Category Archives: Dayton Fun Facts

Local Street Names – Part 4

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Curious about the names of streets around Dayton? Here’s a few namesakes:

  • Eaker Street: Mary Belle Eaker, a local philanthropist who gave her home to the YMCA.

  • Gummer Avenue: named for Henry R. Gummer, a co-founder of the Gem City Stove Company.

  • Gunckel: named after Lewis B. Gunckel, a politician, congressman, and attorney.

  • Harries Street: J. W. Harries, a local brewer.

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Dayton Inventions – Part 2

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It’s that time again! Dayton is known for the airplane and the cash register, but there are so many more inventions that came from our great city:

  • Electric Cash Register – John H. Patterson, 1906.

  • Custer Invalid Chair – Levitt Luzern Custer, battery-powered in 1919, gasoline-powered in 1939.

  • Night Photography – Brigadier General George Goddard, 1926.

  • Freon Refrigerant – Thomas Midgley Jr., 1928.

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CareFlight

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CareFlight’s history in Dayton has personal meaning to Dayton Unknown.

In 2003, after a serious car accident, I(Sara) was transported via CareFlight to Miami Valley Hospital. Although I don’t remember the flight or many of the details of that night, I was able to formally meet the pilot, Wade, and the CareFlight Nurse, Cathy at the 20th anniversary celebration of Careflight in September of 2003, just one month after our first encounter.

SKMCareFlight

Sara with CareFlight Nurse, Cathy and Pilot Wyatt.

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Fun Facts about Dayton – Part 3

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Here’s some more fun facts about Dayton we’ve learned during our research:

  •  The Private Fair statue on Main Street just south of Monument Avenue in downtown was almost a statue of the Goddess of Liberty, but ex-Civil War soldiers protested, and requested the goddess instead be a statue of a soldier. Private George Washington Fair of Dayton was the model for the statue, which was erected in 1884 – the original location at the intersection of Main and Monument.

  • The statue of President McKinley in Cooper Park (behind the Dayton Library on Third Street and St. Clair) was built from funds raised and donated by local schoolchildren.

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Local Street Names – Part 3

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Time for more Dayton street name origins!

  • Ashley Street: Ashley Brown, son-in-law of Colonel Robert Patterson.

  • Schantz Road: Named for Adam Schantz, local brewer.

  • Spinning Road: Isaac Spinning, a Colonel in the Revolutionary War, and a judge in Dayton.

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Ay Caramba! Nancy Cartwright – the Voice of Kettering

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If you talk to the right people in Kettering, they can tell you their personal accounts of knowing Nancy Cartwright, including my middle school history teacher, whose claim to fame was that the voice of Bart Simpson used to be his babysitter and Bethany’s drama teacher teaching Nancy in high school.

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Seen in Old North Dayton

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Dayton Inventions – Part 1

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It is well-known that Dayton is a center for innovation. Here are a few examples of some inventions that have come from our great city:

  • Cash Register – James and John Ritty, 1870.

  • First Practical Airplane – Wright Brothers, 1903.

  • Automobile Self-starter: Charles F. Kettering, 1911.

  • Leaded Gasoline – Thomas Midgley Jr., 1921.

  • Mae West Life Preserver – Frank G. Manson, 1938.

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Tony Stein – Dayton’s Superhero

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No greater person could be featured for July 4th.

Corporal Tony Stein

The only Daytonian to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor for WWII and the first recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for Iwo Jima, Tony Stein still does not get enough credit.

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Charlotte Reeve Conover – Dayton Historian

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“Mrs. Conover was Dayton’s outstanding historian. Her manifold writings about Dayton and its people have place on bookshelves far and wide…” —Dayton Daily News, September 1940.

Charlotte was born to Doctor John Charles and Emma Reeve in 1855. She was given a stellar education from the start, even traveling to Geneva, Switzerland after completing high school. Marrying Frank Conover and raising 4 children did not stop Charlotte from traveling, studying, or writing.

In 1900, her first book, Some Dayton Saints and Prophets, was published. After that her writing didn’t stop. Charlotte also contributed writing to Ladies Home Journal, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper’s. She also became a French scholar, specializing in lectures about Molière.

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