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Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum

Woodland Offers Headstone Cleaning & Restoration Class

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Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is again offering a gravestone restoration class with expert Misti Spillman. Misti has a background in researching and restoring cemeteries. She worked as an AmeriCorps member at the Ohio History Connection and serves as a reference and liaison to numerous museums and historical societies throughout Ohio. Misti is the owner of Reviving Cemeteries, LLC.

You will receive hands on, one-on-one and group instruction on headstone preservation techniques including fixing breaks, resetting, cleaning and how to mix proper mortars for stone repair. You will also receive a Headstone Cleaning Starter Kit that will include all the tools needed for the day.

The entire workshop will be spent in the cemetery. A break for lunch will be provided. Please feel free to bring a lunch or visit any of the restaurants on Brown Street.

This workshop will be conducted at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum from 10 am.to 3 pm on Saturday, May 7, 2022. Cost is $30 per person for the Beginners class. This class is limited to 30 people.

To make your reservation, please click here.

History, Mystery, Murder and Mayhem at Woodland Cemetery: Joseph Leslie’s Tragic Life

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Joseph Leslie gave his attentions to Mary Miranda Kaylor of New Lebanon, Ohio. Her mother, however, did not care for him and wanted to see her daughter date another young man in the neighborhood whom she did like. Joseph found out about this and it did not sit well with him. One afternoon, as he was in his upper room at the Horner’s Hotel, across the street from the residence of Miss Kaylor, he saw her return from a walk and then sit on her front porch and begin to sew. All it took was one bullet and Martha fell over and lived but just three or four minutes after receiving the shot. That was Friday, August 31, 1866.

Joseph denied the shooting but a six-shooter was found in his trunk with only one bullet discharged; burnt powder was found on the window. The neighbors had no doubt he was guilty and he was soon arrested and placed in jail.

On Friday, December 14, 1866, the Grand Jury handed down an indictment of murder in the first degree. The seating of a jury for his trial began in April 1867. It was a difficult jury to seat as most of the men interviewed had made up their mind that Joseph was guilty. The Daily Empire newspaper even wrote about the role the newspapers played in disseminating information to the public. “It seemed next thing to impossible yesterday, to get a jury on the case of Leslie… parties claiming to have made up their minds in relation to the case from what the papers had published regarding it.” They went on to say, “When newspapers publish full statements of such cases, it fixes the guilt or innocence of the accused in the public mind, and renders a subsequent trial a mere legal farce.”

During one questioning of a potential juror, he was asked if he had any “conscientious scruples regarding capital punishment,” but the man did not seem to understand the question. He was then asked, “Are you opposed to hanging?” and the man immediately replied, “No sir! The scoundrel ought to be hung up!” Evidently, he had read reports in the newspapers.

By the end of April, the trial had begun. Leslie’s defense team had witnesses testify that he was a quiet, law-abiding man that had served in the War. The Captain of his company testified that he was one of the best men under his watch.

On May 3rd, in just an hour and a half, the jury came back with a verdict of murder in the first degree for the shooting Miss Kaylor. Joseph Leslie did not move a muscle upon hearing the verdict nor did his face betray him. One of the deputy’s whom escorted him back to his jail cell said, “Joe, that’s hard!” in which Leslie replied, “Yes, that’s pretty heavy.” While it was thought that Joseph would swing from the gallows, he was sentenced to 10 years in the State Penitentiary.

In June 1881, Joseph had been living at the Soldier’s Home in Dayton and requested to be discharged on June 21st. In the early morning hours on June 27, he shoots himself in the stomach at a beer saloon on Jackson Street. It was reported in one newspaper that upon hearing that Mrs. Miller refused to marry him that he shot himself. Another reported that he couldn’t stand the warm weather. He refused to be taken to the Soldier’s Home and instead was taken to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. He survived his wounds but soon succumbed by his own hands in December.

