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John T. Ferris, Sr. was the youngest of seven children, and studied at the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Institute_of_Chicago Chicago Art Institute], where two of his sisters, Mary and Reubey, served as instructors prior to his attendance, and also were among the first women to hold an art exhibition in China. Mary Lydia Ferris (b. 1887 Grand Rapids, MI - d. 1974 Pearblossom, Los Angeles, CA) married Dr. Alfred Hjalmar Swan (b. 1883 Omaha, [[Nebraska|NE]] - d. 1959 Los Angeles, CA), who was a medical doctor, and was served as a Secretary and Physical Director for the YMCA starting in 1912-1921 in China, as well as in Japan and Hong Kong. Reubey Statira Ferris (b. 1886 Grand Rapids, MI - d. 1955 Stevens Point, Portage, [[Wisconsin|WI]]) married Harlo Hakes Ferris, Sr. (b. 1886 Whitewater, Walworth, WI - d. 1983 Wild Rose, Waushara, WI) in Bombay, India in 1919, where he was serving as Secretary of the Madison St. YMCA (in NYC), and a chaplain for the British Forces. Dr. Ferris was also a Congregational pastor, with his last pastorate of nine years at a community church in Hancock, WI.
John also served with the Coast Guard during WWI (1917-1919), commissioned on a destroyer in the Mediterranean. He earned the rank of Quartermaster on the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USRC_Yamacraw_(1909) USRC Yamacraw]. According to the wiki for the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USRC_Yamacraw_(1909) Yamacraw], "She served as a patrol vessel in the Chesapeake Bay to Nantucket Shoals area until called for convoy duty to Europe. During convoy missions escorting merchant vessels she performed a rescue, saving four survivors of a torpedo attack. On escort duty Yamacraw cruised over 36,000 miles."
In 1922, John married Charlotte C. Geyer in Orange, [[New Jersey]], her parents later resided in Quakertown, Bucks, [[Pennsylvania|PA]]. Dr. Franklin "Boyd" Edwards (b. 1876 Lisle, N.Y. - d. 1944 Arlington, Bennington, [[Vermont|VT]]) officiated the wedding, who later (1922-1928) served as the 5th headmaster of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hill_School The Hill School] for boys in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Edwards was a descendant of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a gggg-grandson.
Their son John T. Ferris Jr. was born in Detroit (1924), but shortly afterwards the family relocated to Dearborn, then to Bloomfield, N.J., then to Harrisburg, PA where the elder John was working as an architect on state government buildings, then back to New York to assist with the design of the double-decked suspension George Washington Bridge, which was opened in 1931, and connects Washington Heights, Manhattan, N.Y. with Fort Lee, N.J. That bridge was the longest main bridge span in the world until the Golden Gate Bridge was opened in 1937, according to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Bridge GWB wiki]. His base for employment in New York was at the [https://www.rockefellercenter.com/ Rockefeller Plaza].
John, Sr. served as an elder at (OB) [https://www.bethanyyonkers.org/ Bethany Chapel] (1904-present) in Yonkers, [[New York]], and designed its structure built in 1938.
Then the family relocated within Westchester County to Crestwood, N.Y., then to Ardsley, N.Y. thru part of John's high school years, then to Hastings-on-the-Hudson where he served three years as captain of the baseball team, and a catcher, coached by Cochrane, who also oversaw the football team where John served as a center. Switzer, the math teacher also served as an assistant coach, he and John attempted to start a hockey team, he also played tennis. John applied to the U.S. Navy while a Senior at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_High_School_(New_York) Hastings High School] in New York but his hay fever kept him from the Navy, so he applied for and was accepted in the Army Air Corps, which he was sent to basic training right after graduating, a week after Mother's Day in 1943, to a week of basic training at Atlantic City, N.J., then to the University of Vermont in Burlington for academics and ten hours of flying time on Piper Cubs, then for a few weeks in the summer at the 526th AAF Base Unit, the Aviation Cadet Classification Center in Nashville, TN.
