During the icy, dark night hours of April 15, 1912, terrified passengers were crowding the deck aboard the R.M.S. Titanic, attempting to get into lifeboats as they were being lowered, under capacity, into the water. Men were being pushed back from the lifeboats, as the general rule was “women and children first.” Phillip Zenni, a passenger from Syria and the only known passenger heading to Dayton, Ohio, wasn’t buying it. Everyone should get a chance to get off this boat, he thought. Zenni waited until the officer keeping passengers back had turned his back, and once he was clear, Zenni jumped onto Lifeboat 6, made famous by the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown.
Category Archives: Local History
Dr. John Hole
If you’ve driven around the Centerville area, you may have seen the name Dr. John Hole around town.
Dr. John Hole was born in New Jersey in 1755. In his youth, John was adopted by a prominent doctor so that he could be trained and educated in the medical profession. He went to the University of Berlin and returned to the states in 1775, in the midst of the crisis that led to the American Revolution. John was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and when George Washington commanded forces at Cambridge. John was eventually reassigned to be the personal physician and surgeon under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery.
This Day in History – June 24th, 1955
Happy 65th Birthday, Kettering!
On June 24, 1955, an official proclamation from the Ohio Secretary of State elevated the Village of Kettering to an official city.
A few facts about Kettering:
- Kettering has two sister cities: Steyr, Austria and Kettering, England.
- Kettering was named after Charles Fitzgerald Kettering, a resident of the community and prominent inventor and innovator.
- According to the 2010 census, Kettering has 56,163 residents.
Arthur Morgan
If you’ve explored Riverscape Metropark, you have probably seen the sculpture representing the Hydraulic Jump Fountain, that is part of the Dayton Inventors Riverwalk. The Hydraulic Jump Fountain was part of the dry dam system developed by Morgan after the 1913 Flood.
Hydraulic Jump Fountain
Dayton Inventors River Walk
At Riverscape Metropark, you may have seen several sculptures scattered about. There are seven “over-sized” sculptures – called invention stations – that represent seven of the most notable inventions from Dayton. These are part of the Dayton Inventors River Walk, that celebrates the history of invention and innovation in Dayton. There are also over 150 bricks that commemorate inventions from across the Miami Valley.
The River Walk begins at the northeast corner of Main Street and Monument Avenue, where you will see an 8×8 brick medallion in the pavement. This medallion announces that Dayton is the “Innovation Capital of the World,” due to the fact that Dayton has had more inventions per capita than any other city in the United States.
Besides the seven main Invention Stations, the bricks commemorate several other inventions and innovations:
- cellophane
- digital watches
- Freon
- the cracking of the Enigma Code in WWII
If you’re interested in walking around the Dayton Inventors River Walk to get a little bit of excerise, check out our post, Exercise Dayton: Riverscape Inventors Walk. We have also hosted a Photo Walk at the Inventors Walk!
Colonel Edward Deeds
Colonel Edward Deeds is a name we all know around here in Dayton. Deeds was an engineer and inventor who helped to shape the history of Dayton, and establish Dayton as a center of innovation.
Edward Andrew Deeds was born on a farm in Granville, Ohio on March 12th, 1874. Deeds graduated as valedictorian from Denison University in 1897 and came to Dayton in 1898 to work as an Electrical Engineer for the Thresher company. In the same building was the headquarters of NCR, and in 1899, Frederick Patterson offered Deeds a position at “the Cash.”
The Isaac Pollack House
In 1854, two Jewish immigrants named Isaac Pollack and Solomon Rauh began a business partnership dealing whiskey and wine in Dayton from a warehouse on West Third Street.
Eight years later in 1862, Pollack served as a corporal in the civilian Squirrel Hunters during the Civil War and was regarded as a hero after the Squirrel Hunters successfully defended Cincinnati from an attack by the Confederate army. At the end of the war, Pollack and his friend Rauh started to build two identical homes on West Third Street.
Source: Dayton International Peace Museum Website
This Day in History – April 30th, 1802
On April 30, 1802, Thomas Jefferson signed the Enabling Act that laid that groundwork for Ohio to become a state.
Arthur St. Clair, one of the co-founders of Dayton, was a staunch Federalist and opposed Ohio becoming a state. As Governor of the Northwest Territory, he believed that Federalists could keep control by keeping the states small. The population requirement to become a state was 60,000. For reference, Kettering’s population in 2017 was 55,175.
Dayton International Peace Museum
Founded in 2004 by Ralph and Christine Dull, J. Frederick Arment, Lisa Wolters, and Steve Fryburg, the Dayton International Peace Museum was the second of its kind in the United States. The objective of the museum is to inspire peace from local communities to international communities.
The museum is located in the historic Isaac Pollack house, located at 208 West Monument Avenue, at the corner of Wilkinson Street and Monument Avenue.
Happy 224th Birthday, Dayton!
April 1st, 1796, Dayton was founded by the Thompson Party. They disembarked from their boats at approximately the place where Founders Point is at Riverscape.
As our favorite Dayton historian, Charlotte Reeve Conover put it in the beloved book The Story of Dayton:
“The boat party was the first to arrive. Rounding the curve in the river, where for so many years since then it has been flowing under the Dayton View Bridge, the pioneers perceived before their eyes the swift current of Mad River emptying itself into the main channel, just as it had been described, and saying to each other (so we may imagine), ‘Yes this must be the place,’ they tied the pirogue to a tree at the head of St, Clair Street and led by Mrs. Thompson, all clambered ashore.
At that moment, DAYTON came on the map!”
Dayton Unknown 