The headline in the New York Tribune read “A Murderer Commits Suicide” and the Dayton Journal headline read “The Final Act: In the Career of an Extraordinary Man.”  The Tribune article was a three line snippet of news that called Joseph Leslie “a worthless character” who committed suicide. The Journal wrote a more comprehensive article giving the details of Joseph’s life including his military service.

Joseph Leslie was a member of Co. A, 11th Ohio Volunteer Infantry under the command of Col. De Villiers in the Civil War. He served three years and was known as a fearless soldier and a very determined man. At a skirmish in Big Springs, Tennessee, the fingers of his right hand were mangled by a Minnie ball so that they hung to his hand by shreds of the skin and amputation was necessary. Unfortunately, there was no surgeon nearby so Joseph cut the dangling fingers off with his own pocket knife.

It was reported that Joseph’s behavior was often times erratic. He was a loner, not one to hang around with the other men in his company. At Shiloh and other battlefields, he dug holes in the ground and slept in them at night by himself. He was honorably discharged from the service and received a monthly pension of just $18.00.

Joseph Leslie died on December 29, 1881 of an opium overdose. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the City Lot at Woodland Cemetery on December 30, 1881.

You can visit the gravesite of Mr. Leslie and all of the other people on the History, Mystery, Mayhem and Murder Tour at Woodland Cemetery by going to our Tour page and downloading our Woodland Mobile App. 

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. It is the final resting place of the Wright Brothers, Erma Bombeck, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles F. Kettering, John H. Patterson, Gov. James M. Cox, George P. Huffman, George H. Mead, and Levi and Matilda Stanley, King and Queen of the Gypsy’s and more than 111,000 others who made it great in Dayton.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

History, Mystery, Murder and Mayhem at Woodland Cemetery: The Murder of Mamie Hagerty

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Royal Albert Fowler

Royal Albert “Roy” Fowler lived on Harshman Street and his back yard ran up to the back yard of Mary “Mamie” Hagerty. That’s where they met and where Roy became infatuated with Mamie. He bought her gifts and trinkets to show his admiration and they soon became a couple. And not long after, they began having lover’s quarrels.

Mamie had Roy arrested not once but three times. During one incident, he had threatened her life saying he was going to cut her throat so Mamie had him arrested on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. He served time in the workhouse and it was said that Mamie carried his meals to him and tantalized him while doing it.

On Saturday afternoon, August 18, 1906, Roy went to Mamie’s house and said, “Let’s make up.”

“Go to hell,” was Mamie’s reply.

Roy became so aggravated by her response that he pulled a revolver from his pocket and fired two shots at his sweetheart. Mamie ran from the house screaming and after she got outside, he fired two more shots at her. Mortally wounded, Mamie ran down the street and dropped dead at the corner of Second and Harshman streets at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Roy immediately left the area after the shooting and hopped on a Dayton, Covington and Piqua traction car and rode to West Milton. There he pawned the murder weapon to a man for $2. He stayed overnight there and in the morning boarded another car to Piqua where later that evening he read in the Dayton Herald the story of Mamie Hagerty’s murder. Roy went to police headquarters in Piqua and turned himself in. Dayton police traveled to Piqua and picked Roy up and placed him in the Montgomery County Jail.

Roy was represented by the law offices of attorney John Egan. Witnesses for the prosecution made a strong case against him. Mrs. Hagerty said the January before her daughter’s murder, Roy had thrown her daughter to the floor and attempted to cut her throat with a butcher knife. Jacob Donneker said he heard Roy shout, “God damn you. I’ll fix you,” and then he saw him fire two shots. Another witness, Isador Rosensweet claimed that he yelled to Roy, “Don’t run away, you coward.” Roy was indicted by the Grand Jury. His trial began on December 6, 1906 and he was found guilty of murder in the first degree on December 27. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair on May 29, 1907 at the Ohio State Penitentiary. When asked by the judge if he had anything to say about his sentence Roy replied, “Only this: That when I went over there, I had no more intention of killing her than you had.”

His attorney’s filed a motion for a new trial on nine grounds including allegations that several of the jurors had expressed opinions of the defendant’s guilt before the trial. The request was overruled.

