Category Archives: Local Businesses

Upcoming Events – Summer/Fall 2026

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With Summer winding to a close, why not enjoy a few more festivals? Here’s a list of some upcoming events in the area:

  • August 14 – 16: Dayton Germanfest Picnic
  • August 14 – 20: Miami County Fair
  • August 15-16: Fairborn Sweet Corn Festival
  • August 15: Art in the City Dance Pop-up – Dayton Metro Library
  • August 15-16: Dayton African American Festival
  • August 29-30: Xenia Monster Truck Wars

Beaver’s Mini Mart vs Goliath  

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You’ve probably heard by now about the lawsuit Buc-ee’s filed against Beaver’s Mini Mart on Hanes Road in Beavercreek. Buc-ee’s claimed in the suit that Beaver’s Mini Mart’s Logo of a cartoon beaver would cause confusion for customers.

The nearest Buc-ee’s is 16 miles from the Beaver’s Mini Mart location in the middle of a city that has been using beaver iconography for decades via school mascots, team logos, business advertisements and more. The small convenience store has no gas pumps, no public bathrooms, and a logo that looks nothing similar.

Many want to help support this small business. Here are a few ways to do so:

  • Shop at their store – 1592 Hanes Road, Beavercreek, 45434
  • Support their GoFundMe
  • Buy Beaver Mini Mart shirts from CincyShirts.com
  • Buy Beaver Mini Mart Cookies from The Original Goodie Shop. Stop by their store at 2116 Tremont Center, Upper Arlington, 43221 or call 614-488-8777
  • Buy Beaver’s Mini Mart merch from Teepublic

Please note, there is a lot of misinformation going around about the ownership of the Beaver’s Mini Mart. We ask that you do your due dilligence and your own research before forming your opinion, or having a negative reaction to their plight.

Huffman Prairie

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Have you ever been to Huffman Prairie in Fairborn? After their first flight in Kitty Hawn, NC, the Wright brothers were in search of a flying field nearby. A banker from Dayton, Torrence Huffman, loaned his pasture to the Wright Brothers rent-free and this is where the Wright Brothers really developed their flying skills in 1904-1905.

Later in 1910, the Wright Brothers established the Wright Company and used Huffman Prairie as their testing ground and exhibition space, and ran their flying school there as well.

Sara is currently working on her 4th book!

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This book, projected to be released in 2027, will cover unsolved cases from the Dayton area. What unsolved cases from around here interest you?

Here are a few of the mysteries the book will cover:

  • A bomb send to the groom just before his wedding. No suspect has ever been arrested.
  • A young woman visiting Dayton suddenly dies and is buried without a name. Who is she, and why did he traveling companion refuse to identify her?
  • A grandmother disappears from her apartment. There were no signs of foul play and she didn’t take her coat or purse before leaving. What happened to her? Where is she?
  • A nightclub singer and his wife are murdered in their home. Their young daughter escapes through a window. Who killed the couple?
  • A young girl disappears from Kettering in 1976. Police dismissed her as a runaway. Whatever happened to her?

Downtown Housing Tour 2026

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The Downtown Housing Tour is back for 2026! The free event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 30.

Guests can get an inside look at downtown properties, and learn why a downtown address is so in demand!

Also, sign up for various Themed Walking Tours such as Sara’s Ghost Tour!
10 am – Walking Tour and Old Courthouse
11:15 – Old Courthouse only
12 noon – Walking tour and Old Courthouse

Sign up for Ghost Tour here!

Watch the Downtown Dayton Partnership page for sign up info and details on the other tours.

Local Author – J.E. Irvin

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Writing under the name J.E. Irvin, Janet Irvin has written seven mystery/thriller novels. Her works have appeared in a variety of print and online journals, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Flights, and Literary Mama. Her poetry has been published in Hawaii Pacific Review, Creosote, MockTurtleZine, and more.

Irvin’s novel The Dark End of the Rainbow won the Jeremiah Healey Mystery Fiction Contest. Her next book, The Rules of the Game was a finalist for the same award. Irvin is a member of Sisters in Crime, Central Ohio Fiction Writers, and Buckeye Crime Writers. She also serves on the Springboro City Park Board and is a member of the Springboro Area Historical Society.

Some of her published works include:

  • Hollowed Bone, published in the Sky Island Journal Issue # 25 in 2023
  • ALL THE ODDS ARE EVEN, published in the Nexus Literary Journal in Spring 2015
  • PAWNS, published in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in May 2011
  • THE FABRIC OF OUR FEARS, published in The Broken Plate in Spring 2010

How a 19th Century Story Reached a Family Today

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Sometimes, we are reminded that the stories we share here don’t just stay here on the blog.

When we started Dayton Unknown, our goal was simple: to uncover and share the forgotten, overlooked, and lesser known stories that shaped our city. Stories like Johnny Morehouse and the Morehouse Family.

Recently, we heard from a descendant of the Morehouse family.

Thank you for the respectful write up of the Morehouse family and the great article about Horace, who was my great grandfather. I never heard a reference to him when I was growing up, since my great grandmother, Kitty Gilbert, had remarried. She is buried between her second husband and my mother in Elmhurst, Illinois. She was an amazing seamstress and very nice woman. I have been to Dayton to visit the grave of my great great uncle, Johnny, and and humbled by the tokens of love left there. Thank you so much!

This email was a great reminder that history isn’t static. It lives through memories, through family legends, and sometimes, these pieces of history find their way back to the people it belongs to.

Fined for Helping a Prisoner

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In October of 1917, Richard Messler was found guilty on a charge of harboring a girl who escaped from the city workhouse. A city workhouse was a municipal institution that often functioned as a jail or a punitive “poorhouse,” where individuals convicted of minor offenses or those in extreme poverty were forced to perform manual labor.

Messler was accused of harboring Ruth Isley, aka Margaret Williams after she escaped from the workhouse on September 3. According to her testimony, she escaped by prying off a door lock, crossing a roof, and entering a window of the Antler Hotel located on 6th Street. From there she ran to Messler’s garage, where she stayed all night.

Source: Fined For Help Given Prisoner, Dayton Herald, October 9, 1917, Page 16

An Elevator Accident in 1954

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On July 31, 1954, a 31-year-old elevator operator lost her left foot in an elevator-related injury at 11 West Monument Ave. Helen Johnson forced the shaftway door open on the 8th floor, thinking she had left the elevator there. She then fell from the 8th floor all the way down to the 4th, only stopping when her foot was caught by the counterweight. She recovered at Miami Valley Hospital.

Source: Elevator Victim Reported “Fair”, Dayton Daily News, August 2, 1954, Page 4