The B-17 Bombers of WWII and The Women who Flew Them

By Pamela S. Meyers 

In my book research about women who served the WWII war effort, I have been most impressed about the women of WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). who flew new aircraft from their point of manufacture to U.S. military bases on either coast. From there, male military pilots would take over the equipment and take the planes into battle. 

Vintage Postcard of the B-17

WASP pilots were not considered military but rather a service group that served the military during wartime. These ladies were smart, talented, and courageous women who endured 22-1/2 weeks of training that equally compared with what the men in the Army Airforce received. The only two areas of training the women didn’t receive was gunnery and formation flying since they were not to go into battle. The women of WASP had moxie. So courageous and smart. 

In addition to their rigorous training, what impressed me was the planes they flew weren't small planes, but huge bombers like the B-17, also known as "The Flying Fortress). I was already familiar with that plane because a few years ago, I attended a fly-in of vintage aircraft at my local private airport and one of the highlights was a B-17 that I was able to enter and see the interior. 

Me standing in front of the B-17 I saw
at the fly-in. You can see how big the
plane was compared to the people.

Soldier standing guard over newly
manufactured B-17
Wikimedia, Public Domain

WASP was not considered to be a part of the U.S. Military and I'm not sure how much people even knew about them and what they were doing behind the scenes to serve. The purpose of WASP was to get the newly minted war machines to the coasts to be taken into battle without having to use men to get them there. The men were needed in the war zones, not making domestic trips on the homefront.

WASP even had a mascot, a little sprite called Fifinella. I presume Fifi (her nickname) was designed to encourage the women and hopefully draw attention to their important work in the war effort. 

Public Domain Wikimedia

Similar to Marvel characters, she started out as one of the Gremlins that were featured in a book titled The Gremlins by a former RAF pilot, Roald Dahl. Walt Disney went on to make an animated movie called The Gremlins and acquired the copyright to Fifinella. There’s quite a backstory of legalities that ensued, which I’m not going to go into in this post. 

“Fifi” appeared on patches the WASP pilots wore on their uniforms and also was painted onto the nose of some of the planes they flew. Today, she still appears on merchandise you can purchase online. 

Photo of a WASP woman with 
Fifinella patch on her uniform jacket
Public Domain-Wikimedia

Have you ever piloted an airplane? If so, please share in the comments! 

Pam Meyers has been writing since she was a child and kept a diary at age eight. She's published a number of historical novels set in her hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, along with several contemporary novels.

She makes her home in northern Illinois with her two rescue cats. She's only about an hour away from Lake Geneva and you'll often find her there nosing around for new story ideas.

 

A True Pioneer Couple - John H. and Juliette Kinzie

 By Pamela S. Meyers

Last month I wrote about Chief Big Foot, the Potawatomie Indian chief who lived on the shores of

John H. Kinzie

Geneva Lake in Wisconsin before being removed to a reservation in the west. At the time, I promised I would write about John H. and Juliette Kinzie who were the first white people to see Geneva Lake for the first time. 

Juliette Kinzie

When I began researching the couple, I learned that Juliette was an amazing woman for her time and that she deserves a post all on her own, which I will do in a couple of months. For now, I’ll focus only on the couple's first sighting of Geneva Lake in 1831, and their meeting Chief Big Foot and his tribe. 

 Juliette’s husband John was serving as an Indian Subagent at Fort Winnebago near what is now Portage, Wisconsin and the couple and their family were living there. They’d traveled south for a visit to Chicago (which was not yet the large city it later became) and were returning to Fort Winnebago, heading northwest across what would likely now be McHenry
County in Illinois.

Juliette’s memoir, Wau-Bun, which describes her many travels in the New Frontier, includes a detailed description of this journey. When they stopped for the first night next to the Fox River, they experienced a horrific accident that caused the horses pulling their wagon to spook. Her detailed and colorful description of this accident is well-worth getting a copy of the public domain of this book which can be downloaded at no cost. (Details can be found in the Resources below). 

