Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe
Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe
Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe
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I had talked to Barr about mental powers. He<br />
laughed at me for years about that. I was so dam<br />
[sic] mad about the whole thing [eviction from his<br />
Second Street house] I said to Barr – I hope lightning<br />
strikes the Star-Gazette – They have been<br />
against me all thru this thing – I – made it stronger<br />
than hope. I – practically dem<strong>and</strong>ed it. It did –<br />
Lightning struck the Star Gazett [sic] in that storm-<br />
Smashed a power transformer in the basement <strong>and</strong><br />
filled the building full of smoke.- Every body ran<br />
out of the building in to [sic] the rain it was pouring<br />
– Barr – was amazed – Said Dan I’m convinced<br />
you have something I don’t.<br />
For weeks <strong>and</strong> weeks I’ve been clinching my left<br />
fist <strong>and</strong> saying to my self – I want terrible power<br />
from where ever. I look to the sky – smashing of<br />
city hall <strong>and</strong> the Star – Gazett [sic]. And the quicker<br />
the better. The authorities would send me to<br />
Binghamton [to the state psychiatric facility] if they<br />
knew . . . 74<br />
Certainly the closeness of the Hungerford brothers is<br />
remarkable. They lived together for almost twenty<br />
years after sharing their house with their mother for a<br />
decade <strong>and</strong> a half before. Marvin claimed that if a client<br />
requested a repair from Daniel, “<strong>and</strong> Floyd happened<br />
in while Dan was out he’d know instinctively what to<br />
do <strong>and</strong> then do it, or vice versa.” Marvin said a “clairvoyant<br />
underst<strong>and</strong>ing between the two brothers, which<br />
astounded many <strong>and</strong> frightened others, manifested<br />
itself in everything that concerned them.” Marvin said<br />
that letters signed after Floyd’s death “Daniel D. <strong>and</strong><br />
Floyd S. Hungerford by D.D.H.”, were aware that his<br />
brother is dead, but [he] maintains that through some<br />
sort of extrasensory perception, Floyd lives on in<br />
him.” 75<br />
Two months after Floyd’s death, Daniel Hungerford<br />
wrote in a small notebook:<br />
This was Floyd’s book. . . . About midnight Feb.15-<br />
16-1964 awake – in a bad state of mind – <strong>and</strong> indigestion<br />
– hot flashes & chills – then three (3) knocks<br />
– in close succession come – like on the kitchen<br />
door – waited no more knocks<br />
2-16-64 about a week ago I dreamed Floyd –Bill H.<br />
were sitting on a bench somewhere – I came <strong>and</strong> sat<br />
down between them my first dream of Floyd, since<br />
he passed away.<br />
ENDNOTES<br />
54 Undated newspaper clip reports she began work at the county<br />
clerk’s office on January 18, 1916. She was deputy county<br />
clerk from 1937.<br />
55 October 5, 1919.<br />
56 The image <strong>and</strong> a caption were given to the Glenn H. Curtiss<br />
Museum by researcher David Smith, who did not indicate a<br />
source for the photo or the data.<br />
57 A “geocities.com/smithistory” website notes that the<br />
Wilhelmina Private Maternity Hospital operated from 1919<br />
to 1947 at 1259 Lyell Avenue in Rochester. A ViaHealth website<br />
states that the hospital provided “private maternity” <strong>and</strong><br />
adoption services.<br />
58 His wife was Grace Little, according to William’s gr<strong>and</strong>daughter<br />
Joan Hungerford Schatz.<br />
59 The index to New York State vital statistics records Shirley L.<br />
Hungerford’s birthday as May 21, 1923 in Rochester. Keith<br />
Marvin in a 1974 taped reading of a draft of his first history<br />
of the Hungerford brothers <strong>and</strong> their rocket car claimed<br />
Shirley was Daniel’s adopted daughter. Perhaps this explains<br />
the Rochester birthplace. Marvin in a September 20, 1992 letter<br />
to Geoffrey Stein wrote, “Actually, she was Dan<br />
Hungerford’s adopted daughter….” Shirley Hyde in correspondence<br />
with this author always identified herself as<br />
Daniel’s daughter with no qualifiers before the noun.<br />
Marvin’s data likely came from conversations with Daniel<br />
Hungerford in 1964.<br />
60 Shirley H. Hyde to Geoffrey Stein, September 9, 1992.<br />
61 David Smith to Geoffrey Stein via telephone, September 13,<br />
1992.<br />
62 Schuyler Lathers to Geoffrey Stein in conversation, August 9,<br />
1979.<br />
63 Peg Gallagher (“Moonstruck”, New York Alive, March/April<br />
1986, p. 52) noted that Lathers lived in Elmira Heights from<br />
1935 to 1940.<br />
64 George Mapes to Geoffrey Stein via telephone, November 9,<br />
2009. Gertrude Mape’s sister was Emma D. Dickson, who<br />
lived on First Street next to the Hungerford house on Second<br />
Street.<br />
65 Shirley H. Hyde to Geoffrey Stein, September 9, 1992.<br />
66 Jon Elan Steen to Geoffrey Stein, July 30, 1992.<br />
67 Keith Marvin to Geoffrey N. Stein, “Easter Day, 1979”. On<br />
February 22, 1992, Marvin wrote to Kevin R. Hungerford, a<br />
distant relative of Daniel, “He was one of the only two actual<br />
clairvoyants I ever met <strong>and</strong> the fact that he did have supernatural<br />
power in this line cannot be refuted to anyone who<br />
knew him <strong>and</strong> my own personal experience changed a good<br />
deal of my beliefs on the existence of this sixth sense. His late<br />
brother, Floyd, was similarly endowed, but he had passed on<br />
before I went to Elmira to visit Dan.”<br />
18 Daniel <strong>and</strong> Floyd Hungerford: <strong>Rocket</strong> Power, Interstellar Travel <strong>and</strong> Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein