Aviatress Visits Andover

Stops at the Myerscough & Buchan garage on Main Street

Apr 12, 2024

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This post started out in 2013 with the Andover Townsman’s “All those years ago” section. I read an entry about the aviatress Ruth Law visiting Andover with her plane in 1913. A different tidbit hooked me and I wound up writing a newsletter story about that.

But I never forgot about Ruth’s visit. I’d think of it when I came across mentions of flight in the Townsman or when I listened to podcast episodes about early aviation here in Massachusetts. And I’ve seen this picture of her.

Ruth Law at the controls of her Curtiss Model D headless biplane. (from the National Air and Space Museum). NASM’s caption noted that Ruth considered the use of seatbelts to be cowardly.

Orville Wright sold a plane to Ruth’s husband, Charles Oliver. I don’t know if it was that Curtiss D. She flew the plane, obviously, but was not allowed to own it.

Memory plays its tricks on me. Eventually, I had it in my head that Ruth landed her plane at the gas station near where I live. (There had been a gas station at this corner since the dawn of automobiles). The original Townsman article was a let-down.

*Andover Townsman* October 3, 1913. Available online from Memorial Hall Library

Myerscough & Buchan was located where Brooksy’s is today at 90 Main Street.

Ruth Law was born nearby, in Lynn, in 1897. Her passion for flying was stirred by the career of her daredevil brother, Rodman Law. Orville Wright would not give her flying lessons because she was a woman.

Fall River Daily Evening News Sat, Jul 19, 1913

After completing her flying lessons in only three weeks, Ruth began a career as an exhibition pilot. Her 1913 appearances in Rochester, New Hampshire and Newport, Rhode Island were part of the job. Lynn’s Daily Evening Item boasted that the “Famous Aviatrix has $50,000 worth of contracts for the coming season.”

From *The Boston Globe*, Sunday September 21, 1913

The Townsman does not say how Ruth arrived in Andover. Future readers could conclude that she dramatically landed not far from the Blanchard House and asked for a fill-up. There wasn’t anything so organized as air traffic control or airports. It is likely that Ruth and her husband traveled by car with her plane hitched to it like a trailer.

On the way to Rochester, Ruth and her plane were involved in a car accident. Her car broke down on the Newburyport turnpike and another automobile rear-ended the plane. Charles was underneath the car doing repairs and, surprisingly, appeared uninjured. “The shock hurled the airplane across the road so that traffic could not pass for some time.”

Miss Law’s fame increased after her 1913 visit to Andover. In 1916, she achieved a record for distance flown, 590 miles between Chicago and Hornell, New York. The entire trip, a distance of 884 miles from Chicago to Governor’s Island in Manhattan, took a mere 9 hours. Ruth remarked “I have made the longest flight a woman has ever made. But I am not boasting about that.”

General Leonard Wood did her boasting for her. “Little girl, you beat them all,” he gushed after Ruth landed. She was 28 years old at the time.

Ruth wanted to attempt an even longer flight. The Curtiss Aeroplane Company was focused on World War I and could not supply a plane that was up to the task. Fuel was a constant worry on her record-breaking jaunt. I wonder if Ruth successfully dismissed the press by saying

“I suppose I ought to say that I am in favor of woman suffrage — but what has that got to do with it ? [sic] " Now I am going to eat dinner .”

Wanting to serve her country, Ruth called on President Wilson and asked for a commission in the army. She was refused, but did get to wear a uniform. After the war, Ruth inaugurated air mail service in the Philippines and even started her own flying circus.

Ruth in uniform (National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, NASM 9A02176)

Charles is credited with ending Ruth’s career in 1922 out of concern for her safety. I’ve read accounts that she learned of her retirement from a newspaper.

Barbara Ganson, an author and history professor, noted that

“In that day and age there was a greater need for riskier types of maneuvers. It was probably a good time to get out of flying. A lot of pilots do get killed in the early years of flight, because they were all essentially test pilots.”

It’s fun to read about our town’s encounters with celebrities of the past. Surely, a pilot and her plane would justify the services of a photographer! Ruth Law made a flying visit to Andover and went off to other, perhaps greater, things. Maybe she inspired someone to try their hand at flying and left a bigger impression than we think?

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment. We love to hear from you!
~Doug

Aviatress Visits Andover

Stops at the Myerscough & Buchan garage on Main Street

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