Now the Historical Commission is gathering names and addresses of descendants of those early pioneers for when the markers are replaced and rededicated sometime next year. Those families will be specially invited guests to the ceremonies.

In 1970, the Texas Historical Commission awarded a historical marker to honor Texas Aero and the creators of the Temple monoplane.

Texas Aero was among the earliest plane manufacturing plants in the state. Engineering genius George W. Williams Jr. and his brother Eldon Kent "E.K." Williams combined forces with Roy Sanderford and George Carroll to create Texas Aero Corp. in 1927.

Then, the Early Birds of Aviation, a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring those who flew solo before Dec. 16, 1916, awarded its medallion at the site, a rare honor.

In 2004, the Texas Department of Transporation removed and stored both markers in anticipation of expansion of the intersection of Interstate 35 and Loop 363 and while Bird Creek Crossing Shopping Center was under construction.

But there was bad news. That's when former Bell County Historical Commission chairman Ron Gates contacted TxDOT about the markers. Sometime between then and 2007, the markers went missing, probably stolen, according to Michael Rhodes, environmental coordinator for TxDOT's Waco District.

"The historical marker was missing. The Early Bird medallion was busted out of the concrete and gone," Rhodes said. "We have no idea when it happened or who did it."

The Early Bird marker was one of only 599 given nationwide. Since the death of the last aviation pioneer in 1998, the Early Birds ceased operation. Replacing the medallion would be impossible, Gates said.

"I was flabbergasted," Gates said. "I told them, 'We trusted you with that.' That Early Bird medallion was rare, irreplaceable."

In a process that Gates called amicable over the next two years, TxDOT agreed to replace at its own expense the state historical marker and a duplicate Early Bird medallion. Research yielded a detailed photo that could be used to re-create the medallion.

The original state historical marker had been placed there in 1970, thanks to the research of Jerry D. Ferrel, an Army Air Force flight engineer during World War II and the Korean War.

Although Texas Aero has been gone for nearly 80 years, stories abound about those heady days of flight. The Texas Aero story still fascinates Ferrel. He began researching the company in the early 1960s and scoured every inch of the abandoned factory site for plane remnants.

As early as 1910, the Williamses experimented with their monoplane design, which they dubbed "Temple Monoplane." By 1913, they were in the air, albeit at first for a few minutes and for a few yards.

"The problem was George Williams didn't know how to fly. It wasn't until World War I that he learned," Ferrel said.

Despite that minor hindrance, Williams held several patents on monoplane improvements. The early monoplane was designed primarily for air delivery. E.K. Williams, editor of the Temple Daily Telegram, delivered newspapers by air to rural areas. The Williamses also got postal delivery routes.

Sanderford learned to fly during World War I, when aircraft were used for scouting and reconnaissance and later evolved into air fights. A mechanic, Carroll added adjustable landing lights and fireproof mail compartments to the monoplane's design. The partners also developed lights and other aids for night flights - an innovation at the time.

The brothers worked under several business names. By 1927, they founded Texas Aero. That same year, the company produced the two- and three-seat commercial-wing aircraft, designed by George Williams and Carroll.

Templeites Ralph Doshier and Ted Von Rosenberg bought the last plane made there. Despite successes, Texas Aero closed during the Great Depression after George Williams died in August 1930 in a student training accident.

Thirty years later, Ferrel became so enchanted with the story of those lofty pioneers that he built a Temple monoplane from scratch, using original sketches loaned to him by George Williams' daughter, Dorothy. Registration for the last Texas Aero aircraft expired in the late 1930s in Fort Worth, and Ferrel could find no original planes.

For the next nine years, Ferrel worked on his monoplane. He flew it frequently although it had no modern necessities of flight - like a radio or updated navigation equipment. Piloting the craft was strictly by looking out the window.

In 1992, Ferrel donated the monoplane to the Frontiers of Flight Museum on the east side of Dallas' Love Field, where it still can be viewed suspended high and proud overhead. In his last act of historic derring-do, he flew the plane himself to Love Field.

"Actually, I had to land in Lancaster and phone the tower at Love Field so they could tell me what to do next and where to land," he said with a laugh.

The new historical marker site is more historically accurate, close to the former site of the Texas Aero factory on the eastbound loop and near a cluster of restaurants, Gates said.

Ferrel said this will be the third - hopefully last - location for the Texas Aero commemorations. They were first placed at the original airstrip site on I-35 and Loop 363 and later moved a few hundred feet west on the loop in front of a strip shopping center.

The Bell County Historical Commission is planning to honor descendants of the airplane business principals in the rededication ceremony, which will be open to the public.

pbenoit@temple-telegram.com

INFO SOUGHT

Anyone having contact information regarding the descendants of George and Eldon Kent Williams, Roy Sanderford or George Carroll is urged to contact the Bell County Historical Commission at 254-933-5917 or hist.comm@co. bell.tx.us