With repairs made, they next traveled only a short distance to what is now Crystal Lake, IL, and overnighted next to that lake. From there they moved north, and her notes describe her appreciation of the scenery and being far from any city. I love how she praises the Author of the Universe and “His majesty and goodness,” then quotes Habakkuk 2:20, “Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” 

 By their fourth day of travel, they had reached what is now Southeastern Wisconsin and she writes, “Soon after mid-day, we descended a long sloping knoll and by a sudden turn came full in view of the beautiful sheet of water.” That water is now known as Geneva Lake. They came down an incline and came upon the Potomotomie Indian encampment near what is now Fontana, Wisconsin. They met Chief Big Foot and the families that lived there. The meeting was friendly and there was no apparent animosity as the tribe was very welcoming to the gathering that included the Kinzie's and several others.

Postcard image of the area the Kinzie's visited 
and an idea of what they saw, minus the boat and docks.

  

Of course, there were no paved roads back then and to be able to continue on, they had to get their entourage up a steep hill. It was decided the only way was to push the wagon up the hill, and the Indians and male visitors worked together to accomplish this. I love the fact that Juliette mounted a horse and while clinging to his mane, amid shouts of encouragement from the onlookers, made it to the top. Young Indian men carried the party’s luggage up the incline on their shoulders. I love how everyone worked together to make it all happen with no apparent friction. 

Public Domain Edition of
Wau-Bun

 When I make the hour’s drive up to the lake, I often look out on the water and imagine what it must have looked like back in those days. No white piers jutting out along the shoreline, no motorboats or excursion boats slicing through the water, no spectacular estates on the shore, or summer camps. It’s beautiful now, even with all of that, but how much more beautiful it must have been back then.

Do you like to read memoirs written by historical figures? If you do, please share in the comments, the title of one you particularly enjoyed. 

Resources:

Shawneeawkee, Friendly Fontana; Arthur B. Jensens, 1969, independently published.

Wau-Bun The Early Day in the Northwest; Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie; Public Domain Edition.

   This edition can be downloaded to Kindle by going to Amazon.com and searching for the book.)

Pamela Meyers lives in northeast Illinois with her two rescue cats and can often be found just over the state line in and around her hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, nosing around for new story ideas.

Pam's Newport of the West four-book series can be found at Amazon and at various locations in the Lake Geneva area. The fourth book in the series Rose Harbor, releases in May. 

The First Residents at Geneva Lake Wisconsin Were Not Displaced Fire Refugees From Chicago

 

By Pamela S. Meyers

Sculpture of Chief Big Foot that sits at the
shore of Geneva Lake in Fontana WI
by Jay Brost, Walworth WI 

For several years now, my posts here have spotlighted my hometown area of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and Geneva Lake, the glacier-formed lake the town sits next to. Many of my posts have centered on the beautiful estates that began populating the shoreline soon after the Great Chicago Fire in 1873. But before Chicago’s movers and shakers built those magnificent homes, the Potawatomi called the area home. And, over the next several months, I plan to highlight Lake Geneva's rich history that occurred in the 19th Century before the Great Fire. Growing up, I often heard about the Potawatomi that lived on the shores of Geneva Lake, but it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that for the United States to expand westward, the Potawatomi and other Native American Tribes had to agree to move farther west. The realization gave me a jolt in the same way as when I first learned my southern ancestors once owned slaves. 

I’m not going to delve into whether it was right or wrong to force the Potawatomi to leave the only home they had known, but I am going to share about Chief Big Foot (also known as Maun-Suk), the last Indian Chief to live on the lake before his tribe moved west. I’ve read how he stared out at the lake for several minutes as if trying to memorize the view before, with tears in his eyes, he turned and started his trip. I can certainly feel his pain to some degree. Most of us who have been blessed by living near beautiful Geneva Lake have come to love it as much as Big Foot did. It may be many centuries since Big Foot walked the lakeshore path that he and his tribe helped to create, but his legacy remains. 

