Jesse Lawrence Easterwood (1888-1919), known as a veteran World War I aviator, and pioneer in military aviation, was born 5 Dec. 1888 in Wills Point, Tex. In 1905, he enrolled in Texas A & M College, now Texas A & M University. Easterwood left college in 1909 to become a businessman in Mexia, Tex. In 1917, with war declared on Germany, Easterwood immediately volunteered as an aviator. He received his early training at Pensacola, Fla., and was one of the very first Americans to qualify as a naval aviator. He served as an instructor at Pensacola briefly, then was transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for engineering training. On 12 March 1918 Easterwood set sail for Europe with the first group of American pilots going overseas to serve in World War I. During his tour with the Royal Flying Service, Easterwood completed 16 missions deep behind German lines. He also served with the French air force and the Italian air force, ferrying the first Caprioni bomber from Italy to France. Surviving World War I, Easterwood remained with the U. S. Navy, flying experimental airmail flights. By 1919, Easterwood was transferred to Coco Solo, in the Panama Canal Zone. Preferring to fly the planes in his unit which had the worst mechanical problems himself, Easterwood was killed 16 May 1919 while attempting the emergency landing of such a plane with severe engine trouble. Easterwood was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously, for his heroism during World War I. Texas A & M University also sponsored a tribute paid to Easterwood's memory. At the urging of Easterwood's high school friend from Wills, Tex., Gibb Gilchrist, who had established a Department of Aeronautical Engineering during his first year (1937) as dean of the School of Engineering at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, the new college flying field in College Station, Tex. was dedicated as the 22 May 1941. Developed first as a facility for insituting a flight-training program at Texas A & M University, the airport was later expanded to serve major carriers to and from Dallas/Fort Worth, Tex. and Houston, Tex. airports. The Jesse L. Easterwood Notebook (26 Jan. 1908-6 Feb. 1909) consists of one notebook, measuring ca. 10 x 8 inches, containing 49 leaves of machine ruled paper, in cloth over cardboard covers, which was manufactured with two-hole punched metal fasteners. Most of the notebook's leaves are filled with class notes taken from lectures, dated 26 Jan. 1908-6 Feb. 1909. One exception is the beginnings of a draft letter, dated 25 Jan. [19]08, to his father, noting that Easterwood has been recently ill for a period of time. Lecture notes in roughly the first half of the notebook pertain to Animal Husbandry, especially causes, symptoms and treatment of conditions such as colic, heaves, constipation, dysentery, catarrh of stomach and bowels in livestock, while the latter half are concerned with a class labeled particularly the cultivating of fruit trees and the marketing of their produce. Some of the scrawled asides give a quite colorful glimpse into the mind of a restless and enterprising cadet straying from the lecture in progress. Red, Jesse L. Easterwood Airport protracted Horticulture 4,
