20,000 Feet Above Poughkeepsie on the 4th of July: Female Aeronaut Nellie Thurston

By Bill Kleppel

“How many ascensions have you made, Miss Thurston?”

“This will be my 22^nd.”

“The wind is blowing pretty hard.”

“Well, rather, but it will do no harm.”

A Poughkeepsie Eagle reporter asked these questions to Miss Nellie Thurston in the morning of July 4, 1871. She’d flown in tandem flights with others before, but this would be her first solo effort.

In fact, later that afternoon, Miss Thurston would become the first woman in United States history to make a solo ascension in a balloon. She would lift off from Eastman Park in Poughkeepsie.

Nellie Thurston was born Ellen Moss in Troy, New York, in 1846. From the years 1864 to 1867 she was married to the famous aeronaut John LaMountain. LaMountain, also from Troy, gained fame in the Union Army’s Balloon Corp during the Civil War, making several reconnaissance missions over battlefield sites.

Ellen picked up an avid passion for flight at a very young age, before the war began. Her first experiences in the sky were with her father’s second cousin…. John LaMountain (16 years her senior). One of several detailed accounts of them flying together during those early years occurred in September of 1858 over Troy when Ellen was 12-years-old.

Nellie was known as “Miss Ellen Moss” even after the couple married. John died in February of 1870 from injuries sustained in a balloon crash in South Bend, Indiana. Nellie created the professional name “Nellie Thurston” after their marriage and the subsequent death of John.

Another young person under the tutelage of John LaMountain was Herman D. Squire. The very talented and diligent Squire made a name for himself in the commercial business of ballooning. Nellie and Squire met during their years with LaMountain and eventually married in 1872.

Poughkeepsie’s 1871 Independence Day festivities brought over 10,000 people to Eastman Park. The immense airships took hours to fill while onlookers watched. The thousands of attendees were in much more danger than they realized. Victorian-era balloons weren’t filled with hot air, but hydrogen. The gas was created through a process that utilized iron fillings, sulfuric acid, and limestone.

Mayor Eastman kicked off the celebration at noon with a rousing speech about prosperity and peace in the country, as well as the pride he felt for his city. The people were entertained by John Flockton’s Poughkeepsie Cornet Band. Others enjoyed picnicking throughout the grounds, while local dignitaries occasionally made speeches from the large grandstand. There were games and contests like sack and tub races, and attempts to climb a tall, greased pole (who needs a cell phone when you can try getting to the top of a greased pole!).

At 5pm, Mayor Eastman announced that the two balloons were about to ascend. Professor Herman D. Squire would navigate the balloon “Atlantic,” while Nellie Thurston would take off on the new airship “Golden Gate.”

The Eagle reporter claimed that, “…all eyes were on the lady, who was small in stature and prepossessing in appearance.” Nellie was, “… attired in a light suit, a jaunty jockey, and blue kids, dressed as though for an afternoon’s promenade.” He continued, “At the given signal, both balloonists left the Earth to wild cheering and ascended to the realms above.”

At first, Prof. Squire’s Atlantic lifted rapidly past Thurston’s Golden Gate. Then Nellie was seen tossing over many bags of sand, which accelerated her ascent past Squire and eventually above the clouds.

In a later interview, Squire asked Thurston, “What made you throw out so much sand?”

Nellie’s response? “Why I saw you going for the clouds and I didn’t want you to get ahead of me; I didn’t want you to beat me.”

She sailed skyward at 40 miles per hour. So fast, in fact, that her fingers began to get numb with cold and “…my head seemed as large as a drum, and it seemed as though my ears were stuffed with cotton.” Nellie began to feel dizzy and tired, so she decided to go no higher. It was presumed she’d reached the height of 20,000 feet during this voyage.

Her view of the City of Poughkeepsie and the clouds below her was, “grand beyond description.” For Nellie to make her descent, she wound a “valve rope” around her waist and threw her body to the bottom of her basket to open the valve. She drifted away from the city to the north, eventually landing in a field between Staatsburg and Rhinebeck.

Nellie had difficulty with her landing, bouncing three times before the balloon struck a stone wall. She was approached by a Mr. DeGroff and his dog. DeGroff, in a Celtic accent asked, “Are ye there me darlin?” Nellie began to laugh and told him she might want to go up again. He answered, “Yees are a bigger fool nor I thought yees were.” Considering the time, Nellie stayed with DeGroff’s family in Staatsburg for the night, before returning to the Poughkeepsie Hotel the next morning.

The Independence Day celebration didn’t end with the balloon ascensions. A grand fireworks show proceeded at 7:30. The crowds then left Eastman Park and filled the streets for a night on the town. Special trains departed from the Poughkeepsie Railroad Station at 10:30. “Every car was loaded to the utmost capacity.” The Poughkeepsie Eagle credited Mayor Eastman for the day’s tremendous success. “He was ubiquitous and wherever enjoyment waned he appeared and started things lively again.”

Both visiting aeronauts were commended for their “magnificent balloon entertainment.” In conclusion, the Eagle claimed them, “great favorites here, and we hope to see them again.”

Herman Squire and Nellie Thurston married the next year and remained so until Herman’s death in 1911. Nellie died in 1932 in Oneida County, New York, at the age of 85.

References

• “The Glorious Fourth.” Com, Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 6 July 1871, www.newspapers.com/image/114060762/.
• “Sketch of Miss Thurston’s Life.” Com, Rome Daily Sentinel, 27 June 1884, www.newspapers.com/image/1125301350/.
• “4th of July Celebration!” Com, Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 1 July 1871, www.newspapers.com/image/114060314/.
• Sparling, Reed. How a Pioneering Woman Aeronaut Shattered Limits from the Hudson Valley - Scenic Hudson, Scenic Hudson Inc., www.scenichudson.org/viewfinder/how-a-pioneering-woman-aeronaut-shattered-limits-from-the-hudson-valley/. Accessed 24 June 2026.
• “Excursion Per Balloon.” Com, The Pittsfield Sun, 9 Sept. 1858, www.newspapers.com/image/532032504/.
• Quarstein, John V. Up, up and Away: Civil War Ballooning in Hampton Roads - the Mariners’ Museum and Park, The Mariners Museum and Park, 12 Nov. 2020, www.marinersmuseum.org/2020/11/up-up-and-away-civil-war-ballooning-in-hampton-roads/.
• Callahan, Cloey. Move over, Amelia Earhart. Meet NY’s First Aeronaut., Times Union, 1 Sept. 2021, www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/outdoors/article/ballooning-nellie-thurston-poughkeepsie-16413978.php.
• Portrait of Balloonist Herman D. Squire, Jeffrey Kraus, antiquephotographicscollections.com/. Accessed 24 June 2026.
• View of Balloon Ascension; Poughkeepsie, NY; the Balloon Atlantic, Jeffrey Kraus, antiquephotographicscollections.com/. Accessed 24 June 2026.
• “Nellie C. Moss Squire.” Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com/. Accessed 24 June 2026.