Triumph & Tragedy of the Tyndall Family

  • Published
  • By Alice & Greg Luckhardt
  • Interesting Stories, Forgotten Facts Mini-Series
Edward Charles Bruce "E.C.B." Tyndall, born May 1, 1858 in Middlesex County, England came to the United States as a single young man in 1882, seeking exciting opportunities. He soon joined the U. S. Army Calvary, traveling and serving the country for several years, but had learned of the area along the southeastern coast of Florida where one could do quite well financially, raising pineapples.

In January 1889, Edward Tyndall settled in the area of what would soon be known as Sewall's Point, a peninsula between the St. Lucie and Indian Rivers. There were few people living in the wilderness region, especially young ladies. However, Benjamin, wife Annie and daughter Marion Yorkstone Hogg, the family being from Michigan, were residents of nearby Waveland in the 1880s, having previously lived in Ft. Pierce.

Marion was born July 1, 1876 in Michigan and Tyndall was attracted to the young girl. In fact, the two married May 14, 1891. The Tyndalls had built a two-story house, 'El Nido' in Sewall's Point by 1893 and the first child, Charles Theodosius (Theo) was born May 6 of that year. Francis 'Frank' Benjamin McCausland Tyndall was born September 28, 1894 at the family home and the youngest son, Bruce Alexander was born November 1, 1906.

Fort Pierce was about 15 miles to the north, Waveland and Jensen a few miles from the sparsely populated 'residential' area of Sewall's Point. Primary occupations were growing pineapples and fishing. Edward, however, was a merchant, the owner of a retail grocery store in Jensen on Main Street, which unfortunately was destroyed in the disastrous fire of May 1908; Edward and sons rebuilt after the fire.

Even in the early years of the 20th century, the region was still very much a wilderness with wide open undeveloped land where the Tyndall boys could enjoy the adventures of exploring, fishing and hunting in the wonderful warm Florida climate.

Capt. Hugh L. Willoughby, a sportsman, early explorer of the Florida Everglades and aviation pioneer, who had a residence on Sewall's Point by 1906, was a hero to the youngsters and surely influenced them. The innovative Willoughby had been building and flying aircraft since 1894, even working with Orville Wright in advancing plane designs. He owned and operated the Willoughby Aeroplane Company with facilities in Rhode Island and Sewall's Point and tested many aircraft such as the 'War Hawk' and the seaplane 'Pelican' on the St. Lucie River during the winter months of 1911.

By 1915, Frank Tyndall was studying architecture at Valparaiso University in Indiana. The tall, handsome, gray-eyed, brown haired young man was destined for success. Parents, Edward and Marion, had moved from Sewall's Point south to West Palm Beach where Edward worked as a reporter for a newspaper, The Tropical Sun and was eventually editor of The Palm Beach Post.

Frank returned to Florida by 1916 and joined the 2nd Infantry of the Florida National Guard in June of that year and served in a unit sent to patrol the Mexican border. In early 1917, twenty-two years old and single, he returned to Florida, settling in West Palm Beach to work as an architect. Sadly, Marion Hogg Tyndall died at age 41, July 9, 1917. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach.

The United States had entered the Great War in April 1917; brothers Charles and Frank Tyndall enlisted in military service by August 1. Charles, 24, was single and a skilled gasoline engine mechanic. Both trained at Fort McPherson in Georgia; Frank joined the aviation section of the Signal Enlisted Reserve Corps and was stationed overseas by October 10, 1917. Charles was sent to Europe with the rank of master engineer in March 1918. Frank B. Tyndall was promoted to First Lieutenant and was flying with the 49th by 1918 and transferred to the 22nd Aero Squadrons in France by August.

On September 4, 1918, he demonstrated superior flying skill when German Fokker monoplanes were encountered in the St. Mihiel offensive, attempting to down an American observation balloon. He and two other pilots in SPAD S.XIII planes, flying above the Germans, dived down engaging the enemy in air-to-air combat. Lt. Tyndall managed to take down one of the Fokker planes behind enemy lines in a Blue Nose SPAD. Similar combat occurred September 28th as other German aircraft were brought down.

For daring and courageous actions, Frank, as a flight commander of the squadron, was later awarded the Silver Star and received a citation from General John "Blackjack" Pershing. Tyndall was credited with shooting to the ground at least four enemy planes, but some comrades believed it was actually five, making Frank an "Ace" pilot.

Charles 'Theo' Tyndall remained overseas until July 1919 and was discharged from the military in August. After the war, Charles returned to live in Jensen on Dixie Highway with wife, Eleanora (Fredricksen), a member of the area's pioneer family, dating to 1891. Children, Bruce Lauredts Tyndall was born on January 12, 1921 and Hugh Fredricksen Tyndall, August 18, 1929. Charles would serve as the town clerk for Jensen and Eleanora, deputy clerk, during the latter 1920s.

Lt. Frank Tyndall, a single man, remained with the military after the war and was stationed at Kelly Field in Bexar, Texas, with the U.S. Army Security Agency. In the '20s, he was involved with testing aircraft and attended engineering school in Ohio. In a test flight incident in Seattle, Washington, November 11, 1922, the MB-3A pursuit plane Frank was flying lost a wing(s) and he had to make use of a parachute. Fortunately he 'landed' safely with minor injury, being only the second military airman to parachute by that date.

In August 1927, Lt. Tyndall, as an Army inspector, successfully tested the 'Super-Cyclops' a five-ton steel bomber which could carry six machine guns, 2,700 pounds of explosives and a crew of five.

