Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

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