Departures of note

On September 26, 1901, during a balloon race at the Allen County fair in Lima, Ohio, Professor Zeno, born Paul Leslie Hauge, drowned in the city reservoir after his parachute lines became tangled. He had called for help as he descended, but the large canvas settled over him in the water. Charles M. Hawley, a fellow aeronaut who had landed nearby, ran to assist and, with others, built a crude raft to reach him, but resuscitation efforts failed. His body was taken to the morgue, where hundreds came to view it.

Zeno was a professional aeronaut known for suspending from a trapeze below a parachute attached to a hot air balloon, then cutting loose to float to the ground. He also performed a balloon cannon act, being shot from a cannon suspended from a balloon while wearing a parachute. Born in St. Clairsville, Ohio, in 1875, he joined the circus at an early age and performed with companies such as O'Brian's Balloon and Trapeze show, Stowe's Circus, and the American Balloon Company, often partnering with other performers.

His career included numerous ascensions across the country, some marked by mishaps: in 1890 he landed in a river and was rescued by a skiff; in 1891 his balloon caught fire; and in 1899 his partner Charles Collins broke his back and died. In June 1901, his new wife broke both legs in an accident in Springfield, Ohio. Zeno had been married twice, his second marriage only a few weeks before his death.

After his death, his father and wife agreed he should be buried in Lima. John Knarr, the fair's aeronaut director, paid for the body's preparation and a viewing room. The widow, who arrived by train, showed what Knarr described as a 'cold, calm indifference' and left for Canada after the funeral. The Lima Fair Board paid for a plot in Woodlawn Cemetery, where Zeno was buried on September 30, 1901.