Source: Friendly Fontana, a Pictorial History of the West End of
Geneva Lake, Edition 2.0, Arthur B. Jensens, publisher; 2005

The Potawatomi occupied the wooded shoreline at the west end of the lake and traveled between their two encampments on the shore path. One was near what is now called Fontana, a small village at the west end of the lake, and another was where the town of Williams Bay sits today. Some of Big Foot’s family is buried in Williams Bay, some having died during a pandemic. They lived in homes similar to tepees, but with rounded roofs, where they raised their families. When the men went out to hunt, they took the footpath mentioned earlier to the east end of the lake (where the town of Lake Geneva is now) to fish and hunt. Chief Big Foot’s people were mostly peaceful and they wanted to live out their lives next to the beautiful spring-fed lake they called Kishwauketoe, which means “clear water.” 

When they came upon the lake while migrating south and west from the area now called Michigan, they knew they’d found where they wanted to settle. Not only because of its natural beauty but also for the game and fish the lake supplied and the rich soil that produced berries, nuts and fruit. The Potawatomi grew corn, tobacco, and vegetables during summer, and in winter, they kept warm in their rounded roof wigwams on floor mats made from the grass that grew nearby. 

Chief Shabbona
Picture Courtesy of
WHS 23929

When white men first appeared at the lake in the early 1800s, Big Foot and his band had probably already heard about the new settlement of white people living at Fort Dearborn (now called Chicago) to the south. Other Native American tribes such as the Sioux, Sauks, Foxes, and Winnebago, were much more combative and in 1827, the Winnebago encouraged Big Foot to join the fight to keep the interlopers away. At the request of a U.S. Indian Agent, Chief Shabbona, one of the chiefs of the Illinois Potawatomi bands, was instrumental in helping convince Big Foot to not fight, and he agreed. I have often wondered how the area would have been if Chief Big Foot had warred with the white invaders. 

Today, the area honors Chief Big Foot, mostly through his name which is connected to various landmarks. As you travel south out of the town of Lake Geneva on South Shore Drive, you’ll come to Big Foot Beach, which is across the road from Big Foot Beach State Park. Or if you prefer golfing to swimming, you might want to golf at Big Foot Country Club. And if you live on the southeast side of the lake, your children might attend Big Foot High School. I wonder what Big Foot would think about all these things named after him. I kind of wish he did know that his name is connected to where people enjoy the lake and its natural resources and their children are educated in a building that bears his name. 

Big Foot High School with a copy of
Big Foot's statue in its "front yard."
Source Lake Geneva Regional News

Next time, I’ll introduce you to the Kinzies, a pioneer couple who were among the first white people to see Geneva Lake. 

How much do you know about the history of where you grew up or live now?

 The information for this article can be found in Shawneeawkee—Friendly Fontana, a Pictorial History of the West End of Geneva Lake, Edition 2.0, Arthur B. Jensens, publisher; 2005, unless otherwise noted.

Pam Meyers grew up in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and is blessed to only live about an hour away, just over the state line in northern IL. She makes her home with her two rescue cats, Jack and Meggie, who are named after her characters in the book Surprised by Love in Lake Geneva. 

She loves writing stories set in her home area that depict the rich history of the area. Rose Harbor, the fourth and final book in her Newport of the West Series releases on May 18, 2021.

Bowling Pin Boy - A Teen Job That No Longer Exists

By Pamela S. Meyers

Are you a bowler? I haven't bowled for years, and back when I did give it a shot, I wasn't very good. I recall being dubbed the "gutter ball queen" or something similar. That's how bad I was.

Resource: Lake Geneva Regional News;
September 1943

The book I'm currently working on is set in 1943 in my hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and during the story, my heroine joins a women's bowling team. The town's bowling alley at that time was in the basement level of the Hotel Clair which was at the main intersection of town. It's the same bowling alley where I made my famous gutter-ball attempts of the sport. 

