Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

Figures 20 A-B. (A page 36 and B page 37). After twenty years of running for offices, Daniel Hungerford hoped to be an American
Labor Party Assemblyman. Hungerford’s plans for New York included a price control on milk, aid for housing, free university and other
state paid schools, progressive income taxes, repeal of the cigarette tax, and a minimum $1 hour wage.
But in November 10, its purpose changed “to develop
public sentiment in favor of devoting the property to
memorial rather than commercial use.” A committee
was to be organized to receive money “on a national
scale”. Hungerford and Bush said they had not convinced
the public to preserve the house; “there was
strong sentiment for erecting a shrine on the property.”
A Hungerford letter to the editor of the Star-Gazette on
November 13, said that the “Mark Twin center” would
provide the city as nationally known as was the
“national gliding center.” Elmira would lose a “hundred
thousand dollars” for tourist visitors if the shrine
did not appear. Hungerford said actually the Langdon
property had not been sold as one thought so that the
construction of fifteen stores was not certain.
Hungerford also added that Bush and he “found ourselves
looking into a commercial movie camera. The old
building was also movied [sic].” 160
On November 10, 1939, the Advertiser said “souvenir
hunters, mostly” had taken Langdon material. The contractor,
William Pedrick, stated the “odd items” had no
estimated value. But a few years later Hungerford said
he had saved the important, historic newel post from
the Langdon house. Hungerford said Mark Twain asking
for Olivia Langdon’s marriage had his hand on the
post and Olivia’s on top of his. 161
In 1992 Shirley Hungerford Hyde remembered that
her father fought a campaign to save the Langdon
house. She wrote that friends from Elmira agreed it was
a “crime to have lost a beautiful, historical landmark in
order to erect a tiny two-bit plaza. Dan was a prime
example of a man TRULY born way ahead of the
36 Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein