Have You Seen this Bench?
Category Archives: Cemeteries
Quick Dayton Stories
Sometimes while doing research for other stories (or for books), we come across interesting stories that aren’t long enough for a blog post but are still interesting! Here are a few:
-
- 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.”
Have You Seen this Bench?
Mabel Creager Barnes & Dwight L. Barnes
A 1991 Dayton Daily News article titled “Looking back at ‘hay’ days” highlighted a brief history of schools in the Kettering/Dayton area and a retired teacher named Mabel Creager Barnes.
Comparing the ages of local schools is a difficult task because the creation of early schools was an informal and often undocumented process. Schools were often one-room buildings established by ministers on church grounds.
The first school in the West Carrollton area was established in 1802 in Alexandersville, which is roughly where Woody’s Market on Dixie Drive stood. Dayton had a school district established by 1831. Miami Township is likely next given its proximity to the Great Miami River and the fact that settlements normally began near bodies of water. Area settlements began at Riverside and moved inland. The oldest settlements would have had the earliest schools. Van Buren Township School District was established June 24, 1841, when the township separated from Dayton.
Continue reading
Civil War Veteran John Deis
If you visit Calvary Cemetery, you will see the name John Deis carved into the base of a cannon in the soldiers’ section.
Deis was born in Baden, Germany on March 21, 1837, the oldest of five children to parents Philip and Franciska. They came to this country when John was 11. As soon as he was old enough to vote for president, John voted for Abraham Lincoln. Soon after that election, Lincoln called for volunteers for the Union Army. John immediately organized a company of men from the Dayton area then marched them to Fort Dennison, near Cincinnati. They enlisted and became Company M, First Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery with Deis as commander. He soon became 1st Sergeant and served until the end of 1864.
Deis’ military career included the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, Shiloh Corinth, Stone River, Atlanta, and Jonesboro, serving under Tecumseh, General Sherman, and William S. Rosecrans. John’s younger brother Philip had also joined but was unfortunately killed in Georgia during General Sherman’s March to the Sea.
When he returned to the war, he organized an officer’s club called the Old Grand Post #23, Grand Army of the Republic. He was Grand Marshall in many parades and took charge of Memorial Day. Deis helped to get the cannon erected in the soldier’s section of Calvary Cemetery. It was dedicated on May 30, 1901. His name was carved on the base as tribute.
John married Elizabeth Belm in 1861. Together they had 13 children with at least 6 living to adulthood. Deis was a member of The Knights of Columbus, St. John’s Society, and Holy Trinity Church. He also helped secure the site for St. Joseph’s Orphanage. John died in 1923 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in a family plot along with his brother Philip.
Henry Stansel
Henry Stansel was just 9 years old when the Revolutionary War started, but his family wasn’t too concerned. What was more concerning, were raids by the nearby Native Americans – but the Stansels often shared meals with the neighboring tribes, so they weren’t worried. Except one day in 1778, the Stansel boys discovered a group of Native Americans coming toward them from the woods all around them. The boys immediately tried to return to the settlement, but unfortunately one brother was shot, captured, and subsequently scalped.
Due to being slowed by an injured foot and shoes filled with water, Henry was captured by the Native Americans as they stole the horses from the settlement. Henry’s clothes were stripped from him, and he was forced to run through the trees while trying to keep up with the Native Americans on the stolen horses. When they finally stopped to camp, Henry was bound and tormented by his captors, as they callously showed him the scalp of his brother William. During his captivity, Henry was subjected to torture with the other prisoners, forced to run painful gauntlets and beatings.
Continue reading
Five Tiny Cemeteries in Beavercreek
Driving around town, you may be stopped at a stoplight and glance over and be surprised to see a few old gravestones in a tiny cemetery. There are five of these tucked away in Beavercreek.
Sunnyside Cemetery:
- Located on North Fairfield Road, just north of Kemp Road.
- On the site of old Mount Pisgah German Reformed Church, which held services as early as 1809.
- The cemetery is also known as Old Pisgah Cemetery.
- The land was owned by Jonathan Harshman.
- The earliest known burial was John Helmer in 1823.