By the time I was bowling, the bowling alley used automatic pinsetters, but back in the early to mid-forties pin boys still did the job. The ad at the right is from Lake Geneva's local weekly paper in 1943. Note how it encourages people to have a little fun during the stress of war days. Those alleys are long gone and people bowl at a much newer bowling alley east of downtown, but many memories remain.

The sport of bowling dates back to ancient Egypt in 5000 BC. Over the centuries, variations of the game evolved into what it is today. I'm not sure what they did for pinsetters in 5000 BC, but I do know that back in the early 1900s and likely before that, pinsetters were necessary. Pin boys were usually recruited from the streets, giving disadvantaged boys a chance to earn a bit of money. 

The boys would sit on a ledge behind the pins and after the bowler had bowled their first of two allowed turns, they'd jump down and reset all the pins if the bowler knocked them all down (called a strike), or if there were a few pins remaining (called a spare), they'd leave those standing and collect the others and drop the ball into a return track, giving it a strong shove to send it back to the bowler for their second and last turn. 

Photo Credit: Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. 1:00 A.M. Pin boys working in Subway Bowling Alleys, 65 South St., B'klyn, N.Y. every night. 3 smaller boys were kept out of the photo by Boss. Location: New York--Brooklyn, New York State. April. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2018674610/>.

That was how it was done up until the late forties when the first semi-automatic pin-setting machines invented by Gottfried (Fred) Schmidt, became available. The fully automatic machines wouldn't come on the scene until the 1950s and have been upgraded on a regular basis ever since. The semi-automatic machine still required a person to gather the knocked down pins and drop them into a "table" of slots in the familiar triangular arrangement. The operator manually lowered the table to the floor then pulled a lever to cause the pins to turn upright. The table was then lifted and pins were ready for the next bowler. At the same time, the operator dropped the ball into a return slot that sent it back to the bowlers. A bowling alley on Chicago's south side is the only alley around that still uses this system. Here's a link to a YouTube video taken at the bowling alley. You can skip the introductory part and go to about 1.37 to observe the process. https://youtu.be/EKBYDqKpNpU .

Being a pin-boy wasn't easy. An article by former pinsetter states he sometimes came away with broken ribs and lots of bad bruises. Getting smacked by an erratic ball or flying pins happened at times but for a young boy, the pay made it worth the aches and pains. 

By the 1960s bowling alleys began acquiring the automatic pinsetter machines and human intervention became a thing of the past until one of the machines broke down and maintenance was required. And that's how it is today. League nights are incredibly busy with all lanes running and breakdowns sometimes occur, causing the bowlers to take a timeout.

Are you a bowler? Did you ever bowl on a league? 

Pamela S. Meyers loves to set stories set in historical-rich Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, her hometown. Safe Refuge and Shelter Bay, books 1 & 2, of her historical series are available now and Tranquility Point, Book 3 is due to release in April. She is currently working on Rose Harbor, the fourth and final book of the series. She lives in Northern Illinois with her two rescue cats, a short distance from Lake Geneva where she can often be found nosing around for new story ideas.

Wisconsin Winter Pastimes of the Past and Present

Having grown up in Wisconsin, next to Geneva Lake, I learned quickly that the way to get through a long cold winter is to embrace the season by enjoying the out of doors. As a child, I loved being out in the snow, sledding and making snowmen. At the age of eight, I learned to ice skate and that was where you would find me when I wasn’t in school. In high school, a new ski hill opened on the south shore of the lake and I was there. I never became an expert, but I held my own.

There were also other winter pastimes that adults enjoyed like ice fishing and iceboating. My dad was never interested in fishing, despite that both his dad and his father-in-law were avid fishermen. And he couldn’t afford an ice boat so that wasn’t part of his winter activities either. But, it didn’t mean he couldn’t watch.

stock photo

Going back before the automobile came along, winter around southern Wisconsin mean switching from carriages and wagons for transportation to sleighs. In a diary kept by a resident of Lake Geneva in the 1870s, she mentions taking a sleigh across the frozen lake to hire a man to chop firewood. Winters were definitely colder and longer than they are today. Usually, a sleigh ride conjures up romantic sentiments. Easy to say when we have our heated cars to use most of the time.

