Fallsnewspress.com - Remnant of 1944 plane crash donated to historical society

RPC Photo / Steve Wiandt Pete Mellinger of the Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society accepts Priscilla Harding’s donation of a propeller blade that survived the 1944 crash of a fighter plane on the eastern edge of the city. Harding had inherited the piece of history from her father, the late Joseph W. Harding, former Falls mayor.

by Steve Wiandt

Reporter

Cuyahoga Falls -- The Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society recently accepted a piece of history that survived what could have been a deadly catastrophe.

Priscilla Harding in April presented to Pete Mellinger, a Historical Society Board trustee, and Liz Cross, the museum curator, a blade from the propeller of a World War II fighter plane that crashed on the east side of town in 1944.

Harding said the propeller blade had been in the basement of her 23rd Street home since 1950. "It wound up in dad's office," said Harding, whose father, Joseph W. Harding, was the mayor of Falls from 1944 through 1949.

The propeller blade is believed to be the largest piece of the plane to survive the crash, she said.

The crash occurred shortly after noon on Friday, Sept. 1, 1944, according to a clipping of The Cuyahoga Falls Reporter dated Sept. 8 on file at the Historical Society museum. "Army Airplane Crashes In Falls," reads the front page headline. The subhead states, "Pilot survives airplane crash."

The story tells how First Lt. Robert J. Ruschell jumped out of his burning plane and was probably saved when his parachute got caught in a tree, breaking his fall. Ruschell landed in a tree in a yard near Northland Avenue and Fourth Street. He was taken to St. Thomas Hospital with a broken jaw, broken nose and severe lacerations.

His plane, a P-40 Warhawk single-seat fighter, crashed in flames behind a house at 648 School St., the article said.

Ruschell had come to the Falls from Selfridge Field, Mich., to visit his mother, Helen Perkins, 2674 Woodward Road. His mother was at Akron airport to watch her son take off, the article continued. Smoke was seen trailing from the plane almost as soon as it was in the air.

Ruschell said he didn't know anything was wrong until he saw smoke coming into the cockpit through the floor as he flew over the Falls. Then the plane started to shake with explosions, he said.

"At that time I thought I could get back to the airport, I wanted to ride her down," Ruschell was quoted saying. "Then the smoke got so bad I was choking. I banked the plane toward the open country east of the Falls, pushed back the 'greenhouse' of the plane and that's all I remember."

Ruschell said he didn't remember jumping out of the plane or pulling the ripcord on his parachute. Spectators said the parachute fluttered as it came down as though part of it had been torn away. Ruschell was found at the base of a tree, unconscious, his face covered with blood.

The plane exploded when it struck the ground, shattering a store window nearly 100 yards away, stated the Falls Reporter, which went on to say it dug a furrow 3 feet wide, 10 feet long and several feet deep in a yard where children had been playing only a few minutes before.

Ruschell died in 1994 in Arnold, Md., at the age of 74. He is buried at the Maryland Veterans Cemetery in Crownsville, Md.

A personal recollection

"I was there and saw the remains of the wreck," said Mellinger, who was 11 then. At the time, he was visiting his grandmother who lived on Munroe Falls Avenue. "We saw the plane crash," Mellinger said, "and my grandmother, my cousin and I walked over."

"It was quite an event," Mellinger said, "The guy was here to visit his mother and took off, was going to go on his way and had plane trouble and managed to avoid dropping it on a house."

"We've had several people come into the museum over the years and talk about being there," said Cross. "We've had this information about the plane wreck forever, and to get a piece of the actual wreck is absolutely amazing." She said the propeller blade will likely become part of a future World War II display.

Cross said that a number of years ago the pilot's stepfather loaned his parachute to the museum to use in a temporary display of World War II artifacts assembled at the Historical Society's original home in the Quirk Cultural Center.

Harding said she has wanted to give the propeller to the Historical Society for a number of years. "Here it was in the cellar, and I said that's just not right. It belongs in the history museum. I really always wanted them to have it, but they just didn't have the room before."

The Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society occupied a room in the Quirk Cultural Center on Grant Avenue from 1986 until 2000 when it moved to Hudson Drive, but space was still limited.

Two years ago the Historical Society moved into its current home at 2083 Cook St., which is in the same block where the plane crashed nearly 55 years ago.

E-mail: swiandt@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3141