Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

Chapter One
EARLY YEARS
In the late nineteenth century William Martin
Hungerford (1849-1903), a sometime Elmira silversmith,
tried farming in Pennsylvania to “improve his luck”. 1 So
his younger sons, Daniel D. Hungerford (1886–1967)
and Floyd S. Hungerford (1888–1963), spent their early
years in the rural area south of Elmira, apparently
Jackson Township in Tioga County and Wells Township
in Bradford County, both in Pennsylvania, as well as in
the Town of Southport in Chemung County, New York.
In addition to William, the family included his wife,
Mary (Ward) Hungerford (1856–1944); an older son,
William J. Hungerford (1883–1955); and a daughter,
Jennie May Hungerford (1892–1964), later Mrs. Fred H.
Badger. Census records document a peripatetic existence
for the family with father William having been born in
New York, Mary in Pennsylvania, son William in New
York, Daniel in Pennsylvania, and both Floyd and Jennie
in New York. 2
Growing up in a rural, and claims Australian automobile
historian Igor Spajic, impoverished environment,
the Hungerfords had only a public school education.
But, Spajic continued, the brothers had the
motivation to leap ahead into unexplored realms of
science and technology. 3 Daniel David Hungerford
himself after noting his birthplace in Wells, Bradford
County, Pennsylvania on August 14, 1886, wrote that
his education was “graded schools” and his early
work as “Farmer to 1905; box factory and school to
1906.” 4 Late writing of his life and that of his brother
Floyd, he noted that “as boys we had no bicycle so
built one—c. Changed a clock works into a self-propelled
vehicle—dad was quite surprised. built a
threshing machine & built a hand sled. Flood took our
thresher. Boys stole [?] our sled. [B]uilt steam engine—
have that. P.S. will send a list of our exploits down to
the sled moving wheels & etc. D.D & F.S. Hungerford
by D.D.H.” 5
In 1967, an unidentified appreciation of Daniel
Hungerford’s life noted that
Figure 1. The Hungerford siblings posed in the 1910s: Jennie
and, from left to right, Floyd, Daniel and William. The
photo probably was taken in Elmira, New York.
His flair for mechanics showed up at an early age.
He wondered why a traction engine had a governor.
So, when no one was looking, he unhooked it,
eased back the throttle and discovered the governor’s
purpose. It wasn’t long before he was taking
things apart and studying them. The engine always
ran better when he got through. 6
Keith Marvin in the 1960s wrote that because of
Daniel and Floyd’s limited formal schooling, the two as
adults exploring rocket power had “taught themselves
Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein. New York State Museum Record 4, © 2013 by The
University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, Albany, New York. All rights reserved.
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