Horse Racing on the frozen Geneva
Lake - Year Unknown

Another winter pastime that apparently died out before I was alive was horse racing on the frozen lake. It was mentioned recently on a Facebook page that focuses on the history of Williams Bay, a small village on Geneva Lake. It was stated that the horses wore special shoes (spiked I presume) and harness raced along a designated track on the frozen lake. Now, that would have been fun to watch.

Ice Boating on Geneva Lake back in the early
 20th Century.

Ice boating (ice yachting it’s sometimes called) involves something that resembles a sailboat but that’s where the similarities end. Buffeted by a good wind, an iceboat can hit very high speeds. Races are often held on Geneva Lake and other lakes around Wisconsin. Iceboating has been around for centuries, beginning in Europe when they were used to transport goods to places where railroads could not go. It became a sport in the U.S. in 1790 when Oliver Booth invented a boxy style of ice boat in New York state. By 1869, one of the largest ice boats was built to use to race a train locomotive that ran along the frozen Hudson River's shoreline. At that time the steering was done at the rear where a rudder is placed in a sailboat. A change to steering at the front occurred in the 1930s after a Williams Bay, WI man, Walter Beauvois, invented it. As noted above, Williams Bay is a small village on Geneva Lake. It’s no wonder that ice boating is such an important winter activity on the lake.

I remember when I was a child one of my dad’s friends who owned an iceboat offered to take me for a ride. My dad agreed although I think my mom was a nervous wreck. To this day I still remember that ride.

My Dad's Friend's Iceboat
Circa 1950s or 60s

Never had I gone so fast, skimming across the ice. He didn’t do any fancy tricks but that didn’t matter to me. I’m including a picture of the iceboat the man owned here because that could very well be the one I rode in. In the picture, he is causing the boat to “hike” which is what happens when you cause the boat to lift up and ride on only one side blade.

Ice fishing has been around any fishing lake that is frozen over for centuries. Every winter as soon as Geneva Bay froze over a small cluster of shanties began to appear and they would stay there until spring. The owners would drill a hole in the ice and they could sit in the shanty and be protected from the elements and fish to their heart’s

Example of Ice Fishing Shanty Town
(stock photo/Pixabay)

content. A running joke around town was that in winter the town of Lake Geneva had a “fourth ward.” Nowadays you still see some shanties out there, but many fishermen have gone to using a pop-up style of covering which they carry out each day and set up. Somehow, it’s just not the same.

Current Ice Boats on Geneva Lake
Courtesy of Neal Aspinall/Lake Geneva WI

Do you live, or have you lived, in a cold weather climate during winter? What are the winter activities where you are?

Resource: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow: A Pictorial History of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Curtis Media, Inc. 1994 (photos not referenced above)

Pamela has written most of her life, beginning with her first diary at age eight. Her novels include Thyme For Love, Surprised by Love in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and Second Chance Love. Future novels include Shelter Bay, Book 2 in her Newport of the West series set in her hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and Whatever is True, a contemporary romance. She lives in northeastern Illinois with her two rescue cats.

The Idaho Building: A Lakeshore Building that Never Became a Home

by: Pamela S. Meyers 

My tour of the lakeshore estates that graced the shores of Geneva Lake in Wisconsin back in the late 19^th Century and early 20^th Century is now coming to the eastern shore of the lake and nearing the town of Lake Geneva.

Arriving in Button’s Bay, we come to Big Foot Beach, the only public beach on the lake that does not require an admittance fee. This area of the shoreline was not considered prime real estate because of the boggy terrain. It remained empty long after many beautiful homes and estates had been erected on the shoreline until Celia Whipple Wallace came on the scene.

