Otto Hillig (1874–1954) lived most of his life in Liberty, New York, and gained fame as a photographer and transatlantic flier.
Besides his portraiture, he produced popular sets of picture postcards and tourist booklets, whose quality remains highly regarded.
[10] At Effingham College he met a fellow student, June H. Carr, who eventually became a respected photographer, in his own right.
[14] He once earned the nickname "The Flying Dutchman", years before any involvement with airplanes: It happened when he totalled a car in a burst of flames, after rendering it airborne, and he survived in one piece.
[16] When he returned, he entertained audiences with humorous talks about his exploits, and lobbied for Liberty to install modern, electrical street lighting, as adopted in other cities.
[17] In 1929, Hillig paid $9,000 for a seat on the flight of the Graf Zeppelin[18] around the globe, and drew the public's interest for his signing up.
For example, on June 24, 1931, Hillig and his pilot were on pace to be the first team of that flying season to leave Harbor Grace, Newfoundland.
[30] They ran out of gas on the flight over Germany, anyway, from having strayed off course in bad weather so, they had to land initially short of their objective, Denmark.
[31] About three years after that flight, and after invitations to give talks about it had become less frequent, Hillig began to have a castle built, with a turret.
Inspired by castles he'd seen in Germany, he had it "made entirely of (local) Neversink River stone, (and) nestled prominently on the top of Mount Washington", near Liberty.
[36] When Otto Hillig died, he bequeathed the whole property and the castle to the Masons, and left considerable funds to other local churches, as well.
[37] In November 1901, Hillig married Irish-born Margaret Withers in Welland, Ontario, Canada,[38] a town not far from Niagara Falls.
[42] Before that tragic event, in 1914, Otto's German niece, Elsa Hillig, arrived in New York alone by ship, at age 16.
[44] Occasionally, members of Elsa's family, which grew to include ten children, picnicked at Hillig's castle.
[53] After those active years, he did exactly what he promised in his various talks and articles in the 1930's about his flight: He returned to private life, doing his good work, helping out family, and contributing to community organizations.