Soon after being moved to Columbus, Roy was looking peaked and worried. He was not eating or sleeping well. The guards believed he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. They also expected trouble from him. A month later an extra guard was placed to watch over him. He acted up with prison attendants and was suspected by the guards of wanting to end his life. Less than two months after the placement of the additional guard, Roy was threatened with the “paddle and water” treatment unless he became more manageable. He was constantly causing general trouble and had threatened the life of a fellow inmate.

On May 23, 1907, just 6 days before he was to be executed, the Circuit Court suspended his death sentence from May 29 to August 20. He received a reprieve by Governor Harris until October 17 and on that day, the Board of Pardons refused further clemency and November 1 was selected for his day of execution.

In an early October interview, Roy referred to his execution as “the coming event.” He said that he feared dying and wanted to live but he had no hope of favor from the pardon board. He stated he had no inclination towards religion and spent most of his days and time into the wee hours of the morning reading novels about love and adventure. When not in arguments with his fellow inmates, he liked to engage in games of checkers and cards.

Attorney John Egan had worked hard for his client but in the end, he met death at the executioners hand and died a few minutes after midnight on November 1, 1907.

Unmarked grave site for Roy Fowler

Funeral services were held in Dayton on Monday, November 4. He was viewed by more than 3,000 people before the white plush casket he laid in was closed to the public. Only 27 people attended his grave side service. Roy’s last request, that a rose his mother gave him when she last saw him alive and the photo button bearing a likeness of his sweetheart, Mamie Hagerty, which he wore from the time of his arrest be buried with him. His request was granted. At the last minute, the rose his mother gave him was exchanged for another by his mother. She took the other rose home as a keepsake for her wayward son. Royal Albert Fowler is buried in an unmarked grave in Section 111 Lot 3009.

Mary Hagerty is buried in Calvary Cemetery.

 

You can visit the gravesite of Royal Albert Fowler and all of the other people on the History, Mystery, Mayhem and Murder Tour at Woodland Cemetery by going to our Tour page and downloading our Woodland Mobile App. 

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. It is the final resting place of the Wright Brothers, Erma Bombeck, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles F. Kettering, John H. Patterson, Gov. James M. Cox, George P. Huffman, George H. Mead, and Levi and Matilda Stanley, King and Queen of the Gypsy’s and more than 111,000 others who made it great in Dayton.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

History, Mystery, Mayhem and Murder at Woodland Cemetery: Counterfeiter Nelson Driggs

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Nelson Driggs was known as one of the most famous counterfeiters in the United States. Secret Servicemen from back in the day regarded him “as one of the cleverest counterfeiters in the country.” His life was filled with adventure and crime but there was a soft-side of him too.

Prior to Driggs landing in Dayton, he had served time in the Joliet, Illinois penitentiary for manufacturing counterfeit money. He had been sentenced for fifteen years and served nearly all of it but was released early for good behavior.

When he came to Dayton, he settled in town on South Main Street but soon moved out to the road house known as The Abbey on Home Avenue near the Soldier’s Home. It was here that Driggs is said to have dealt in counterfeit money with his notorious partner Jim Guyon. Guyon was also very well known by the Secret Service and in 1888, the G-men “swooped down” upon The Abbey one evening with Guyon fleeing but Driggs and his wife captured.

The trial of Nelson Driggs and his wife Gertie became one of the most remarkable and interesting trials in the history of the U.S. Courts. The trial was held in Cincinnati and “almost every witness called sprung a surprise in his or her testimony.” Charges against Driggs and his wife were discharged.

Nelson Driggs was also known as a generous man and a good friend to the poor. He was known to house the poor in his home giving them food, clothing and shelter during the winter months and never asking for anything in return. He didn’t like to talk about these small acts of kindness.

