- Margaret D.
- Wednesday, November 22, 2023
A 100-year-old scrapbook reveals the brave life of World War I aviator Lt. Harley H. Pope who spent his last days in Columbia, S.C.
The Walker Local & Family History Center recently acquired an over 100-year-old scrapbook, and the keepsakes within tell a fascinating tale of the brave life of Lt. Harley H. Pope, an aviator from Indiana who spent his final days at Emerson Field in Columbia, S.C.
Early Life of Harley H. Pope
Harley Halbert Pope was born in Lawrence County, Indiana on May 26, 1879. His father, Jacob “Rice” Pope was a farmer but later moved to the town of Bedford, Indiana where he worked as an assessor for Lawrence County. Harley’s mother, Lucinda, was a homemaker. Harley also had 3 sisters, Elsie, Adie, and Ruth. Harley attended school in Bedford and, while still in his teens, started working as an electrician there. When he was 21, Harley left Bedford for Chicago. There he received training in electrical engineering and worked for the Commonwealth Edison Electric Co. While working in Chicago he met and married Celia Conners of Newton, Indiana, who had also moved to Chicago and worked as a clerk.
Harley Pope (and his wife) apparently had a flair for adventure, because by 1910 the couple had left Chicago in search of new opportunities. In 1910 they were living in St. Paul, Minnesota where Harley was working as an electrician. But soon he set off again for the Pacific coast of Canada to try his hand at gold prospecting and fishing. He and Celia lived for a time in Spokane, Washington where Harley again found employment as an electrician. But while in Spokane Harley and Celia’s marriage ended. By 1918, Celia was remarried to auto mechanic Arthur McCarthy and the couple lived in Washington State. Celia McCarthy died in California in 1952. Pope never remarried - but there were other women in his future.
World War I Begins
In 1914, the war in Europe had begun and airplanes were becoming more important for their military uses, at first for reconnaissance, and later for combat. The adventurous and technically-abled Harley Pope was eager to fly airplanes. In early 1917 Harley applied for the Aviation section of the U.S. Signal Corps School, but he was denied because, at age 38, he was too old for the program. However, after the U.S. declared war on April 4, 1917, Pope reapplied. His second application was accepted by the War Department on April 29, 1917, and on May 22 Pope began his training with ground school at the U.S. School of Aeronautics in Berkeley, Ca.
After graduating from the Aeronautics program, Pope began flight training at the U.S. Signal Corp Aviation School at North Island near San Diego, Ca. There, he and a band of other brave men got in Curtiss JN-4 airplanes between rough and bumpy landing fields near San Diego, flying up and down with instructors wearing goggles and leather flight suits. It is here that the scrapbook begins, with images of the airplanes, landing fields, instructors, and other pilots in training. The group are also seen riding horses out to landing fields and living in rough barracks. Aerial views over San Diego were likely some of the first ever taken and the marvel of the pilots is apparent in the snapshots Pope captured.
Active Pilot Duty
Pope graduated from flight training on October 9, 1917, and was immediately assigned to Kelly Field in Texas where he was placed on hangar (ground) duty, followed by an assignment to Post Filed in Oklahoma where he was promoted to First Lieutenant and assigned flying duties. For the next several months Lt. Pope trained other pilots in reconnaissance there. In February of 1918, in preparation for overseas duties, Lt. Pope was transferred to Camp Dick in Dallas where he was trained in prisoner of war survival, since being captured behind enemy lines was a real possibility for pilots. After completing that program in March, Lt. Pope was sent to Selfridge Field near Mt. Clemons, Michigan where his duties included instruction in aerial gunnery and combat in addition to reconnaissance. There are 2 photographs in the scrapbook taken in the air over Selfridge Field and a third taken in the air, possibly over Selfridge.
Emerson Field, Columbia, S.C.
On July 2, 1918, Lt. Pope was ordered to join the 276th Aero Squadron, which was part of the U.S. Army’s Air Service unit (the predecessor of today’s U.S. Air Force). The 276th Aero was ultimately to be stationed at Camp Bragg near Fayetteville, N.C., but while the airfield at Camp Bragg was being prepared, a temporary airfield was erected near Camp Jackson that would offer the 276th and other airmen a place for flight training in the meantime.
