These photos can be found in the Wright State University Special Collections & Archives:

• Dayton Daily News Archive, JHAN Files, Box 178, Candy.

These photos from the Dayton Daily News Archive depict the construction of the dams, as well as other aspects of the Miami Conservancy District projects:

More information can be found in these resources at Wright State University Special Collections & Archives:

• Dayton Daily News Archive, DDNBW Files, Box 770, Miami Conservancy District.
• Miami Conservancy District Records (MS-128).
• Osborn Removal Company Records (MS-77).
• Bennet Coy Miami Conservancy District Collection (SC-100).

You will also find useful information at the Miami Conservancy District home page.

You can see some of the ways that the 1913 Flood has been remembered in the Miami Valley, in these photos from the Dayton Daily News Archive:

More information can be found in these resources from Wright State University Special Collections & Archives:

• Dayton Daily News Archive, DDNVIP Files, 87F, 1913 Flood (several folders).
• More Dayton Daily News Archive blog posts about 1913 Flood.
• Several “Out of the Box” blog posts about 1913 Flood.
• The 1913 Flood web site section.
• Two of our online exhibits focus on the 1913 Flood.

• Manuscript collections pertaining to the 1913 Flood.
• Digital materials pertaining to the 1913 Flood, on WSU CORE.

There was significant damage to homes, businesses, and property in general, as a result of the permeating floodwaters. Thick mud coated walls, floors, furnishings, automobiles, and…everything else. Many homes were even lifted from their foundations, tossed and sometimes flipped sideways, as if they were light as dollhouses. There was fire damage in many parts of town, where the broken gas lines had ignited, burning uncontrollably, since, despite there being water everywhere, there was no way to pump it up into the air to combat the flames, since firetrucks couldn’t get into the flood zone. After the river returned to its banks, drowned horses and other livestock could be seen strewn about the former flood zone as well.

Here are some photographs from the Dayton Daily News Archive depicting scenes in Dayton just after the flood ended—and as the cleanup had just begun:

More information can be found in these resources from Wright State University Special Collections & Archives:

• Dayton Daily News Archive, DDNVIP Files, 87F, 1913 Flood (several folders).
• More Dayton Daily News Archive blog posts about 1913 Flood.
• Several “Out of the Box” blog posts about 1913 Flood.
• The 1913 Flood web site section.
• Two of our online exhibits focus on the 1913 Flood.
• Manuscript collections pertaining to the 1913 Flood.
• Digital materials pertaining to the 1913 Flood, on WSU CORE.

In commemoration of the 1913 Flood centennial, here are some photographs depicting scenes during the 1913 flood from the Dayton Daily News Archive:

More information can be found in these resources from Wright State University Special Collections & Archives:

• Dayton Daily News Archive, DDNVIP Files, 87F, 1913 Flood (several folders).
• More Dayton Daily News Archive blog posts about 1913 Flood.
• The “Out of the Box” blog posts about 1913 Flood.
• The 1913 Flood web site section.
• Two of our online exhibits focus on the 1913 Flood.
• Manuscript collections pertaining to the 1913 Flood.
• Digital materials pertaining to the 1913 Flood, on WSU CORE.

Miami-Erie Canal near Dayton Public Library

The Miami and Erie Canal was constructed from 1825 to 1845 and connected the Ohio River at Cincinnati with Lake Erie near Toledo. The portion of the canal between Cincinnati and Dayton was completed in 1829. On January 25, 1829, the first two canal boats—the Gov. Brown (after Gov. Ethan A. Brown who had championed Ohio canal projects), followed by the Forrer (after canal engineer Samuel Forrer)—arrived in Dayton, Ohio. The canal as a whole enjoyed its greatest use during the 1840s. 

[Patterson Boulevard, formerly the Miami-Erie Canal, looking north to Dayton, 1962]

Here are some great photos of the remaining portions of the canal, as well as Patterson Boulevard, from the Dayton Daily News Archive:

More information can be found in these resources at Wright State University Special Collections & Archives:

• Dayton Daily News Archive, DDNBW Files, Box 750, Canals — Miami Erie (3 folders).
• Canal Society of Ohio Collection (MS-219).

You can still visit Dunbar’s last home in Dayton—the same place where he died of tuberculosis on February 9, 1906, at the age of 33.

The Paul Laurence Dunbar House, at 219 Paul Laurence Dunbar Street (formerly 219 N. Summit Street), dates to about 1870, although the Dunbars didn’t live there until the early 20th century.

After Paul’s mother Matilda Dunbar died (in 1934), the house was soon acquired by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society (now the Ohio Historical Society). On June 27, 1938—what would have been Paul’s 66th birthday—the house was formally dedicated as an historical shrine and museum.

Over the past 75 years, the Paul Laurence Dunbar House museum has been opened, closed, and re-opened a handful of times for various reasons, but it is currently open again, being administered by the Ohio Historical Society and locally managed by Dayton History.

Enjoy these photos of the Paul Laurence Dunbar House over the years, from the Dayton Daily News Archive. And if you’d like to learn more about Paul Laurence Dunbar himself, take a look at our Paul Laurence Dunbar Collection (digital exhibit).

More information can be found in these resources at Wright State University Special Collections & Archives:

• Dayton Daily News Archive, JHAN Files, Box 563, 95d: Dunbar House, Paul Laurence (2 folders).
• Paul Laurence Dunbar Collection (digital exhibit).

