This farmstead belonged to my grandparents Joe & Rachel Garmer starting in 1941 and then was owned by my uncle & aunt Alan & Shirley Garmer. He sold the farm in 1978. It is located down a lane just west of the Millersburg Corner off Hwy 17 heading from Aledo to Joy.

Purchased in 2000 by a Marvin H McCarty11

A pilotless plane crashed in a field there, I believe in the mid 60s. In a Quad City area airport (Barstow maybe), a pilot of an old taildragger (Aeronca Champ?) hand propped his plane as usual. But he had set the throttle too fast, and when he ducked the wing strut to climb in the cockpit, he hit his head on the strut, stunning him briefly. That was long enough for the plane get gain enough speed to take off without him (there were no passengers). The plane climbed until at a higher altitude with less air density for lift, and less air for power, it leveled off. Banking ever so slightly, it flew in very large circles, working its way southwesterly. It took a good while for it to run out of gas, but the pilot had promptly notified the police, who contacted the Quad City Airport ATC tower chief. Neighboring county Sheriff departments were also notified, with Mercer County's Sheriff calling my dad, Ben Randall, a farmer/pilot who flew aircraft out of Mercer County airport. Dad called a couple of sport parachutists, who then met him at the airport. ATC directed him to the pilotless plane, which by that time had a few other planes following it, one with a local TV station cameraman. There was radio chatter about how to keep the plane from crashing in a populated area. Flying a Piper Tri-Pacer (high wing aircraft),Dad's plan was to let a chutist stand on the right main landing gear while holding onto the wing strut just like a normal jump. The chutist was to hang a leg down and touch a wingtip enough to cause it to bank a little, therefore changing direction. They didn't have to resort to that because moving SW in circles it was clear of the Quad Cities before any planes had caught up with it, and it never got close to any small towns. I vividly remember watching the cameraman's clip on the evening news that night. But can't remember which station (probably WHBF channel 4. Maybe they have it in their archives).

The plane crashed early September 1961. I was eight and remember us driving out there to the farm. This was 2 years before my grandfather retired and we moved back out there. I do have some newspaper clippings about the incident.

Hello Stan and Chad,
What a unique story. I have heard a few stories about the planes that took these photos crashing into people's fields. Thankfully, in all of them, the pilot was ok.