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
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
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.
Fined for Helping a Prisoner
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
Source: Elevator Victim Reported “Fair”, Dayton Daily News, August 2, 1954, Page 4
A Fire in 1900
- J.P. Wolf & Sons, Tobacco Merchants
- E. Bimm & Sons, Grocers
- Benedicts & Co, Cigar Manufacturers
- The Dayton Paper Novelty Company
The Big Four Freight depot was located in the back, and had minimal damage. The office building was destroyed, but the slate roof prevented the rest of the company from more damage. There was an estimated $500,000 in damages to the district.
It took 3 hours for the flames to be under control, and there were many injuries:
- Night Watchman Snedecker was overcome by smoke and later found unconscious by other firemen.
- Another fireman, Louis Swaneger, was taken to his home, badly frozen.
- Three firemen, George Coy, George Nienaber, and George Griesheimer were buried when the east wall of the J.P. Wolf & Sons building collapsed. Nienaber and Griesheimer were not badly injured.
- Many other firefighters and volunteers were treated at a makeshift hospital located in a nearby home.
Dayton Fun Facts
- On February 25, 1879, Susan Koerner Wright, mother to Wilbur and Orville, gave birth to twins. Unfortunately, Ida and Otis were not long for this earth. Otis lived for 13 days, and Ida lived 18 days. They were buried at the Old Greencastle Cemetery. In the year 2000, an excavation of the twins’ grave searched for remains, but only found some wood fragments that could have been from a casket. Soil was collected from that part of the grave, roughly enough to fill a three pound coffee can, and buried at the Wright Family plot in Woodland. The marker from the twins’ grave was moved and placed next to the family monument.
- Dayton’s first known murder occurred on November 20, 1806. John Aiken beat his wife, Rachel, to death. He was arrested and held at McCollum’s Tavern. John was dead before he could appear in court. It was possibly suicide, but records do not exist to confirm what happened
The fun facts below came from the book Ohio Legends Volume 1, written by our late friend Jeff Wilson
- Eliam Barney and Ebenezer Thresher founded the Barney and Smith Car Company in 1849. Their factory in Dayton produced the finest railroad freight and passenger cars in the country. When Barney started the company, Dayton didn’t have any railroads! The first railroad cars had to be delivered by canal boat and horse drawn wagons
- The Wright Brothers made their own printing press from buggy parts and a discarded tombstone.
- Buckeye Bigfoot – the most recent sighting of Ohio’s Bigfoot was in 2012 in Xenia. It was described as a “shaggy beast with glowing eyes” and matched a 1995 sighting in Youngstown.
- Dayton’s leading newspapers refused to report the story of Wilbur and Orville’s first flying machine because they thought it was a hoax.
1936 “Treasure Hunt” for Dayton History Facts
- Presiding Judge: Hon Francis Dunley
- Associate Judges: Isaac Spinning, Benjamin Archer, John Ewing
- Officers:
- George Newcom, Sheriff
- Benjamin Van Cleve, clerk
- James Miller, coroner
The court opened July 27, 1803, but there were no cases, so court adjourned that evening. Most of the male population of Dayton had turned out for the opening, and it was met with great excitement. The judges and lawyers slept in one room of the tavern overnight and left together the next morning to open court in Xenia. The next session of court was not held until November 22, 1803, and it was held until a tree behind the tavern. Sheriff Newcom was needed to control the crown gathering to listen to testimony from witnesses and jury deliberation.
2. Dayton was almost called Venice. Before Dayton was settled in 1796, Maj Benjamin Stites, John Stites Gano, and William Goforth had made plans for a settlement to be named Venice. It was located at the mouth of the “Tiber”, as they called Mad River at the time. They had agreed to purchase the land from John Cleves Symmers for 83 cents an acre and a contract was signed. Unfortunately for the men, Symmes had some issues with the government and the Native Americans in the area and the troubles forced them to abandon the plan for Venice.
3. The first town election was held on the first Monday in May 1805. The select council of the town was comprised of the seven trustees, with the president also serving as the mayor.
4. The first county election was held in 1802. Jerome Holt, County Sheriff, gave notice to Daytonians to convene at Newcom’s on April 1, then elect by ballot a chairman, a town clerk, three or more trustees, two or more overseers of the poor, three fence viewers, two appraisers of houses, a lister of taxable property, a sufficient number of supervisors of roads, and one or more constables.
100 Years of Esther Price Candies
Although the business got its start in 1926, Esther Price’s roots as a candy maker go back to a 7th grade Home Economics class. After partnering with her classmate to make fudge the first time, Esther kept her share to give to her mother, but decided instead to eat that share and make more when she got home. A love affair with candy was born.
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