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Yale-educated William E. Boeing (1881-1956) was the visionary behind Boeing Aircraft Corporation and the driving force for building the company in Washington state.

Down south we don't hitch our wagon to the first mule we see in the pasture. We southerners like to know the pedigree of those with whom we associate. Getting to know people is not only a southern mannerism, it's smart business. The name making a big splash down here is Boeing, and, fortunately for us, knowing Boeing is a lot easier than knowing the fellow from off to whom your niece is engaged.

As to family history, the Boeing name comes from the German surname Boing of Wilhelm Boing who emigrated from Hohemlimburg following the conclusion of the Seven Weeks War between Prussia and Austria in 1866. That war put Europe on notice that Prussian nationalism would be a force to contend with. Many Germans moved to America rather than face being caught up in the wars of German unification.

Hohenlimburg is a picturesque village on the north Rhine in Westphalia. Dusseldorf, Bonn, and Cologne are the cathedral cities of this historic area located near the Ruhr. The area was scorched by the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648, and was an Anabaptist stronghold before Martin Luther's reform teachings took hold there. Boing broke with a thousand generations of his family by coming over here.

Wilhelm Boing had connections but no money when he reached Detroit, and that was entree enough for the ambitious newcomer. Karl Ortmann, originally of Vienna, was the successful lumber merchant that Boing had been directed to look up once he arrived in Detroit. Boing made his reputation and his fortune mining taconite, a mineral used in making steel, but his early wealth was derived from being a timber baron with mineral rights in Michigan's Mesabi Range and Minnesota's Lake Superior coastline. Marrying Ortmann's daughter also helped the hustling immigrant from Hohenlimburg. There was a tremendous housing boom in the Midwest following the War Between The States and Boing made a fortune. With money from timber sales, Boing, who by this time had anglicized his name to Boeing, invested in taconite mines. Taconite strip mines located in Michigan's northern peninsula made many a Wall Street fortune -- including savvy New York investor Samuel J. Tilden, the Democrat's candidate who lost the contentious 1876 presidential election to Rutherford B. Hayes.

To say that son William Edward Boeing, the founder of Boeing Aircraft, was born with a silver spoon would be an understatement. He was one of the grandees of the Gilded Age. Young Boeing prepped at the elite Monte Rosa boarding school in Vevey, Switzerland, before entering Yale.

Though he departed Yale a year before taking his diploma, Boeing overlapped with other future greats while there: Reinhold Niebuhr, Averell Harriman, Cole Porter, and Robert Taft. The William E. Boeing who founded the company we Charlestonians are excited about forfeited a Yale diploma from the Sheffield School of Science with the quip, "I think the time is right to buy timber land."

The story of young Boeing's meteoric rise would be spectacular from this point on if not for the tragedy of his losing his father to the influenza epidemic in 1890. Boeing's inherited wealth was spent on great timber forests in Washington state, and the boy tycoon doubled his net worth even before he took up flying as a hobby!

Southerners are keen on knowing if their new acquaintances had any military association. Being partial to the martial tradition, Charlestonians will be delighted to know that Boeing is part of what Tom Brokaw calls "the greatest generation." Remember the B-17 "Flying Fortress"? Boeing Aircraft built almost two-thirds of the big bomber platform. Eighth Air Force headquartered in England during 1944 and '45 used B-17s almost exclusively to deliver Hitler's eviction notice. The rugged four-engine bomber served as late as 1968 in the Brazilian air force.

Regrettably, the war plane business has subsided of late for Boeing, but it's not for a lack of trying. News broke the other day that a new air refueling tanker that Boeing has a prototype for may be underbid by the Russians! Llyushin Aircraft Company may secure the bid for a key American military aircraft because our companies appear to be losing the global competitive edge -- something hard to believe considering the so-called "Airliner Wars" between Boeing and Airbus. We can spot Boeing's handiwork daily overhead in the C-17, however.

Will Boeing may have been nearsighted and of slight build, but he possessed the heart of a Teutonic when it came to barn-storming his Curtiss hydroplane around Seattle in 1914. Boeing and his Navy pilot friend, Lt. Conrad Westervelt, decided that they could design something better than the Curtiss.

Beginner's luck, maybe, but America's entry into World War I coincided with Boeing and Westervelt designing a highly maneuverable seaplane. The pontoons were built at the nearby University of Washington crew team shed. The War Department ordered 50 aircraft from Boeing, and from that order, Boeing has been in continual production.

In any introduction of strangers, the hometown crowd always wants to know if there have been any scandals or if any skeletons are hiding in the closet. Heaven knows that we have plenty of our own scandals to deal with. A 2006 Robert Weissman corporate review cites an incident of alleged bid-rigging: "[Boeing's] conduct was extraordinarily egregious; these were not failures to comply with arcane rules, but theft of a competitor's proprietary data to facilitate bid-rigging and a quid pro quo arrangement with a government contracting officer to facilitate a massive government overpayment for a weapons system of very questionable benefit."

Weissman continues, "Boeing is going to get off with payment to resolve civil claims and a $50 million 'monetary penalty.' Not a criminal penalty, mind you, because Boeing is not being charged with any crimes, nor acknowledging that it might have been, based on the evidence. The company gets to avoid the reputation harm of a criminal plea -- or even a criminal charge. . . ."

The downtown financial fellows can boast now of a local manufacturer whose stock is a major horse in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In fact, Boeing stock has had quite a run up in the past few months. For brains in the front office, Boeing boasts some high-flying directors -- John Biggs, former Chairman and CEO of TIAA-CREF; Ken Duberstein of the Duberstein Group; and William Daley, the Chairman of the Al Gore 2000 presidential bid.

Now that we know a little more of our new neighbors, I predict that Boeing will make for a good business partnership with the Lowcountry. Its corporate matching program for charitable giving is one of the best in the country -- and Southwest Airlines gives the high reliability of the Boeing product as one of Southwest's low cost ticket secrets. Welcome to Charleston, Boeing. You're a perfect fit for our southern style!

(Dr. Thomas B. Horton is a history teacher at Porter-Gaud School. He lives in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant. Visit his Web site at www.historyslostmoments.com.)