Category Archives: Dayton Fun Facts

Dayton Facts

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  • Stivers School for the Arts was named for Civil War Veteran, Captain Charles Bryan Stivers, who later became a school principal.
  • Hedgeapple plants (aka Osage orange trees) were planted in the 1820s in Bellbrook as fences. A salesman came to Bellbrook and sold them to the farmers and pioneers, touting their ability to keep the cattle in and the hardness of the wood to make wheel spokes.
  • Middletown was named because its founder, Daniel Doty, estimated it was roughly equidistant between Cincinnati and Dayton.
  • Bellbrook Magnetic Springs was once considered to be a magic spot. Legend is that the native Americans believed the water was medicinal and came from all around to drink it. A similar legend holds in Yellow Springs, and it is believed the Yellow Spring water attracts supernatural energy. Maybe that’s why Bellbrook has so many hauntings?
  • The oldest known grave in Miami Valley is Henry Stettler, who died January 28, 1791.

More Street Names:

  • Broadwell — Silas Broadwell, a town marshal.
  • Chickahominy and Chickamauga Avenues — both are named for Civil War battles.
  • Master Avenue – Named for the Master Electric Company
  • The popular angel monument at Woodland is the grave of Asa McMillan, who operated a wool manufacturing company. The McMillAn Angel base and cross were carved from Dayton Limestone and the angel was sculpted in Italy from Carerra Marble. The right arm is resting on a stone slab and a rag in her left hand to symbolize wiping a slate clean after death and past sins are forgiven.
  • During excavation at Research Park for a DP&L building, the remains of two people were discovered. The coroner and an archeological firm were called out to investigate. An estimated 75 bodies were buried at the location, which is believed to be the site of a 19th century Shaker cemetery, as the Shakers once lived on that section of land.

Peter Sunderland

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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.

The Bride Who Thought She Was a Widow

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This 1913 flood account first appeared in the Dayton Daily News on March 25, 1962.
Bride Spent Many Hours Thinking She Was A Widow
By MRS. FRANK SEILER
659 Carlisle Ave.

Next Nov. 20, my husband, Frank, and I will celebrate our golden wedding anniversary. But for several hours on Tuesday, Mar. 25, 1913, I would not have believed that we would have that first anniversary together.I thought that I had been widowed after four months of marriage, that my husband had drowned in the terrible flood that hit Dayton.

On the night before that disastrous day we had walked the short distance to the river from our apartment house on Washington St. to view the rising waters.

But we weren’t too alarmed as the newspapers that day had said that Dayton would be “protected by the levies which the city’s wise forefathers had built.”

But the next morning, the water had reached the first step leading into our apartment house.

My 15-year-old brother, Bill Fette, was visiting us from Cincinnati.
Continue reading →

The 100th Birthday of MSgt. Richard Gard

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Family and friends of Master Sergeant Richard Gard are asking for help honoring him for his upcoming 100th birthday. They are collecting cards to present to him on his birthday, coming up on April 6th.

Master Sergeant Gard landed on Normandy on D-Day and participated in the breakout from the beachhead through France to Brest. Gard was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action during the Battle of the Bulge. He also earned two Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart, and decorations from Bastogne, Belgium, and France.

After Master Sergeant was recalled to active duty for the Korean War in 1950, he earned a degree in Engineering from UD.

A parade in his honor will be held on April 6, starting on Pearhill Drive in West Carrollton. The parade will feature Centerville VFW Post 9550, West Carrollton Police and Fire departments, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Harold Schnell Elementary, West Carrollton Marching Band, and a flyover from a 1943 PT-19A Cornell warplane by the Butler County Warbirds.

To wish Master Sergeant Gard a happy birthday, please send cards to this address:
MSgt. Richard Gard
c/o 70 Pine Street
Franklin, Ohio 45005.

For more of MSgt Gard’s story, check out this story by Dayton Daily News!

Even More Street and Bridge Honorary Designations

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This list is thanks to the book Hidden History by Tony Kroeger, with a small amount of Googling on our part.

  • Walter J. Hickman Sr. Avenue (Brooklyn Avenue) – Hickman was a respected neighborhood leader in the Westwood area, where Brooklyn Avenue is located.
  • Pastor S. N. Winston Sr. Way (Siebenthaler Road) – Winston was a pastor at Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church for 46 years.
  • Lloyd Lewis Jr. Way (Ludlow Street) – Lewis was a city of Dayton Assistant City Manager, City Commissioner, State Representative, an executive at Rike’s, and VP at DP&L.
  • Willis “Bing” Davis Way (Diamond Avenue) – Davis is a renowned artist who grew up on Diamond Avenue.
  • Peace Bridge (Third Street bridge) – Connects two sides of the Great Miami River
  • Sergeant Edward Brooks Way (Elmhurst Drive) – Brooks was killed at age 25 by an IED in Iraq, on August 29, 2007.
  • Ted Mills Way (Sears Street) – Mills had a baseball school location on Sears Street.

1914 Dayton Ghost Stories – The Ghost at the Mill

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On Sunday January 18th, 1914, The Dayton Daily News published a contest for Ghost Stories to be submitted, with prizes ranging from $1 to the grand prize of $20.

We have five of these stories to share with you. The first is The Ghost at the Mill, which was published January 26, 1914.

Reverend Desoto Bass

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Maybe you’ve heard of the DeSoto Bass apartment complex, known as “the Bass” But do you know how it got its name?

Reverend DeSoto Bass became the pastor of the Dayton First Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1895. The church was known for its abolitionist stance against slavery. Bass served at the church for thirty four years, until his death in 1928.

Bass was known for being “the community’s pastor” because of his devotion to serving the community. He aimed to serve mankind. Bass visited the sick regardless of religion or creed, both in their homes and through regular visits to Miami Valley and St. Elizabeth. Because of his service to the community the first public housing development in Dayton was named for him.

The development opened in February 1940 to house 200 low income families and two years later was expanded to house 110 more families. Over the next few years, 640 more units were added. At the end of WWII, veterans were housed there as emergency housing and within the next few years fifty-five more units were added, bringing the total amount to 1,005 units.

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