On September 4, 1937, Aeronca K, NC19723, s/n K-244, left the factory with and Aeronca E-113C engine, s/n A-1498. It was equipped with 18x8x3 tires, nav. lights, left side door, brakes, and a tailwheel (all of which were options in those days) and went directly to Municie Aviation Corporation, Indiana. It was at Muncie Aviation only six months when it was sold to Lawrence I. Aretz at the Purdue University airport on February 26, 1938. Three and a half months later it was involved in an accident and was sold back to Muncie Aviation where it was repaired.

On January 20, 1940, it was sold to Irvin W. Zinn or Marion, Indiana. Mr. Zinn flew it for over two years and sold it to Walter J. Norkus Jr. Mr Norkus had the plane for only six months and sold it to Lloyd P. Bushby and Falvey C. Lytle as joint owners on October 27, 1942. A year and a half the joint ownership was dissolved and Falvey became the sole owner. During the time Bushby and Favey owned the plane it was found that the lower rear longerons and lower tailpost had rusted so badly that they had to be replaced. The plane was also completely recovered and returned to service on May 16, 1944. On August 26, 1944 the plane was sold to Clayton Howe and Earl P. Johnson. After only two and a half months the partnership dissolved and Earl P. Johnson became the sole owner. Mr. Johnson owned the airplane until July 25, 1949, when it was sold to Houseman Aircraft Parts of Wayland, Michigan, to be parted out. So now after changing hands ten times in twelve years it looked like the end of NC19723.

Remember, it is now 1949 and the Aeronca Corporation’s legal responsibility for supplying parts had long passed. The idea of a plane in every garage had not materialized and airplane companies had already started to fold. There was near zero demand for a 40-hp plane, so why was Herm Houseman buying all the Aeronca K airplanes he could find? Herm was an entrepreneur who foresaw a demand for Aeronca engine parts. In 1945 he had made a deal with Aeronca that they would sell him all their remaining inventory of Aeronca engine parts if he would answer inquires for service parts that came to Aeronca. You soon began to see his ads in Trade-A-Plane. There were 357 Aeronca K models built with Aeronca engines and well over 400 C-2 and C-3 models with the same basic E-113 series Aeronca engine. As you probably guessed, Herm was buying the Aeronca planes for the used engine parts to go along with his new parts inventory.

During the years from 1946 to 1949 I was attending what was then Western Michigan College and taking all my elective courses in the Aeronautical Department which was running and A&E program. It was there that I first remember meeting Herm Houseman. Herm would bring items in for the school to rebuild which gave the future mechanics a chance to work on the real thing and at the same time Herm got first-class work for only the cost of supplies.

After graduating in 1949, I finally saved up enough money by 1953 to buy my first airplane – a Razorback Aeronca C-3, NC13886 for $400. Within a year I had made a forced landing on the Lapeer Michigan, airport due to an engine failure. I called my wife, made arrangements to leave the airframe at Lapeer and had the engine off and waiting by the time my wife arrived from Royal Oak. Naturally I went to Houseman Aircraft Parts for the needed engine parts. Herm had just made a deal with Beech to acquire a large inventory of Staggerwing parts and needed room to store some eighty wing panels and other Staggerwing parts. He could sell a Staggerwing landing gear motor for more than a complete Aeronca E-113 series engine. Before I left that day we had struck an agreement for me to buy his complete Aeronca engine inventory if my dear wife agreed.

A few days later I showed up with a pick-up truck and a trailer. Herm’s first words were "How are you going to get these Aeronca K airplanes and all twenty of these Aeronca engines and parts into a pick-up truck and trailer? I told you I’m desperate for space and unless you take the airplanes the deal is off." I had grown up in the small town of Olivet, only a few miles away, so I got by boyhood friend Burton Vandyke from Olivet to come to Houseman Aircraft Parts with his dump truck and bulldozer trailer and haul all the airframes to Olivet for storage in a barn, while I took all the engines home to Royal Oak with me. Now I owned NC19723, which was one of the six Aeronca Ks, and had engine parts in the attic, under the bed and in the closets.

For many years I had no worries about not having parts for my C-3 engine. Because it was a Razorback model without cabin enclosure I would fly it to Godrich, Ontario, for winter storage. One winter the hangar burned to the ground, but I continued to help C-3 and K owners with parts until 1977 when I sold one of the original six K’s with all remaining engine parts and K airframes to Andy Anderson out in Missouri. I had sold NC19723 without an engine around 1969 to Dick Stofflet, but with the understanding that if Dick ever got it restored I would sell him an engine. As it turned out, Dick did find an engine but he never restored the plane. NC19723 went through several owners over the years. Each time it was moved a little more damage was incurred, as you might expect.

Around 1985 I received a call from a Dave Seeley, who was now the owner of NC19723. Dave was in need of money and was making an offer that was hard to refuse if you were a K lover and had a teenage soon saying, "Yes, Dad buy it and we’ll restore it." I retired from Chrysler Corporation in 1987. By then my son was off to college, but I started the restoration of NC19723 from the ground up and my son helped me whenever he could. When I applied for a permanent Airworthy Certificate I was informed by the FAA that I was still on the books as the owner of NC19723 as of 1966 when I had made application for ownership of all six K airplanes that I had acquired from Houseman Aircraft Parts. As it turned out, Houseman had never applied for ownership of any of the Ks so it took me until 1966 to track down all the owner of the FAA records and get bills of sale which they all gave me as "free gifts" because they were so happy to know what had happened to their old planes. Some even came to visit. So I have had NC19723 in my possession for most of the last forty years even though I have only offically owned it since 1966.