical Society, Series III, Box 7A- Livingston, John and "Bite",Folder One-Biographical
Information.
CFHSA: Series III: Box 7C: John Livingston Folder (Funeral Program).
CFHSA: Series III: Box 7D: John Livingston Folder, (Waterloo Courier) "Aden Livingston" (Date and Page unknown).
Aden "Bite" Livingston was born on February 8, 1903, in Cedar Falls. Aden attended Lincoln School, but, like his brother, did not finish high school. While in school Aden earned his nickname, "Bite," after he got into a fight with one of his classmates and bit his opponent on the knee, drawing blood. During the 1920s, Aden sold cars at local dealerships before getting into the aviation buisenss. Aden's original pilot's license was signed by Orville Wright. With his brother, John, he ran the Waterloo Airport at Chapman field from 1928 to 1948. While John kept busy racing airplanes, Aden continued to manage the airport while selling Curtis "Jennies".[1] Together, Bite and John Livingston started Iowa’s first airline in 1928. This airline had scheduled service between Waterloo and Des Moines, and charged $10 for one way and $18 for round trip.[2] Livingston also served as an airmail pilot in Iowa. After 1948, Bite moved to Omaha, where he became the top salesman for a firm that manufactured the Taylorcraft Airplane. In 1987, at 84, he re-enacted Lincoln Beachy’s first airmail drop in Iowa in his own 1946 Taylorcraft, on the 75th anniversary of this drop.[3] Bite was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame on May 17, 1991. Aden Livingston died in 1995 at 92.
1."Aden Livingston", The Iowan, Winter Issue, 1989, 44-51.
2."City up early with Air Thrills, Travel", Waterloo Courier, June 20, 1954, Section 10, 13.
3.CFHSA: Series III Box 7D: John Livingston folder: Waterloo Courier, "Aden Livingston".
Bibliography
"Aden Livingston", The Iowan, Winter Issue, 1989, 44-51.
"City up early with Air Thrills, Travel", Waterloo Courier, June 20, 1954, Section 10, 13.
CFHSA: Series III Box 7D: John Livingston folder: Waterloo Courier, "Aden Livingston".
Phillip Lund was born in 1901 to a poor Cedar Falls family. He finished sixth grade, but because of his family’s financial status, he had to work so the family could survive. In 1921, Lund died in a heroic effort to save two girls from drowning.[1] Mary Vietor and Minerva Stalkner, both students at the Iowa State Teachers’ College (now UNI), were in a canoe on the Cedar River when tragedy struck. Robert Riker saw the girls in the canoe on the Cedar and immediately recognized that the water was too fast and turbulent at the bend above the dam. He immediately went out to them in his boat and offered them a ride. When his engine quit, the girls became frantic and jumped back for their canoe. Phillip Lund was working at the City Boat Livery when he saw the girls’ predicament. Phillip reached the girls, but because they grabbed the sides of his rowboat, he was unable to row and the boat went over the dam. Lund and Mary Vietor perished in the accident but Stalknar was saved because she held on to an oar. Lund had died at the young age of twenty. After the Carnegie Hero Commission heard about Lund’s bravery, it posthumously awarded him the Carnegie Medal for Bravery. Because of the family’s financial position, the Cedar Falls Commercial Club set up a fund to pay for Lund’s funeral. It was soon apparent that there was surplus money and a fund was set up for a "Hero Monument Fund." Ackley, Minerva Stalkner’s home town, offered to pay half of the cost of the monument in Greenwood Cemetary. The Carnegie Commission also awarded money to the Lund family, who in turn, donated the money to the Superintendent of Schools to allow other students to get the education that their son had to give up. In 1974, Cedar Falls School Superintendent James Robinson donated the Carnegie medal to the Cedar Falls Historical Society.
1."Two Drowned", Waterloo Courier, May 23, 1921, p 1.
Hake, Herbert V. 101 Stories of Cedar Falls Cedar Falls: IA, 1977.
"Two Drowned", Waterloo Courier, May 23, 1921, p 1.
Back to Greenwood Cemetery Contents
