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A hot air balloon appearance at the Warren County Fair is advertised in the Sept. 12, 1888, edition of The Morning Star of Glens Falls.

Tea, instead of the customary champagne of today, was the beverage of choice when Carlotta landed her hot air balloon at a farmer’s field at South Granville in 1888.

“She (the farmer’s wife) had a large kitchen, and it was full of people, some of whom came far and wide to see me,” Carlotta told The Morning Star of Glens Falls, at the time. “They had a dispute as to whose farm I first landed on, but finally the momentous question was satisfactorily settled.”

Balloon flights over Warren and Washington counties are common today, as a result of local interest in ballooning that has been sparked by the annual Adirondack Balloon Festival in Queensbury and Glens Falls, which opened Thursday and runs through Sunday.

Balloon flights were a novelty in the 19th century.

“When we first saw the big thing a-coming, we didn’t know what to make of it,” said Maurice Sheehan, whose father owned the farm next to the farm of James Wilson, where the balloon landed. “But afterward we remembered reading about the ascension in the papers.”

No one seemed to be upset about the damage the balloon caused when landing.

“The grappling irons made big gaps in four or five stone walls, and tore up a big swath of corn through the 5-acre lot,” The Morning Star reported.

Carlotta, the stage name of Mary Myers, an aeronaut from Mohawk, N.Y, had launched from the Warren County Fair at Glens Falls at 3:50 p.m. on Sept. 12, 1888.

Myers, the daughter of former Glens Falls resident John B. Hawley, had flown about 300 previous balloon flights, including several flights over Saratoga County in 1887.

Her first flight was at Little Falls, in Herkimer County, on July 4, 1880.

She was married to C.E. Myers, an aeronaut and inventor of ballooning equipment, including a machine that varnished fabric to make it impervious.

The major event at the week-long fair was advertised as “the first balloon ascension in the vicinity in a quarter of a century.”

Indeed, it drew unusually large crowds to the fairgrounds, located then at the intersection of Glen Street and Lincoln Avenue at Glens Falls.

“Commencing at noon yesterday, and continuing for at least two hours, a stream of humanity poured through the various avenues leading to the Warren County Fair Ground. Horse cars, buses, and private conveyances, all heavily laden, coursed through the thoroughfare, The sidewalks were thronged with pedestrians, and all seemed to have but one objective point in view,” The Morning Star reported on Sept. 13. “It was a happy gathering, and reminded the thoughtful onlooker of a large social reunion — cosmopolitan, healthy and fun-loving in character.”

Setting up the balloon and inflating it began at 11 a.m.

Balloons today are fueled by propane.

In the 19th century, the fuel was a mixture of water, iron filings and sulphuric acid that combined to produce hydrogen.

“The apparatus used consisted of four large casks, each having a capacity of 280 gallons. Each of these casks is connected by means of tin pipes with a tub filled with water, into which sets a barrel from which the bottom is removed. From this barrel, a tube of oiled linen extends to the neck or opening of the balloon.”

Carlotta arrived at the launch site a little after 3 p.m.

“She is about thirty-five years of age; of medium height; has a lithe figure, and business-like, take-care-of-myself air, characteristic of the ideal American woman,” The Morning Star reported. “She was attired in a gray suit, cut short after the school-girl style, so as not to interfere with a hasty exit from the basket in case of necessity. Her hands were incased in brown cloth gloves and she wore a jaunty hat.”

When the balloon ascended about 30 feet, a swift breeze threatened to crash it.

“Carlotta saw the impending danger and hurriedly threw out two of her sandbags,” The Morning Star reported. “The balloon, thus relieved of a burden, rose rapidly. … Carlotta waved her handkerchief in a farewell signal to the thousands with upturned faces below.”

Balloonists in the 19th century did hot have chase vehicles to follow the flight path.

The balloonist relied on the neighborliness of those where they landed to get the balloonist back to the starting point.

Carlotta asked Edward Graves, a farm hand for the Wilsons, to transport her and her balloon back to Glens Falls.

“But he had only one horse, and had to milk nine cows before starting,” Sheehan said. “Then she heard I had a smart team and was ready to come at once, and she hired me.”

A large crowd congregated outside The Rockwell House hotel, at what is now the opening of the entrance from Hudson Avenue in the Centennial Circle roundabout, cheered when Sheehan and Carlotta arrived back in Glens Falls, about five hours after she had launched.

“The temperature was delightful,” she said, of her flight. “The sun was reflected on the clouds, giving the air about me a delightful warmth that was in pleasing contrast with what I have heretofore felt.”

Maury Thompson was a Post-Star reporter for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He now is a freelance history writer and documentary film producer who routinely researches historic newspapers of the region.

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A hot air balloon appearance at the Warren County Fair is advertised in the Sept. 12, 1888, edition of The Morning Star of Glens Falls.

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