Our Rich History: Air pioneer Hugh Watson was ‘Grand Patriarch of Cincinnati Aviation’

By Stephen Enzweiler
Special to NKyTribune

On a crisp autumn morning in November 1954, 60-year old Hugh Watson, one of Cincinnati’s early air pioneers, walked into a meeting room helped by his wife Roberta and slowly took a seat at the table. He looked tired and moved with some effort, but was otherwise alert and ready to do business. Seated across the table was Cincinnati City Manager C.A. Harrell, accompanied by a flurry of lawyers.

They all knew the famous pilot and aviator from his many years of flying and promoting aviation in the area. No one called him by his first name: he was always “Major Watson” or simply “the major,” in deference to his time spent as a pilot during World War I. There was small talk and an exchange of pleasantries.

Then, after some discussion, Hugh Watson took pen in hand, and with his customary flair, signed his name. He then rose from the table, smiled and shook hands with everyone, and walked out the door.

This 1923 photo of the old Grisard Field shows a typical Sunday crowd that came out to see Hugh Watson’s daredevil aerial stunts. (Courtesy of Stephen Enzweiler.)

With his signature, Watson sold his life’s work to the City of Cincinnati: a 186-acre tract of land known for more than a quarter century as Hugh Watson Airport. Soon after the meeting, he headed to Douglasville, Georgia with his wife in hopes of regaining his health from a stroke he suffered the previous August. Before he left town, he spoke with a reporter and told him that his “great wish was to live long enough to see the completion of Cincinnati’s airport at Blue Ash.”

For most of his life, he had been trying to help the city develop a main passenger and freight airport hub. There had always been support among city officials for Watson’s vision, and the purchase of his airport brought the plan closer than ever to becoming reality.

Hugh Watson’s passport photo from March, 1921 as he prepared to travel to Japan and China with Barr’s Flying Circus. (National Archives)

Hugh Watson was born in Douglasville, Georgia on July 13, 1894, the third child of five born to local dry goods merchant Matthias Watson and his wife Ella Strickland. After the Wright Brothers made history in 1903, towns and cities all across the United States began to experience airplane “sightings.” Pilots circled a town a few times, wagged their wings to say hello to the folks on the ground, then landed in a grassy farmer’s field nearby. This is probably how the young, impressionable Watson saw his first airplane as a boy in Douglasville.

In 1914, he had been working as a race car driver at the Indianapolis Speedway, but moved to Cincinnati with just $6 in his pocket and worked for a time turning wrenches for a man named L.E. Vohees on Reading Road. He saved his money and took flying lessons when he could, managing to solo in 1916. But it was America’s entrance into World War I the following year that would forever change the direction of Hugh Watson’s life – and the history of Cincinnati aviation.


In the war, Watson served in the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army Air Service as a flying training instructor, first at the School of Military Aeronautics at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, then in Berkeley, California. There, he earned the rank of lieutenant and the title of “aviator.” Though he never saw combat in Europe, his experience as an instructor allowed him to perfect his mastery of flying.

After the war, he turned to barnstorming – as did most former wartime pilots – flying from town to town, performing stunts and giving rides for anyone who had $5 and the guts to climb aboard.

Hugh Watson in 1925 (center with flying goggles) is credited with launching the first scheduled passenger airline in Cincinnati. It made regular morning and afternoon flights between Watson Field and Dayton, Ohio. (Courtesy of Stephen Enzweiler).

Watson drew national attention in 1918 after he landed his Curtis Jenny biplane on what is now Market Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee. But it was his death-defying stunts that made him famous. Hugh became so adept at handling an airplane that it seemed he could defy even death itself. “He was the best there was,” one former student said.

In December 1918, he flew from Montgomery, Alabama in a Curtis Biplane to Douglas County, Georgia. According to the Douglas County Sentinel, he flew “all manner of stunts for the crowds on the ground.” He “looped the loop,” did the “death dive” or tail spin, but then the fun turned to horror. Whether Watson planned it or not, when the airplane’s engine quit in the tailspin just 350 feet above the ground, the craft plummeted toward the ground. But at the last instant, the engine re-started, the craft righted itself, and the pilot made a perfect landing as a shaken crowd looked on. But another stunt did not go as planned, and Watson spent the last six months of 1920 in the hospital at Fort McPherson recovering from a near-fatal crash.

Discharged from the Army in January 1921, Hugh and his brother Parks briefly formed “The Watson Brothers Mammoth Flying Circus.” Then, in hopes of making the big time, Hugh headed to California. There, he thrilled millions of spectators in a flying circus headed by Cecil B. DeMille; then he joined Barr’s Flying Circus, a world-renowned performing circus that toured Japan and China. Returning to Cincinnati after that year, Hugh and brother Parks leased a “crossroads” property in Blue Ash known as Grisard Field and began their own airport operation. In 1925, they bought the field and renamed it Hugh Watson Field.

