Category Archives: Places & Names

The Thompson Cow

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In March of 1796, three pioneer parties left Cincinnati to head by river and land to what is now Dayton Ohio. The parties were led  by George Newcom, William Hamer, and Samuel Thompson. The Thompson party was the first to arrive in Dayton at the spot now known as Founder’s Point. The following people and their families are the original settlers of Dayton:

  1. William Hamer
  2. Soloman Hamer
  3. Thomas Hamer
  4. George Newcom
  5. William Newcom
  6. Abraham Grassmire
  7. John Davis
  8. John Dorough

    9. Continue reading →

A Fire in 1900

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In the early morning hours of February 1, 1900, fire broke out in the manufacturing district, impacting several small companies and a few larger businesses, including:

  • 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.

1936 “Treasure Hunt” for Dayton History Facts

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In 1936, Dayton Daily News ran a daily column called “The Treasure Hunt”, featuring tidbits of Dayton History gathered by multiple sources. The history covered Montgomery, Preble, Butler, and Warren counties. Here are some of the stories.1. The First County Court in Montgomery County was located in an upper room of Newcom’s Tavern.

  • 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.

John Hinckley’s Visit to Dayton

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During Jimmy Carter’s 1980 re-election campaign, he came to Dayton as part of a campaign swing through the Midwest. This rally, which took place on Oct 2, 1980, attracted 1400 to the Dayton Convention and Exhibition center. Among the 1400 attending was John Hinckley Jr.

Hinckley had been obsessed with the 1976 movie Taxi Driver, the premise of which was an assassination attempt. He was convinced he was in love with the leading actress, Jodie Foster.

Hinckley had been on a cross country campaign of his own, attempting to leave notes for and make contact with Foster. Her rejection of him sent him into a spiral. He needed to make a name for himself, he decided. After a while he determined the only way to get her attention was to shoot a president. Hearing about Carter’s election campaign, he traveled to Dayton to attend the next rally on October 2, 1980.

Hinckley stayed at the Sheraton Hotel at 21 S Jefferson Street and requested a room with a view of the Convention center where Carter would be speaking. He was given room 818 and paid a total fee of $35.52.

Fortunately for Carter and unfortunately for Hinckley, the crowd attracted was too large for Hinckley to be able to find a good point from which to shoot. Hinckley had left his weapons in his hotel room and was not in the mood to attempt to shoot after seeing the crowd.

After this event, Hinckley made several more attempts to shoot Carter and temporarily turned his sights to a leader of the American Nazi party. After many more failed attempts, he gave up and went home. During that time, he saw a psychiatrist, but did not mention his assassination attempts or his obsession with Jodie Foster.

When Carter lost the reelection campaign to Ronald Reagan, Hinckley turned his sights to President Reagan. He fired 6 shots and hit President Reagan and 3 of his attendants in front of the Washington Hilton before the Secret Service subdued him. President Reagan suffered a shot to the lung, missing his heart. During the chaos, he’d been shoved into the limo by a Secret Service agent and was unaware he’d been injured. He spent 12 days in the hospital before returning to the White House. Press Secretary James Brady was severely injured, suffering permanent brain damage after a shot to his head.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a mental health facility. He was ultimately released in 2018.

Sara’s Appearance on WYSO Book Nook

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Sara was interviewed on WYSO’s Book Nook about her latest book, Murder in Victorian Dayton: The Tragic Story of Bessie Little!
To read the article about her book and interview: Dayton Daily News article.

Dayton Codebreakers – Sir Dermot Turing’s Visit

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Did you know Dayton played a big part in World War II? Local electric engineer and inventor Joseph Desch was the Research Director of the Navy’s program to design and build a bombe – a machine to read coded communications from Germany (coded by the Enigma).

Desch and his team worked in one of NCR’s buildings decoding the messages using the American Bombe Machine and would then send the messages to Washington D.C. as intelligence. While working with the American Bombe Machine, Alan Turing – known for cracking Germany’s Enigma code – visited Joseph Desch in Oakwood and at the NCR building.

Retired RAF Captain Andrew Lloyd, along with the organization he founded, Oakwood Unsung Heroes, have been working to showcase this piece of history by having a City of Oakwood proclamation for the month of May to be Codebreaker Month, and they have an exhibit on display at Wright Memorial Public Library in collaboration with the National Cryptologic Museum.

On May 8th, the nephew of Alan Turing, Sir Dermot Turing, will be speaking at the Dayton International Peace Museum and at Carillon Park. For both events, tickets are free, but limited.

  • May 8th at 11am @ Dayton International Peace Museum
  • May 8th at 7:30pm @ Carillon Park

If you’re interested in reading more about this topic:

Katt Williams to be Honored in Cincinnati

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Cincinnati-born and Dayton-raised Micah “Katt” Williams will be honored with a street named after him in Cincinnati’s Avondale neighborhood. At 5:30 Saturday, the intersection of Reading Road and Maple Avenue will be renamed Katt Williams Way. At 8 pm, he will take the stage at Heritage Bank Center as part of his “Heaven on Earth” tour.

Williams was born in Cincinnati in 1971 and moved to Dayton with his Jehovah’s Witness parents. During that time, he learned multiple languages, including Creole and French, and he lived in Haiti for 18 months as part of religious missions. Williams emancipated himself from his parents at 13, then moved to Florida and supported himself as a street vendor.

Williams has found success through his stand-up comedy, acting, and music career. Although he has faced many legal issues, he has continued with his career and received an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his appearance on the show Atlanta. His “Heaven on Earth” comedy tour has dates across the US through November.

Another Wright Brother Bench has been Found!

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Back in November, we posted about Bethany’s search for the nine Wright Brothers Benches around town, and the fact that two are listed in incorrect places on the Ohio Outdoor Sculpture Inventory. As a result of our post here and on Facebook, a reader (thanks, Heather!!) reached out and informed us of the location of one of the missing benches on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in front of the historical Hap Arnold House. Bethany ventured out to explore, and confirmed that it is there! If you have any idea where the last missing bench is located, please let us know!

Huffman Prairie & Simms Station

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Did you know that if you go to Huffman Prairie to the location of the trolley stop station (Simms Station) and look at the sign, you can see a tree in the picture from over 100 years ago in both the picture, and right in front of you?