Frank married Sarah Grace McMahan from Illinois in February 1928 and that year toured across 15 states with other fliers.

Youngest brother, Bruce A., had graduated from Gulfport Military Academy in Mississippi and the University of Michigan in the late 1920s. Bruce also joined the U. S. Army's Air Corps, stationed at San Antonio, Texas and transferred in 1929 to Maxwell Field in Alabama, as a member of the 22nd Observation Squadron. Lt. Bruce Tyndall also played on the military base's polo team, the Maxwell Field Reds.

In May 1929 Lt. Frank Tyndall, with five other pilots, completed training as instructors for other groups learning to fly in various regions across the country. Special training flights would make use of a radio beacon, expected to be an ever increasingly important aid in long flights over land and water.

Frank was with the 2nd Bombardment Group from Langley Field in Virginia, the family living at Wythe, Elizabeth City, when daughter, Mary Tyndall, was born in December 1929, at Fort Monroe Hospital.

Six months later on the night of July 15, 1930, on a solo flight in a Curtis P-1F Hawk bi-plane, he left Langley bound for Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas, where he had been assigned to study attack tactics. Encountering a dense fog while over North Carolina, he circled the Mooresville area for an hour trying desperately to find a landing area, to no avail. The plane eventually ran out of fuel and tragically crashed, killing Tyndall, one of the Army's best test pilots.

Lt. Frank B. Tyndall was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, Saturday, July 19, 1930, Section 7, Site 9040; father, Edward was in attendance. The City of Stuart honored Tyndall by flying the American flag at half-staff in the center of town in Flagler Park.

Lt. Bruce A. Tyndall married Eloise McKerall in Montgomery, Alabama, December 22, 1930 and by mid-1931, was a member of the staff of the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field.

On December 23, 1931 Lieutenant Tyndall volunteered to fly a friend, Private Walter N. Newborn, home to Memphis, Tennessee for Christmas furlough. While in flight, the A-3 Falcon began descending in dense fog as the plane's engine was misfiring and sputtering. Tyndall tried to make a forced landing, but was close to the ground near Pletcher, Autauga Co., Alabama and struck a large thicket. The biplane's right wings were ripped off by the trees, causing the plane to crash, killing Lt. Tyndall and Private Newborn.

The only surviving members of the Tyndall family of Sewall's Point and West Palm Beach were Edward and oldest son, Charles Theo. Edward C. Tyndall moved back to Martin County, returning to the Jensen-Waveland area where he had settled about forty years earlier in 1889. A daughter, Charlsie Mae, was born to Charles and wife, Eleanora, December 14, 1932. Edward died December 6, 1939 and was buried next to wife, Marion at Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach.

By 1935 Charles and family had moved from Jensen to West Palm Beach where he was a boat captain, mechanic and Eleanora, a teacher at a Riviera school. (Charles died in August 1968 in West Palm Beach. He remarried Barbara Esther Ryan after Eleanora's death in February 1965.)

Ten years after the death of Lt. Frank B. Tyndall, December 21, 1940, the U. S. War Department purchased a small peninsula, over 28,000 acres, 12 miles east of Panama City, Florida on which to build an Army Air Corps gunnery training facility. In 1941, newly elected, U. S. Congressman, Florida House Representative, Bob Sikes of Crestview proposed to the War Department that the military facility be named in honor of Florida native, Lt. Frank B. Tyndall.

Ground was broken for the training center May 5, 1941 and approval for the official name of Tyndall Army Air Field was granted on June 13, 1941, aka Tyndall Field. During the summer of '41, the swampy location was transformed into a first class installation.

The first fifty soldiers from Maxwell Field arrived in August 1941, serving as military police to protect the premises. Commander Colonel Warren A. Maxwell was aboard the first plane to land at the base in November, 1941, on a mile long concrete runway; the facility was an integral part of the nation's defense program.

On December 5 and 6, as many as 600 soldiers were transferred from Eglin Field Base in Okaloosa County, Florida to Tyndall Field. The official opening of the largest permanent air corps gunnery school in the United States was set for Sunday, December 7, 1941. Seventy-one barracks, warehouses, hospital units, water tanks, hangers and three state-of-the-art runways were all nearly ready for the expected 4,600 personnel: officers, gunnery students and enlisted soldiers.

Frank's family had been sent an invitation for the opening ceremony, but unfortunately did not receive it in time to attend the grand celebration with honored dignitaries, held at Tyndall Field that fateful morning of the 7th. It was not learned until later in the day of the horrendous, ghastly, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Those at the base as well as Panama City residents, however, felt a little more at ease knowing that the new training facility was already in place.

Forty gunnery students started training on February 23, 1942 and the first class graduated January 6, 1943. By June 3, '43, members of the Women's Army Corps arrived at Tyndall Field to assume non-technical positions on the base. Even students from Allied European and Asian nations were trained at Tyndall, as were celebrities such as Tyrone Power, Clark Gable, Glenn Davis and Ted Williams, all part of the war effort.

On January 13, 1948, a separate military branch, the United States Air Force, was created; the gunnery training facility at Panama City was renamed Tyndall Air Force Base.

Frank Tyndall's widow, Grace and daughter, Mary, have been honored guests at the base in years past. Grace died in October, 1999, but Mary is still a regular visitor to the Air Force facility that bears her father's name.

Tyndall Air Force Base and the tradition of honoring its namesake marked its 70th anniversary December 7, 2011, with special activities and ceremonies. As the base's 325th Fighter Wing is proud to say, they are 'Team Tyndall.'