Celia Whipple Wallace

Being a prominent summer resident for a number of years at the fashionable Whiting House Hotel that sat directly across from the lake, Mrs. Wallace was a well-known figure to the townspeople as well as the shore crowd. Known for the great wealth her late husband had left her and her fondness for expensive jewelry, which she wore all the time, she became known as the “Diamond Queen.” She was also known for her soft spot when hearing of the misfortunes of others, which led to some unwise decisions when it came to managing her large fortune. This impulsivity would eventually become her downfall.

After years of summer hotel living, Celia decided to purchase shore property for a permanent summer home and acquired the land no one else wanted at a likely much lower price than other shoreline property. She commissioned a well-known architect to design a mansion for the land, but because of the less-than-suitable soil composition, he refused.

In 1893, when the popular Columbian Exposition in Chicago came to a close, some of the new Geneva Lake residents snatched up the temporary structures that had been used for the exhibits, having them taken apart piece-by-piece and rebuilt on their estates. The large log three-story building known as the Idaho Building caught Celia’s eye and after purchasing it, she had it dismantled and shipped to the vacant land she'd purchased. 

The Idaho Building at the Columbian Exposition 1893

The Idaho Building as it appeared after being
reassembled next to Geneva Lake

By the time the Idaho Building was rebuilt in 1896, it never was used as a retreat for orphaned boys, as Celia first intended. In fact, she never lived in it and continued to spend her summers in town at the Garrison House Hotel since the Whiting had recently been destroyed by fire.

Eventually, Celia turned her attention to the east coast and sent a Tiffany-designed chapel she also purchased from the Columbian Exhibition to New York City to be installed in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In April, 1900, she reportedly sold the Idaho Building to a man named George Thurman for a rare Wisconsin River pearl. Soon, the building went up for sale. While it was on the market, it was used to house laborers who were building a road around the lake

No one purchased the building, its one interested party who wanted to use it to store ice during the winter months, being turned away when vexed lakeshore owners objected to such a thing marring their views. The rumors being whispered around town that the building was haunted, probably detracted from its appeal to other purchasers, and in 1911, it was dismantled, with some of the wood used to build a new municipal pier in Lake Geneva. 

As for Celia Whipple Wallace, she ended up living in Connecticut, and having burned through her entire fortune, she died a pauper.

Today, the bog has become a man-made lagoon whose shape mimics that of Geneva lake. The entire property is known as Big Foot Beach State Park, a popular area that picnickers and campers enjoy. If you are ever in the area, follow Lake Shore Drive out of the town of

Lagoon in Big Foot Beach State Park. Note the road
to the right. The lake is next to the road

Lake Geneva, and you'll soon descend a hill to where the road runs very close to the lake. The state park and lagoon are on the left and Big Foot Beach is on the right. If you park and walk over to the lagoon, look off a short distance to the east and imagine the Idaho Building sitting there. Who knows, you might even spot a ghost or two.

Resources:

Lake Geneva Regional News, August 29, 2016; Welcome Home: From Diamond Queen to Pauper with a Pearl by Jessica Franzene.

Lake Geneva, Newport of the West; 1870-1920; Ann Wolfmeyer and Mary Burns Gage; pp 177-179; information and black & white photos.

Picture of lagoon & bridge, Big Foot Beach State Park; Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

 Pam has written most of her life, beginning with her first diary at age eight. Most of her novels are set in or near her hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. They include Surprised by Love in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and her newest release, Safe Refuge, the first of three novels in her Newport of the West series. Her novel, Second Chance Love, released last year, and her novella, If These Walls Could Talk, was published in the Coming Home collection. Future novels include Whatever is True (March 2019) and Shelter Bay and Tranquility Point, both part of her current series.

Pam resides in northern Illinois with her two rescue cats. She’s an hour or so away from her home town where she can often be found researching and nosing for new story ideas.