On May 23, 1919, Dr. Frank A. Brewster of Beaver City and pilot Wade Stevens flew to Herndon, Kansas, where Brewster performed emergency surgery that saved an injured man’s life. The flight drew worldwide attention, and Brewster was regarded as perhaps the first physician to use an airplane for professional purposes. His aircraft was a Curtiss JN-4D “Jenny,” purchased only a few weeks earlier, and his nearby airstrip and hangar were among Nebraska’s first private airports. As one of the few surgeons serving a large area of Nebraska and Kansas, Brewster quickly adopted time-saving innovations, including buying Furnas County’s first automobile in 1906. Persistent bad roads led him to use an airplane in his medical work, and after moving to Holdrege, Nebraska, he regularly flew to visit the several hospitals he had built across the two-state region. At age 71 he earned his own pilot’s license and remained an active flier until his death at 89 in 1961.