George K. Spencer came from Watertown, NY and worked for the Solvay Process Company. His passion was for flying and his ambition was to become an aviator. Spencer built and repaired his own planes or flying machines as they were called then. In those early days of flying the wings on the flying machines were called planes.

Spencer stored his plane in the barn of Charles H. Skiff. The Skiff brothers had come to the area from Cicero in 1882 and bought the Avery farm at an estate sale. Their farm extended from Brookfield Road to Ley Creek and from the old Cicero Plank Road to Bear Trap Creek.

His most successful flight was conducted on the Skiff farm on election day (Nov 1st). Spencer made one or two additional flight after the election day flight. They were short but still successful. The flight planed for Sunday, November didn't go as planned. The wings were out of balance and the plane crashed, almost killing Spencer.

He planned on repairing his plane and building a second one and being ready for more flights the following Spring. After searching the newspaper archives in great detail I couldn't find any other flights made by Spencer in the central New York area.

As the paper said, "He is the first local man to conquer the air with a heavier-than-air machine." And he did it in what would later become Mattydale.