HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID
RG1108.AM: Ernest J. Sias, 1877-1955
Papers: 1907-2004; mostly 1938-1945
Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska: President, Lincoln Aeronautical Institute
Size: 1.0 cu.ft.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Born in Fontanelle, Iowa, June 23, 1877, Ernest J. Sias studied at Drake University and received his B.A. degree from Cotner University, Lincoln, Nebraska in 1907. Sias served as minister of the First Christian Church of Frankfort, Indiana from 1907 until 1910. He was instrumental in the formation of Nebraska air transportation. Sias founded and was president of the Lincoln Airplane and Flying School in 1920, and the Lincoln Aeronautical Institute in 1935. Sias died on October 4, 1955, in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is buried next to his wife, Alma (Demarest) Sias, in the Grant Evergreen Cemetery, Nemaha County, Nebraska.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The bulk of this collection consists of the correspondence relating to the Lincoln Aeronautical Institute from 1938 until its liquidation in 1945. This correspondence reveals the efforts of E.J. Sias, president, to establish a training program for discharged veterans. Correspondents include: J.S Hoffsinger, 1943-1945; E.H. Reitzke, 1944-1945; Karl Stefan, 1944; A.L. Miller, 1944; G.W. Rosenlof, 1944; C.S. Boucher, 1944; William R. Enyart, 1940; C.N. Suffill, 1943; and Max Kier, 1944.
Additional correspondence relates to an effort to establish a feeder system of air transportation throughout the state of Nebraska, along with speeches and advertisement material on the value of air transportation. Also included are several scrapbooks, a volume containing sermons from Sias’ time as a minister, and a history of E.J. Sias, the Lincoln Airplane and Flying School and the Lincoln Aeronautical Institute, written by Del Harding in 2004.
Subject headings:
Aeronautics — Nebraska
Boucher, Chauncey Samuel, 1886-1955
Kier, Samuel Max, 1895-1972
Lincoln Aeronautical Institute (Lincoln, Nebraska)
Lincoln Airplane and Flying School (Lincoln, Nebraska)
Miller, Arthur Lewis, 1892-1969
Rosenlof, George Walter, 1891-1974
Sias, Ernest J., 1877-1955
Stefan, Karl, 1884-1951
Veterans
DAB/DJR 07-07-1966
Revised TMM 02-22-2017
