- Samuel Thompson, leader of the first party to arrive in Dayton on April 1, 1796, died of drowning in the Mad River in 1827.
- Dayton’s first fatality by accident was John Davis in 1799. He was chopping ice from around the water wheel of Daniel Cooper’s corn cracker mill when the wheel suddenly started, sucking him under and subsequently crushing him to death.
- George Newcom, one of the best-known members of the first families in Dayton, built the first tavern in Dayton, which was also the first two story house, the first “seat of justice” and the social center of town. Church services were sometimes held in the tavern. Newcom also served for five years as the first sheriff of Dayton then eight years in the Ohio Senate.
- George’s brother William Newcom (Sara’s several times great grandfather) served in the War of 1812 and died as a result of exposure to cold weather.
Dayton Unknown 