Clyde Cessna was a farm boy. He was born in Iowa in 1879 before his parents took him to Kansas at the age of three. In the one-room schoolhouse, he reportedly got exceptional grades and was noted in the local Kingman newspaper for having perfect attendance.[1] Outside of school Clyde Cessna had an Uncanny gift for mechanics. The local neighbors would often ask for his assistance and his abilities as a mechanic as it appeared he could fix just about anything. When Cessna was around only 15 he was sent out to repair a neighbor’s knotter. A knotter is a piece of farm machinery that used a mechanical jaw to tightly wind a sheaf of wheat in wine, tie a knot, and cut off the excess twine with a moving blade.[2] The machine was both costly and complex as it consisted of over 3,800 parts and was notorious for breaking down.[3] When young Cessna arrived at the scene he was greeted by a panicked farmer who informed him that he only had a few hours to fix the Knotter as there was a large thunderstorm was blowing in, which would surely damage the crop. Quickly, Cessna got to work and was able to repair the machine in no time at all. With the knotter operational the wheat was harvested in a few hours before the storm blew in later that day.[4] It is evident that life on the farm played a key role in Clyde Cessna’s development as an inventor. He worked with complex farm equipment from which he obtained many of the skills he later used to build and invent aircraft. These skills were not taught in the one-room Kansas schoolhouse Cessna was educated in. He attended neither high school or college. His formal education ended in the fifth-grade.[5] Clyde Cessna's grandson Claire Cessna remembers him having a mind like a steel trap. That he was gifted in his ability to process and recall information. Cessna was brilliant, and his youth on his father’s farm was instrumental to his learning mechanics as an opportunity presented itself every day.

[1] Ella Kinsley, "Educational Collum," The Kingman Journal, November 25, 1892, https://www.newspapers.com/image/425854516, 3.

[2] Sterling Evans, Bound in Twine: The History and Ecology of the Henequen-wheat Complex for Mexico and the American and Canadian Plain. (College Station: Texas A and M University Press, 2007), 6.

[3] Ibid, 13.

[4] Jeffrey L. Rodengen, The Legend of Cessna. (Fort Lauderdale: Write Stuff Enterprises Inc., 1998), 23.

[5] Ibid.