His primary flight training was at DAR Aerotech in Albany, GA on a Stearman Boeing PT-17 for a couple months, trained by a civilian named Mr. Casler, a GM executive who enjoyed flying and put aside his career to train war pilots. Then he went to Greenwood, MS (two hours south of Memphis) for [https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Greenwood%E2%80%93Leflore_Airport basic flying school], then to Napier Field in Dothan, AL to fly T-6's in training as a fighter pilot. While in Dothan, but he was instead involved with a local Baptist church. Then home for a month of furlough, then to Courtland, AL to await being assigned as a bomber fighter pilot, but he and his crew was assigned as bombers instead, and sent to Harlingen, TX. In the Fall of 1944, he transferred near Springfield, MA to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westover_Air_Reserve_Base Westover Field] to train on flying B-24'swith Pratt & Whitney engines, then he was transferred in April of 1945 from West Virginia by ship to Naples, Italy, and stationed in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecce Lecce], Italythe first base to close as the War wound down, after they finished the fifteen missions. A good friend, Steven Drost, from the Yonkers Chapel with the 8th Air Force lost his life when his plane was hit by another plane shot down.
His first and thirteenth combat mission was missions were the toughest ones, in Vienna , then Lenz, Austra with the 98th Bomb Group , 415th Squadron, the latter started on March 22, 1945, with several B-24's in groups of threes, and the first two groups were shot downon the 31st of March, and he flew the lead plane in the third group which was spared. Those killed included:* 2LT William Fowlkes (Terre Haute, IN)* FO Glenn Day (Wilmington, IN)* 2LT Charles Roe (Memphis, TN)* 2LT John E. Mentzer (Lowellville, OH) Ultimately he did fifteen aeronautic bomb runs out of Italy. Then he flew two missions with the 465th Bomb Group in the 780th Squadron, with a base in Pantanella, Italy, before WWII ended, his last mission was April 25, 1945. He served 22 more years, being recalled and restationed throughout the world including the Korean Conflict, and was stationed in Germany until 1952-1954 where he served as an instructor in Oxford, [[Ohio]] at [https://miamioh.edu/ Miami University], and was then an early instructor in Montgomery, [[Alabama]] 1954-1961 at [https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/ Air University] on Maxwell Air Force Base, then served in the Vietnam War, being eventually honorably discharged in 1968 as a Major. He initially developed an interest in flying, inspired by Charles Lindbergh when he was a child, who he had opportunity to meet in 1949 in the 36th Fighter Wing, he was good friends with their wing commander.
After WWII ended, he attended Colgate College in 1946, and on Sept. 10 of that year at Taylor, [[Texas]], John married Betty Annette Allgood (b. 1924 Plainview, Hale, TX), a daughter of Henry Arnold Allgood (b. 1900 Forestburg/Stoneburg, TX - d. 1984 Jasper, TX) & Lucile Ballard Allgood (b. 1898 Killeen, TX - d. 1982 Tulia, Swisher, TX). At the time of Annette's birth, Henry was employed in Lockney, TX as a teacher. In the latter part of 1946, John Sr. and his wife Charlotte tired of NYC life, and removed to upstate New York, to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva,_New_York Geneva].
=Also See=
* [[Messages of Love in New_York]] & [[Messages of Love Around the Globe]]
* [https://voicesforchrist.org/speakers/show/95 John T. Ferris' Voices for Christ sermons] & [https://vimeo.com/showcase/4083292 2011 Interviews with John T. Ferris] & [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV5kvFPheP8 Andrew Pierce Fancher's interview]
* [[Iowa history]], [[New York history]].
* Well known people with the surname [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_(name) Ferris].
* [https://www.ancestry.com Ancestry.com]
* [https://bibletruthpublishers.com/messages-of-love-may-14-1905-1905-original-pdfs/messages-of-gods-love/la98747 Messages of God's Love] 1904-1905
* [https://vimeo.com/showcase/4083292 2011 Interviews with John T. Ferris]