In the 1920’s, aviation was still in its infancy. But as the airplane evolved into a viable commercial industry, Hugh saw tremendous growth opportunities, and began developing Watson Field. Both brothers were pilots; however, they mutually agreed that Hugh, the more daring and flamboyant of the two, would run the flying operations, whereas Parks would manage the business. The arrangement worked well. By 1925, Hugh launched the first scheduled passenger airline in Cincinnati, flying a refurbished Curtiss Jenny on regular morning and afternoon flights between Watson Airport in Blue Ash and Dayton, Ohio. He later added another airline and secured a lucrative commercial Airmail contract.

Thousands of Cincinnatians took their first airplane ride in this World War I Curtiss Jenny JN-4D biplane. Originally a two-seat Army trainer, it was powered by an 8-cylinder Curtiss OX-5 engine. Hugh Watson expanded its front cockpit to fit up to four passengers (rides were $3 and $5). He also refitted it with a more powerful engine that doubled the horsepower from 90 to 180 for greater speed and maneuverability. (Courtesy of Stephen Enzweiler.)

As a person, Hugh Watson was famously friendly, energetic, and could be found leaning up against an airplane regaling listeners with stories and tall tales from his early flying days. Once, when speaking with a reporter, he commented: “If you ever get into serious trouble, head for a large tree. They are so much softer to crash into than the ground.” Then he would smile and tell how he made a forced landing into the top of a sprawling elm tree, from which he climbed down without any injury at all. He had an unlimited number of stories, but most people enjoyed his often-repeated expression that he “never did hope to be the best pilot, but always wanted to be the oldest one.” His most prized possession was his pilot’s license – #612 – among the first issued in the United States.

By 1927, Hugh Watson Airport reached the zenith of its operations. There was the Air Mail contract and Tri-Motor passenger service with Universal Airlines; there were regular airshows, flying circuses, air races, and daredevil stunts that drew crowds by the thousands. At the same time, Hugh began talking to the City of Cincinnati about his idea of a major air hub for the city. The city was interested, and Hugh worked to help the city determine a location. Of all the area airports, most felt that Watson Airport was the superior choice. With that in mind, Hugh worked to attract federal funding, promote the airport, lure investors and expand his commercial airmail and passenger routes.

But then came a crash of another kind in October 1929. Throughout the Great Depression, Hugh Watson struggled to keep the airport in the public eye. He maintained a steady stream of events to promote his own business and the growing aviation industry. He sponsored model airplane clubs, essay contests, hosted famous aviators and stunt pilots, ran airshows, opened up a shooting range, and in 1938 even brought the National Air Races to Cincinnati. His airshows in particular were so popular that the City of Cincinnati actually established a bus service to Watson Airport that ran every 20-minutes from downtown.

Watson Airport during its heyday in 1927. Here, Albert Enzweiler, one of Maj. Hugh Watson’s flying students, poses with a Curtiss Jenny aircraft used for instruction. Throngs of spectators fill the background. Courtesy of Stephen Enzweiler.)

As a new World War came, Hugh Watson also joined the effort as an aviation consultant to the War Department. In 1946, he reintroduced the idea of a commercial airport once again, attempting to convince city, county and federal officials of its necessity. He lobbied tirelessly, arguing that Watson Airport in Blue Ash was still the most viable property. By the early 1950’s, the city began deliberating anew. There were three airfields under consideration: Lunken Airport, Watson Airport, and a distant military airfield in Boone County, Kentucky, built during the war by the Army Air Corps to train B-17 aircrews. There had always been positive assurances to Watson from city officials, and by 1954 they made him an offer to purchase his airport.

Thus, when Hugh signed the papers that November day in 1954 selling his airport to the City of Cincinnati, he no doubt felt that all his years of lobbying were worth it. But he did not live to see the outcome of the sale. On January 22, 1955, Hugh died in an Atlanta hospital after suffering a heart attack. Not long before, the Cincinnati Enquirer had declared him the Grand Patriarch of Cincinnati Aviation.

“I’m glad you said those nice things about me while I was still alive,” he told the reporter. Hugh Watson is buried next to his wife Roberta in Douglasville, Georgia.

Epilogue: The City of Cincinnati renamed their purchase Cincinnati-Blue Ash Airport, and it continued to pursue plans for its development well into the 1960’s. But in the end, political infighting, stiff community opposition and three failed bond measures doomed the effort.

In 2006, the property was sold to the City of Blue Ash and today is under commercial development for residential, retail and multi-use purposes.

Stephen Enzweiler is a writer and journalist. He has been a columnist for the Kentucky Enquirer and the Oxford Citizen and was senior editor at Y’all Magazine. He is the author of Oxford in the Civil War: Battle for a Vanquished Land (2010).