The Niles Star

Plunge into Barron Lake ends with pilot in Silverbrook

By By Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery
Every once in a while we discover more mystery than material while researching the life and death of those buried in Silverbrook Cemetery. This week's story presents one of those challenges.
Most of us can remember seeing one of the classic cartoons where an agitated Goofy is seen flying around in a circa WWI airplane, flying through what appears to be our mid-west farmland. He swoops and swirls and ends up crashing through a red barn with hay flying everywhere.
The "glorious year of flying," in 1913 began the ritual of aerial acrobatics through races, competitions and demonstrations. Daredevil pilots proved the maneuverability of the new flying machines, which less than a decade earlier had taken to the air as Orville Wright flew 1,760 feet in approximately 40 seconds after a day of flight trials over Huffman Prairie, Ohio. The daredevils flew upside down, doing loops and other stunts to delight of onlookers.
By the 1920s, barnstorming exhibitions had become a national phenomenon. A description of the scene surrounding these events is found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnstorming.
"Most barnstorming shows started with a pilot, or team of pilots flying over a small rural town to attract the attention of the local inhabitants. They would then land at a local farm (hence the name "barnstorming") and negotiate with the farmer for the use of one of his fields as a temporary runway from which to stage an air show and offer airplane rides to customers.
"After obtaining a base of operation, the pilot or group of aviators would "buzz" the village dropping handbills offering airplane rides for a small fee and advertise the daring feats that would be performed. Crowds would follow the planes to the field, purchase rides and watch the show. In some towns the appearance of a barnstormer or an aerial troop would lead to almost everything in the town shutting down as people attended the show."
In Silverbrook a simple stone marks her grave. With etchings of an airplane and a parachutist telling the story, the inscription reads:
AVIATRIX
DAGMAR STEGEMANN
BORN-COPENHAGEN
DENMARK-1904
DIED-NILES MICHIGAN-1925
ERECTED BY HER FRIENDS
A simple description of the day is included in the Silverbrook Tour brochure:
"Dagmar Stegemann (1904-1925) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and came to the U.S to perform stunts from airplanes. While performing a routine exhibition in Niles, her equipment failed and Stegemann was caught hanging from one wing. The pilot flew over Barron Lake and instructed her to cut loose and fall into the lake.
"Stegemann misjudged the time and distance and cut loose 200 feet above the water, plunging headfirst into the lake. She died from injuries sustained on impact one hour later."
We find no trace of her anywhere else searching online. Not in the U.S. and not in her native Denmark. Yet here she is buried thousands of miles from her home.
What attracted this young woman to such a dangerous profession? Who are the "friends" who erected her stone in Silverbrook? What did she "cut loose" from?
Given the etching on the gravestone, one might logically assume that Stegemann was a parachutist. The Wikipedia site describes the variety of stunts which comprised the shows.
"Barnstormers would perform a variety of stunts, with some specializing as stunt pilots or aerialists. Stunt pilots performed a variety of aerobatic maneuvers, including spins, dives, loop-the-loops and barrel rolls while aerialists would perform feats of wing-walking, stunt parachuting, midair plane transfers or even playing tennis, target shooting or dancing while on the plane's wings."
Perhaps a possible answer might be found in the story of another young aviatrix who lost her life five years earlier in Empire, a town located approximately 25 miles due west of Traverse City. Tinney Flyers Corporation billed Senorita Deborah DeCostello as the world's most daring aviatrix on the poster for the Leelanau County Fair in the autumn of 1920.
In a dare-devil parachute drop, the aviatrix lost her life when, before she was ready to attempt the drop in the parachute, the rope was accidentally cut and the high wind carried her far out in Lake Michigan. The pilot of the biplane that carried her aloft was powerless to do anything other than make a few futile attempts to snag the aviatrix once she started drifting out over the big lake. Rescue craft were dispatched from the U.S. Lifesaving Station at Sleeping Bear Point, but were unable to locate DeCostello.
In eerie similarity, no family members came forward to claim the body; she was buried in St. Philip's cemetery, where her tombstone simply reads "Deborah DeCostello, 1893-1920."
Whether parachute lines or guide wires for some other stunt, the sad fact is that Stegemann was left dangling from the plane before she cut loose and fell to her death.
The friends? During the period in question, large "flying circuses," like the Tinney Flyers Corporation, with several planes and stunt people toured the country. They were the largest and most organized of all the barnstorming acts.
Stories of circus "families" are legendary. One can only imagine the closeness these daily life and death performances in the sky would inspire in those whose very lives depended on the other members of the troop.
As to what would attract the young Danish woman to cross an ocean only to lose her life in a southwest Michigan lake, we can again only speculate.
We are left to wonder. What is sure is that the 21-year-old Dane lost her life in Barron Lake and remains in Silverbrook beneath a stone marker erected by those who perhaps watched her fall to death.
The Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery will meet next on Thursday, March 19, 7 p.m. at the Law Enforcement Complex. Carol Bainbridge, director Fort St. Joseph Museum "Early Berrien County Settlers: Where did they come from? What did they do?"
For more information on Friends of Silverbrook with regards to memberships and work days to help restore and catalog the monuments contact: Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery c/o 508 E. Main St. Niles MI 49120, Tim and Candace Skalla at 684-2455, wskalla@sbcglobal.net or contact Ginny Tyler at 445-0997, SPHINX1974@aol.com.
> Part of a continuing series on Niles' historic Silverbrook Cemetery, provided by Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery, a group working to preserve and restore the cemetery.