Camp Jackson, located near Columbia, was established in 1917 as war in Europe looked more likely. It was able to accommodate 40,000 men and was a well-outfitted encampment by the time that Lt. Pope arrived…but there was no airfield there. To serve as the temporary Air Service encampment, the Army made use of an abandoned horse racetrack on lands formerly owned by Col. Wade Hampton to use as an airfield. On this high, flat hill about 1.5 miles from Camp Jackson on Garner’s Ferry Road, tents were erected to serve as hangars and shelter a blacksmith’s shop, stock room, radio station, and other support functions. Tent and frame barracks were also constructed for the airmen, who bunked there in the rather remote-feeling woods. There was no running water, so barrels with funnels, water wagons, and pit latrines would have to do. The airfield was named Emerson Field in honor of 2nd Lt. William K. B. Emerson, Jr., who was the first American officer killed while serving with an Aero Squadron at the front. Today the Veteran's Administration Hospital is on the former site of Emerson Field.
Lt. Pope was given command of the 276th Aero Squadron in July, and new trainees began arriving in August. Throughout the fall airmen flew over Columbia on training missions and often were sighted performing tricks in the air over the city. On September 28, 1918, several airmen performed an airshow over Columbia as part of the Liberty Loan Bond parade, but tragedy struck as one pilot lost control of his plane and, rather than eject to safety, steered the plane away from the downtown crowds and crashed behind a dentist’s shop, killing himself in the process. The bravery that it took to ride this plane down is unimaginable, but I believe that is part of what it took to become an airman during this time.
Other local images in the scrapbook show Lt. Pope and other pilots being entertained by members of the Weston family at Grovewood mansion in Lower Richland, near Columbia. And on Thanksgiving Day, Lt. Pope and the family of Lt. L. E. Miller visited inventor Charles T. Mason in Sumter, S.C. Mason had invented the magneto, a vital component of the airplanes the aviators flew at Emerson Field. Newspaper accounts also stated that Lt. H. H. Pope and other officers from Emerson Field were entertained by locals at the Ridgewood County Club near Columbia.
Air Mail Routes
On November 11, 1918, the war in Europe came to end and the trainees at Emerson Field were no longer destined for the front. However, in order to keep the U.S. prepared for the future, flight training and flying missions would continue. Pilots and navigators were immediately sent on new missions to map out Air Mail routes for the east coast. During that time pilots making cross country journeys ran a serious risk of running out of fuel before they could find a good spot to land. To fix this issue, flight crews from Emerson Field were sent in search of landing fields and fueling stations to support safer use of aircraft between South Carolina and Washington D.C.
It was on such a cross-country mission when, on December 19, 1918, 2 Curtiss JN-4 airplanes took off from Emerson Field to fly north to Langley Field in Virginia. Lt. Pope piloted one aircraft with mechanic Sergeant Walter W. Fleming serving as observer in the passenger seat. In the other was pilot Lt. Boggs with Lt. L. E. Miller as observer. The pair of airplanes landed in Fayetteville and Raleigh for refueling on the way up. They took some photographs at both locations of themselves and well-wishers they met along the way. They reportedly spent about a week repairing one of the planes in a cow field near Newport News, Virginia. On their return from Langley Field, they stopped again in Raleigh and then, on January 7, 1919, they headed south for Camp Bragg near Fayetteville. Lt. Boggs’ and Miller’s aircraft experienced engine trouble so they landed for repairs, while Lt. Pope and Sgt. Fleming continued flying. But cloudy conditions surrounded them as they approached Camp Bragg, and the airfield was nowhere to be found. They circled the area for a while but ran out of fuel and the aircraft plummeted into the Cape Fear River, where the two airmen drowned. The bodies of Lt. Pope and Sgt. Fleming were not immediately recovered. Sgt. Fleming’s body was found on March 19 and Lt. Pope’s on April 10, 1919, and both were subsequently returned to their families. Lt. Pope is buried in Bedford, Indiana and Sgt. Fleming in Providence, Rhode Island.
Pope Memorialized
On April 5, 1919 the Camp Bragg Flying Field was renamed Pope Field in honor of Lt. Harley H. Pope. Photographs of the new Pope Field were sent to Lt. Pope’s family in Bedford and added to the scrapbook.
The now-completed scrapbook would remain with Pope’s sister Ruth until her death in 1964. It remained with other family members until the 1980s, and then was sold at an estate sale. It recently came to be in the collections of the Walker Local and Family History Center at Richland Library. The complete contents of the Lt. Harley H. Pope Scrapbook can be found in the Local History Digital Collections.
Pope Army Airfield, as it is known today, is still operational at Fort Liberty in Fayetteville. It is one of the oldest military airfields in continual operation in the United States.