Lloyd Courter: Pioneer skydiver (sort of, 1902)

This is a photo of Chariton's Tunis and Jennie Courter family, taken it's thought about 1910, with the daring Lloyd, now in his mid-30s and established as a cigar merchant in Sacramento, at right in the back row.

Born in 1875 in Chariton and an 1893 graduate of Chariton High School, Lloyd had bounced around his hometown for a few years before heading west. Among other things, he was a volunteer firefighter, operator of the Maine restaurant and, upon occasion, accused of selling intoxicating beverages illegally.

But he made his mark in Chariton when he was 27, during early August 1902, when in response to a dare and a few bets he roped himself to a trapeze bar attached to a hot-air balloon, ascended to a considerable height, cut himself loose and floated to a graceful landing in J.L. Brown's small pasture northeast of the square.

If not Chariton's first homegrown skydiver, he surely must have been among the earliest.

Here's how The Chariton Herald reported the event in its edition of Aug. 7, 1902:

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The balloon ascension last Saturday afternoon was a sensation in more ways than one. Instead of the regular aeronaut, John Reed, going up with the big gas bag and dropping into the canvass sun shade, Lloyd Courter, of the Maine restaurant, in response to a bluff from his friends and to win a few side bets, swung himself off the surface of the earth seated on the trapeze stick.

When the big balloon sailed skyward, ascending a half mile more or less, almost straight up, he then, at the signal of a shot fired from below, cut himself loose from the balloon, dropped for a couple of hundred feet at the rate of a couple of million miles a second, and then, his parachute catching the wind, he rode safely and gracefully to earth and landed in J. L. Brown's pasture northeast of the square.

Lloyd declares that he was not in the least nervous before, during or after his perilous feat. He had his heart tested just before the balloon started and it was found to be beating at its usual rate. When the great height was being reached, the amateur cloud-rider says he was as cool as if standing on solid ground. Only during the first dash of the parachute toward the earth did he feel scared, and after the parachute began its regular descent, he recovered his breath and landed safe and sound, escaping the pond in the pasture by little more than a rod.

Counting the amount subscribed for him, the bets he won, etc., Courter cleared about $31 by his feat. The chances were great, but he escaped safely, and is now receiving congratulations on his nerve and beautiful ascension. His parents did not know that he was to make the ascent, or they would have objected so strenuously that he would no doubt have backed out. He was lashed to the trapeze by a stout rope snapped to his belt, so that if he should get dizzy and fall off he would still be held up until the balloon came down.

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In California, Lloyd married Helen Gallaher and they had two children, Clifford (1914-1989) and Maybelle (1917-1921). Helen died during 1927 at the age of 51; Lloyd, on April 10, 1948. All are buried in Sacramento.