Meredith holds a Bachelors in Special Education from Ball State, a Masters in English from University of Dayton, and a PhD from Texas Tech in English/Creative Writing. She lives in Dayton where she is a principal lecturer of creative writing, literature, and composition at UD. She is a member of the Golden Crown Literary Society, Sisters in Crime, and Mystery Writers of America. She also serves as a board member of Mystery Writers of American Midwest Region.
Another Wright Brother Bench has been Found!
Huffman Prairie & Simms Station
Local Author C. L. Pauwel
Her novel, Forty & Out, takes place in Toledo where a serial killer has been targeting women on their 40th birthday. The book follows the newly assigned homicide detective as she tries to prevent the body count from increasing. Her desire to solve the case heightens as the killer targets the detective’s sister.
Some of CL Pauwels other works include:
- Unwelcome Ties
- Burned Bridges
- “One Sadistic Muse.” Mock Turtle ‘zine. (Dayton, OH). Fall 2013. (27).
- “Popcorn Memories.” Flights. Dayton, OH: Sinclair Community College, Fall 2015.
- “When I’m 64.” Hags on Fire, Winter Solstice 2022
Quick Dayton Stories
-
- December 1946 – Police rushed to the scene after a woman reporting a freshly dug grave near her home. The grave was adorned with a large floral display. Deputy Sheriff Ben Brown dug for several minutes before finding a large box tied with a fancy ribbon. The scene was silent as the Deputy Sheriff lifted the box from the ground and untied the ribbon to see a large silk handkerchief inside. In it, he found a dead canary.
- March 1802 (reported December 1802) – While Jonathan Dayton attended a session of Congress in Washington DC, he had an experience of “Spontaneous Combustion”. While undressing himself at bedtime, Dayton removed a pair of silk stockings he wore over a pair of woolen stockings. He dropped the silk stockings onto a woolen carpet near the side of the bed. One of his garters fell down with the silk stockings. The white woolen stockings were tossed farther away, near the foot of the bed. Dayton noticed a bit of sparking when he separated the silk stockings from the wool ones, which he gave no mind, since he had seen that before. He slept through the night as normal. In the morning a servant entered in the morning to kindle the fire, waking Dayton. Dayton then noticed his silk stockings were a brown color and one of his leather slippers was burnt. The garter that fell next to the silk stocking was charred but intact. Upon closer examination, the leather slipper and the garter only were burnt in the parts that had been in contact with the silk stockings. Both Dayton and the servant attending him noted there were no candles burning in the room and the fireplace was at least 9 feet away and burning low. Based on the evidence, they concluded it was spontaneous combustion.
- September 1997 – A plain pine box with the skeletal remains of at least two early Daytonians, buried in St Henry Cemetery in the late 1800s, was laid to rest during a service and burial at Calvary Cemetery. Workers found the bones while laying a sewer line for the Miami Valley Hospital’s new Emergency and Surgery Complex. Cemetery Superintendent Rick Meade provided green carpeting and a red tent, hospital carpenters made the pine box, and Miami Valley sent a pot of mums for the service. The land had been the site of St Henry’s Catholic Cemetery. The city of Dayton had grown around St Henry’s, leaving it with no room to expand. The cemetery hit hard times, unable to keep up with maintenance. That’s when the trustees decided to sell the cemetery and move the bodies to Calvary. Roughly 6,000 bodies were moved from St Henry to Calvary, and 4,013 were unclaimed. The unclaimed were buried in a mass grave at Calvary Cemetery where the Memorial Chapel stands. The chapel was built from funds derived from the sale of St Henry and dedicated to the unclaimed souls. The Memorial Chapel was dedicated on All Souls Day, November 2, 1902. In the service provided for the reinterred, Rev. Richard Knuge, chaplain at Miami Valley Hospital, read “We commend these remains to the Lord, that the Lord may embrace them in peace and raise up their bodies on the last day”, from the Roman Ritual, Order of Christian Funerals. “We are dust and into dust we shall return. Blessed is the Lord.”
Sara’s Third Book is Out!
The Grave at UD
The Founder of the Society of Mary, Father Leo Meyer, came from Alsace to Cincinnati to serve as a missionary in 1949. He found the area in the midst of a cholera epidemic and volunteered to help. The next year he was sent by the Bishop to Dayton to serve at Emmanuel Church, where he met John Stuart.
Stuart owned 125 acres of farmland in the Southeastern section of Dayton. Stuart had come from Scotland and wanted to return, and Father Meyer wanted to establish a colony of Marianists. The two negotiated and made a deal. Stuart would give the land to Father Meyer and allow him to pay back when he could, and Father Meyer would give him his St Joseph Medal as collateral. It took twenty years to pay the debt and get back the medal.
Mary Stuart, infant daughter of John, was buried in St Henry Catholic Cemetery, on Main Street near Ashley and Frank Streets. When St Henry was sold and the bodies exhumed, Father Meyer moved Mary and her monument to the UD Campus in order to fulfill his promise to John Stuart that he would always care for the child’s grave. When the Marianist cemetery was established in the present location, Mary’s grave was moved along with the rest. Stewart Street is named for the Stuart family, but the name was misspelled.
K12 Gallery and Tejas
One avenue of community engagement is introducing the healing power of arts to low-income students, youth on probation, adults with disabilities, and survivors of domestic violence. K12 Gallery & TEJAS continues to organize public art projects to further reach the community.
For information on art classes at K12 & TEJAS, please visit their website at: https://k12tejasgallery.org
Murder in Victorian Dayton: The Tragic Story of Bessie Little
Dayton Unknown 