Red House

 

Ida Holdgreve was born in Delphos, Ohio in 1881. In 1910, Ida moved to Dayton and began looking for work. She saw an ad in the paper that read, "Plain Sewing Wanted". Plain sewing was a common term a hundred years ago. It referred to fundamental skills, such as those that would be needed to repair clothing or household linens. Ida was an excellent seamstress, so she answered the ad. But the newspaper had messed up. The ad was supposed to say, "Plane Sewing Wanted" for Orville and Wilbur Wright. Ida became head seamstress at the Wright Brothers Airplane Factory, sewing covers for fuselages, wings and rudders. The fabric she stitched had to fit the frame exactly, stretched tightly so it wouldn’t rip in the wind. When there were accidents, Ida was required to help with the repairs. Despite her work with airplanes Ida did not take her first airplane ride until 1969 at age of eight-eight.