Edith’s Miami winter
Newspapers announce forthcoming visit
Even before she arrived in Miami, news of Edith’s impending residency at the Royal Palm Hotel for the winter season of 1913-1914 created something of a stir. Few ordinary mortals could match her rich and powerful connections.
Aviation enthusiasts were especially excited. Because, in fact, Edith was no mortal at all. As evidenced by her wings and tail, she was a Curtiss Model F flying boat, brought to Miami by aviation ace Charles Witmer on behalf of the “Curtiss people.” She was to be put into service on a regular schedule from the docks of the Royal Palm and made available for sightseeing flights around the city as well as other “places of interest.”
But — a flying machine named “Edith?”
The millionaire behind the machine
Behind that simple name lay a world of enormous wealth, pioneering aviation, and high society glamour. Edith belonged to Harold Fowler McCormick, heir to the International Harvester fortune and one of America’s wealthiest men. McCormick was not merely a businessman; he was one of the nation’s earliest aviation enthusiasts.
And the woman for whom she was named? His wife, Edith Rockefeller McCormick, daughter of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
An air yacht for the Gilded Age
In an era when America was still adjusting to the existence of automobiles, Harold and Edith occupied the highest levels of Gilded Age society. Their Lake Forest estate, Villa Turicum, overlooked Lake Michigan from a bluff and was one of the most celebrated country houses in America.
Edith herself was no ordinary flying machine. Built by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, she was one of the most advanced models of her day. Curtiss and McCormick moved in similar circles, and McCormick embraced aviation with enthusiasm. He maintained hangars on Lake Michigan and in 1913 employed Charles Witmer as his personal pilot to fly him between home and office. While most Chicago businessmen battled traffic on streets and rail lines, McCormick had become one of the country’s first aerial commuters.
During the summer of 1913, Witmer flew the Edith regularly over Lake Michigan from Villa Turicum. Society guests were treated to flights in what newspapers described as an “air yacht,” a luxurious flying boat whose mahogany finish reflected the elegance expected by one of America’s wealthiest families.
Lives up to her reputation
In Miami for the winter, Edith also acquitted herself well. Most Miami residents had never seen an airplane, much less ridden in one, and Edith was only the third aircraft to have taken to Miami’s skies. Crowds gathered at the docks of the Royal Palm to watch the sleek flying boat skim across Biscayne Bay, rise into the air, and disappear toward the horizon.
Her pilot, Charles Witmer — who had offered flying lessons from the Royal Palm over the 1911–1912 winter season — was young, skilled, fearless, and widely admired. In the months that followed their arrival, he and Edith carried tourists, businessmen, and curious spectators over Miami’s waterways and to points north and south without mishap. Passengers returned with nothing but glowing reports.
The jewel thief case
But the Edith was to earn another singular distinction during her stay in Miami. In late March of 1914 she became possibly the first aircraft in the world to ever be used for police duty. When a diamond brooch disappeared from a guest at the Royal Palm Hotel, suspicion focused on a hotel employee who had vanished and was believed to have boarded the steamship Miami bound for Nassau.
Authorities approached Witmer and requested his assistance. After obtaining permission, the aviator loaded a detective into the Edith and headed out over the Atlantic in pursuit of the departing vessel. A wireless message instructed the ship’s captain to wait offshore. The flying boat landed alongside the steamship, the detective boarded, identified the suspect, and placed him under arrest. The accused thief was then transported back to Miami aboard the Edith itself, where the stolen jewel was found in his possession.
Farewell to Miami
By early April, Witmer’s assignment had ended and both he and Edith returned north to Chicago. Before leaving, the popular pilot was the guest of honor at a dance hosted by Miami socialites. In subsequent years, Witmer was to earn distinction as a World War I fighter ace, put in charge of American Air Forces in Russia. At the time of his death from a stroke in October 1929, at age 45, he was living in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife and three children.
But what of Harold McCormick and Edith Rockefeller McCormick? Well, that’s a Gilded Age saga worthy of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel that will have to be told elsewhere.