- Surnames of Cyphers, Goldshot, Harshman, Howett, Koogler, Reigelsperger, Sensenbaugh, Swigert, and Trubee are found on the gravestones.
- The last known burial was in 1957.
Johnny Morehouse
If you ask any research author what the bane of their existence is, it’s when they publish their research on any topic just to find more information after publishing.In 2014 Dayton Unknown posted a story about Johnny Morehouse, and over the years we’ve gathered much more information about both his life and afterlife.
John Newton Morehouse, Jr. (known as Johnny) was born in 1855, the younger son of John Newton Morehouse, Sr., and Mary Margaret (Browning) Morehouse. John and Mary were married December 23, 1851. John Sr. was a shoe cobbler and the family lived in the back of their shoe repair store. By the time of Johnny’s death on August 14, 1860, John Sr. was divorced from Mary and married to Barbara, his second wife.
Peter Sunderland
Samuel Spencer born on April 14th, 1698 in Yorkshire England. Born to the 3rd Earl of Sunderland Charles and his commoner wife Judith, Samuel was not entitled to any inheritance or title due to his mother’s status. This led Samuel and his family to immigrate to the United States in 1737 with his children, including son William. The family all took on the surname Sunderland upon their arrival in the United States. In 1770, William Sunderland married Sarah Barraclough in Burlington County, New Jersey. William and Sarah eventually came to Ohio in 1795 along with their 18-year-old son, Peter.
Peter went on to live a storied life in Centerville.
- In 1799, Peter Sunderland married Nancy Robbins, the daughter of one of Centerville’s founders, Benjamin Robbins in what was the first wedding ceremony to be performed in Washington Township.
- In 1802, Peter and his brother Richard bore witness to the first will filed in Montgomery County.
- In 1803, Peter was the defendant/perpetrator in the first court case in Montgomery County, for assault and battery on a man named Benjamin Scott. The case was held on the upper floor of Newcom’s Tavern. He pled guilt and was fined $6. A year later Scott and Sunderland were back in court, but this time Scott was convicted.
- Sunderland served in the War of 1812.
- Around 1820, a stone house was built on Alex-Bell Road (where Fortis College and Cross Pointe Shopping Center are now). The house had a secret hiding place which was used as part of the Underground Railroad.
- In 1826, a slave from Kentucky known as “Black John” took refuge in the Sunderland house. When a group of men came to “reclaim” John, Peter threatened them and yelled for Black John to escape. Black John ran into the nearby woods and disappeared.
- After hearing a rumor of an Indian uprising, Peter built a large stone springhouse on his property to protect the area. When the land was being cleared in the early 1980s for development, the spring house was rediscovered and subsequently dismantled and reassembled in Stubb’s Park.
Peter Sunderland died October 2, 1841 at the age of 67 years old. He is buried in the Sugar Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Centerville along with his father, mother, and wife.
Allistair Dunn
Allistair Dunn was born April 21, 1921 in Scotland. When he was five, his family emigrated to Detroit, Michigan, where he grew up and attended school. After graduation, Al enlisted in the Army Air Corps in the beginning of WWII. He performed as a radio operator in a B-29, flying in 128 missions and twice receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross.
After being discharged, he returned to Detroit and his job at Ford Motor Company. He met with Marilyn, who he met as a teenager, and they married and had four children. He graduated in 1951 with a BS in Industrial Management.
Al moved his family to Dayton in 1964 so he could become President of Master Consolidated, a Division of Koehring Corporation. Later, Miami Valley Hospital Board Chairman Fred Smith asked Al to join the MVH board as a trustee. Fred felt Al could lead MVH to the next level as a leading healthcare organization in the region. After joining the board, Al became instrumental in creating the Care Flight air medical transportation program.
Al used his knowledge of the air ambulance programs used during the Vietnam and Korean wars and how many lives they saved. He had read studies that showed the higher probability of survival if they get to the hospital within sixty minutes of trauma or injury. In 1983, Miami Valley Hospital became the first air medical program in the region and the 65th civilian air ambulance in the nation.
Continue reading
Dayton Unknown 