One of the city’s “claims to fame” is that John Dillinger committed his first bank robbery at the New Carlisle National Bank (southeast corner of Main & Jefferson Streets), where he stole $10,000 on June 10, 1933 June 21, 1933 (thanks to commenter Scott for the correction!). Photos of that bank building, as well as many other buildings and scenes in the city, can be seen in the gallery below.

A few weeks ago, I was filing something away, and I came across a folder of pictures entitled “Women Mayors.”  None of the people in the folder were recognizable to me, but I suddenly remembered that my aunt was once the Mayor of Fairborn.  So when I had a few minutes to go look, I went and found her folders [in the DDN Archive]. Her name was Georgia Hale, and she was the mayor from 1983 to 1987.  I remember her as my aunt, but in reality, she was a very close family friend who was very involved with my father when he was young.

From what my father told me, Georgia became involved in the city’s politics through her Church Council and other community activities through Fairborn.  In the late 1970′s, she ran for and was elected to the city council, which had been male only for a few years before that, according to one Dayton Daily News article that I read.  There are not many articles about her during her years as a councilwoman, but she was quoted in one article regarding the opening of an adult bookstore, which was an controversial issue for Fairborn.  The resistance to the store wanted it to be disallowed, but when asked her opinion she said, “[It] Smacks of censorship.  Who is to decide the prevailing morals of a community? …It is the responsibility of Parents and the Church to help children choose intelligently.”  She was for free speech, even if it was something that she disagreed with.  Eventually, the council created zoning restrictions for the store, placing it in an area where children did not commonly walk and restrictions for how close a store store could be to a similar establishment.  When Carl Eichelman was elected mayor, he chose Georgia as the deputy mayor, but Eichelman later died of cancer, elevating Georgia to the post of mayor a few months before the election.  In November of 1983, she was elected as the first woman mayor of Fairborn.  The next two years are rather quiet, there were few articles of interest and it did not sound like anything important was going on.  But in 1985, Georgia was elected to her second term as mayor.

The year 1985 also saw a new Councilman elected, Jack Mattachione, whose platform stated that the council was not listening to the people of Fairborn.  One of the things that I noticed at this point, right at the 1985 election, was an increase in editorials about discontent with the city council.  From the looks of the election results, this was a minority, but a significant one in Fairborn.  One editorial said about my aunt, “She has decided the city of Fairborn no longer have Freedom of speech at council meetings,” which is in direct contradiction of the quote from Georgia earlier, it also contradicts the recollections of people who knew her, who would say of her that she always heard out an opposing viewpoint.  Mattachione had the second most votes of any of the new council members. In council meetings, Mattachione would bring ordinances and provisions that the council had not discussed nor had they seen. The stated view of the rest of the council was that they would not second these motions because of the disregard for the procedure of the council; they had not worked on together in a council work session.  Council meetings with him often descended into yelling matches and the animosity grew on the council.  Nor did this change after Georgia left office. She was ineligible to run for mayor again. Councilman George Gehlauf and Mattachione ran for the office of mayor. Gehlauf won, and Mattchione retained his council seat.  The issues between Mattachione and the rest of the council continued. Gehlauf even gave a lecture on what procedure was supposed to be in the council. There were days when the council had scheduled for public discourse, but that was being disregarded for many of these provisions and ordinances.

Now, after reading as many of the articles that I could get my hands on in the archive regarding this issue, I must say that I understand where Mattachione was coming from, I understand that he and a significant minority of Fairborn’s population felt like they were not being listened to and Mattachione was the one who said that he would speak up for them and he did.  But, I think Mattachione would have gotten far more done to solve the issue if he had worked respectfully within the system in place.  The council’s procedure was to work on ordinances and provisions in work sessions, then discuss them at a public meeting  and then take a vote; this way the council knew what was coming before them. Mattachione though would bring forward provisions and ordinances that the council had not discussed or even seen, that he had written himself, which to the council was a slap in the face.  He would also bring in citizens sympathetic to his viewpoint, who would speak up and cause problems when the council did not listen to him.  To work in this manner, creates and widens rifts, it does not solve them nor does it unify the people of the city.

As I read the articles of this saga, I knew this was an interesting story, and it went beyond my aunt (the reason I found it to begin with).  While working on this, I first found my aunt’s file, then I found Jack Mattachione’s and George Gehlauf’s, and if I had more time to research, I had three or four other names that I would have gone searching for in relation to this.  In many cases, there are repeats of the same articles between these people as they are interrelated by the issues at hand, but there was plenty of information to draw from.  I learned much about my aunt that I did not know before this. She died almost 10 years ago. I wish I could talk to her about this, because it is fascinating, but all I can do is talk to the few people I can find who were close to the issue.  It shows the amount of information and the interesting stories that are waiting to be found in the Dayton Daily News Archive .

~Marcus Manchester

More information can be found in these resources at Wright State University Special Collections & Archives:

• Dayton Daily News Archive, JHAN Files, Box 561, 95a: Fairborn, Ohio — History.
• Dayton Daily News Archive, DDNBW Files, Box 759, Fairborn — History.
• Records of the Osborn Removal Company (MS-77).
• Miami Conservancy District Records (MS-128).