The Flight of The Southern Cross and a Memorial to the Founder of Ontario

Two of our grandfather Joe’s favorite stories were…

• his role in arranging the funeral and burial of George Chaffey, the founder of Ontario, California, on behalf of the Chaffey family, as well as his contributions to the George Chaffey biography, and…
• his contribution to organizing the first airplane flight from the United States to Australia

Recall that in the late 1870s the Chaffey brothers George (1848-1932) and William (1856-1926), originally from Ontario, Canada, engineered the irrigation system upon which the city of Ontario California was founded. They later made similar accomplishments in Victoria, Australia, hence the Australia connections in Joe’s stories. George and his sons Andrew and John returned to live in Ontario for the rest of their lives, becoming friends and business associates of Joe and his father-in-law Henry Swan.

Joe intertwines these stories in a letter he wrote in 1965 to the editor of Walkabout Magazine, a sort of Australian National Geographic. A transcription follows the image of the two page typed letter.

501 N. Vine Ave., Ontario, California, USA

July 19, 1965

‘Walkabout – Mail Bag’

18 Collins Str., Melbourne, Australia

Gentlemen:

‘It takes many links to make a chain;  each link plays a part in the completed chain’.

A few days ago, I met an old friend and a subscriber to the Walkabout.  Mr. Raymond Goelitz, 1021 E. Belmont St., Ontario, California.

Later, in visiting at his home we began taking about the Chaffey Families.  He went into his office and returned with two copies of the ‘Walkabout’.  I was not familiar with this publication.  One of the Editions was dated October 1962 and carries the article on ‘Mildura’s Success Story’ by Kendrick Howard.  This proved to be of much interest to me.

Mrs. Sandford and I have lived in this Community for many years.  Her father, Henry E. Swan, had operated banks in Ontario and Upland, California, for Messrs. George Chaffey and his son, Andrew during the early years of this Century.  In 1911 an older man and I opened and developed the Ontario National Bank of this City.  Mr. George Chaffey and his sons, Andrew McCord and Col. John Burton Chaffey, were often guests in our homes.  It was my privilege to assist Messrs. Andrew and Col. J. B. Chaffey, and the family, in arranging the funeral Service and for burial plot in the Ontario Bellevue Cemetery for the father, Mr. George. B. Chaffey.

During the fall of 1927, Mrs. Sandford, her mother, Mrs. Swan and I were guests of a Mrs. Dodd and her daughter, Marguerite Dodd for dinner at their home in Pomona, California.  At that time I was President of the Pomona Commercial & Savings Bank.  

Miss Dodd and a friend had made a trip to Australia on the S.S. Tahiti prior to this meeting.  The occasion for this dinner was that an officer of that Ship was visiting and the Dodds desired that we become acquainted with him.

During the evening we learned that the name of the Ship’s Officer was Officer Bill —, and that he was Navigator for the S.S. Tahiti.  He told us that his ship had started on the return voyage to Australia.  This aroused my curiosity ‘in view of the fact that I wondered how the ship would proceed without a Navigator’.

Officer Bill told us that he had been authorized by authorities in Australia to remain in America for a period endeavoring to find someone willing and able to underwrite a trial flight by plane to Australia.  

We liked Officer Bill.   I told him that I knew a gentleman that had an interest in his Country; that he was successful; and, it might be ‘that he would assist him in his assignment’.

I took one of my business cards and addressed a brief note to Mr. Andrew Chaffey, President of the California Bank of Los Angeles, introducing Officer Bill.  In handing to Officer Bill, I remarked that Mr. Chaffey was a business man and as to whether he would underwrite personally, I was not in a position to say.

You are familiar with Sir Kingsford-Smith’s Book entitled ‘My Flying Life’ published in 1937.   Chapter IV on Page 40 of this book sets forth the happy outcome of this medium in the introduction to Captain G. Allan Hancock by Andrew M. Chaffey, a close friend and associate.

The subsequent successful flight of Sir Kingsford-Smith and C. T. P. Ulm in the Southern Cross – From America to Australia pioneered and made aviation history and brought closed relationships between our great countries.

Officer Bill, Mrs. Dodd and her daughter, Marguerite, Mrs. Sandford and I – probably each composed links in the chain that accomplished this flight.

The body of Mr. George Chaffey, yes, and the bodies of his two sons, Andrew Mc Cord and Col. John Burton Chaffey are interred in Bellevue Cemetery in Ontario.

Col. Chaffey and I made many trips in America together.  He told me of many of the activities of his father in Australia and America.

Mr. Andrew M. Chaffey introduced Mr. J. A. Alexander to me and asked that I assist him in any way that I was able in developing data for his Book ‘Life of George Chaffey’.  This in the fall of 1927 or early 1928 as I recall.

The George Chaffey home in Etiwanda, California still stands.

In the event that you might appreciate an Article about this Community – as it is today – I can recommend Mr. Forrest E. Doucette, 2485 Mesa Terrace, Upland, California.

Ontario and Upland are villages no longer, but two rather large and successful Cities.  Industry is making inroads into what was once largely agricultural.  Euclid Avenue and the Chaffey Union High School and Chaffey College continue to stand out in serving our entire area.

Mr. G. Allan Hancock died very recently.  He was a great man and his works carry on.

Sincerely yours

E. Joseph Sandford

Transcription of Joe Sandford’s letter to Australia’s Walkabout Magazine, July 19, 1965

Joe’s letter comes three years after The Walkabout’s publication of the article describing the Chaffey’s work in Mildura, Australia, and nearly 80 years after the work itself. I have no evidence of whether anyone at The Walkabout responded to Joe, let alone published his letter. The article, itself, can still be found with a simple internet search.

With assistance from Joe’s link in the chain, the airplane Southern Cross completed the first flight from the United States to Australia (with stops in Hawaii and Fiji) in June 1928, piloted by Kingsford Smith, about a year after the Lindbergh flight from Long Island to Paris.

On 31 May 1928, the crew—Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, and Americans Harry Lyon (navigator) and James Warner (radio operator)—took off from Oakland, California, United States. The Southern Cross first stopped for rest and refuelling in Hawaii before setting off for Fiji. This leg of the journey took 34¹⁄₂ hours of flight across open seas before gliding past the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, where a large and enthusiastic crowd saw the first aircraft to land in Fiji touch down at Albert Park. The Southern Cross landed at Eagle Farm Airport in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, on 9 June, where a crowd of 25,000 people were waiting to greet the Southern Cross on its arrival at the airport. The Southern Cross flew on to Sydney the following day (10 June).  The aircraft was in constant radio communication with ships and shore during the flight using four transmitters and three receivers powered by a propeller-driven generator attached to the fuselage below the cockpit. The first paid commercial messages were sent and received during the flight and a new world record distance for radio was set with a short-wave reception at Bloemfontein, South Africa, the long way around the world at 12,800 miles. Direct short-wave aircraft-to-shore communications were maintained with the Pacific Coast until the flight was four hours out of Honolulu which had been monitoring the flight from two hours after departure with a similar reception overlap on the Honolulu to Suva leg. Success on this flight influenced Admiral Byrd to equip his three Antarctic Expedition aircraft with similar equipment.

Wikipedia

Joe’s letter also strengthens our understanding of the professional relationships between the Chaffeys, Henry Swan and Joe. It appears that both Henry (from George’s generation) and Joe (a contemporary of Andrew) operated banks within the larger banking system of the Chaffey family. Henry and Joe’s purchase of the Pomona Savings Bank in 1923 and the ownership change of the Pomona bank after Henry’s death must have all been conducted in close coordination with the Chaffey family.

The Chaffey plot in the Ontario Bellevue Cemetery includes the memorials for George and his sons Andrew and John.

Joe was immensely proud of his association with the Chaffey family–he tells these same stories in several of his Living History interviews in the 1970s. He also makes references to letters received from the Chaffey family commending his role in both endeavors. I do not know if any of these letters have survived.