He was a man who always paid his bills and one time he went to the Dayton Herald office to pay his subscription bill. He laid a small sack of Mexican dollars on the counter. Of course the money was refused and Driggs vowed to never pay his bill again, but he did pay it, each and every year and promptly too. Rumor was that he made the trip to Mexico to dispose of some of his own counterfeit bills. Upon his return he had a bag of good Mexican money and a herd of ponies.

Nelson Driggs died at The Abbey on December 17, 1895. He was 84 years old. He was laid to rest at Woodland Cemetery on April 23, 1896 in Section 110 Lot 2982.

 

You can visit the gravesite of Nelson Driggs and all of the other people on the History, Mystery, Mayhem and Murder Tour at Woodland Cemetery by going to our Tour page and downloading our Woodland Mobile App. 

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. It is the final resting place of the Wright Brothers, Erma Bombeck, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles F. Kettering, John H. Patterson, Gov. James M. Cox, George P. Huffman, George H. Mead, and Levi and Matilda Stanley, King and Queen of the Gypsy’s and more than 111,000 others who made it great in Dayton.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

Street Names of Dayton: Home Avenue

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HOME AVENUE, once known as KING AVENUE until 1895, is named for William King.

William King was the son of Victor and Jane (Moffit) King born in Tyrone Township, York County, now Adams County, Pennsylvania. He served as a Private in the Revolutionary War from his home state and afterwards moved to Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky in 1789. Because of his views on slavery, he moved his family to Dayton in 1799 and arrived in town with just one dollar in his pocket. He found few houses in the newly settled village so he and his family lived in their wagon until he could build them a log cabin to live in. In 1801, Mr. King and his wife Nancy purchased 500 acres of land in the Harrison Township area. He then purchased 1,160 acres which he sold in exchange for his payment. By this method, he was able to have his land paid off by 1807 with full title.

Mr. King then moved two miles west of the Miami River to the area of what would become Western Avenue* and Home Avenue. Mr. King took out a license in 1811 to run a ferry over the Miami River charging a man and his horse a fee of 12 ½ cents. He was a member of the Moral Society of Dayton in 1818, and was a Clerk and Elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Dayton, of which he was one of the original members. In January 1819, he became a member of a corporation that operated a toll bridge which crossed the Miami River at Bridge Street until it was washed away in 1852. In 1829, he was moderator of the Dayton Temperance Society.  In 1830, Mr. King sold most of his large estate of 395 acres.

Mr. King married his wife Nancy Waugh on April 2, 1787 in Tyrone Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. Nancy died on June 30, 1839 at the age of 67 and was buried at the Presbyterian grave yard on Fifth Street, as Woodland Cemetery had not yet been established. She received her final interment at Woodland on September 20, 1864.

William King was born January 3, 1764 and died September 19, 1863 in Dayton, Ohio, at the age of 99 years. He lived longed enough to hear that Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that proclaimed that all slaves be freed by January 1, 1863.

There are eight King Family members buried side by side in Section 82 Lot 403 in Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum.

*Note: James H. McGee Blvd. was formerly known as Western Avenue.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers free of charge. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

Women of Woodland: Marj Heyduck

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Marjorie Irene Heyduck: Columnist and Journalist

Dayton Journal Herald
October 7, 1969
Page 23

Marj Heyduck, The Journal Herald’s nationally known columnist and a journalist since 1936, was found dead September 15 at her home hear Greenville in Darke County. Mrs. Heyduck, who was 56, was found by a neighbor, and died of coronary insufficiency.

Marj was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Evers of Dayton. She graduated from Stivers High School in 1931 and majored in journalism at Ohio State University.

Marj got her start in the newspaper business in the women’s department of the old Dayton Herald in 1936. Leaving that job, she worked for the Dayton Press, a weekly newspaper, and broadcast a daily human interest and woman’s feature program over WING radio from 1939 to 1941.

She rejoined the Herald as a general assignment reporter in 1943 and began her regular column which later gained fame as “Third and Main” a year later.

It was at that time that she began a feature column on wrestling for the Herald’s sports department. Tales of her escapades as a reporter covering wrestling matches in Southern Ohio entertained hundreds of women at regular “Tea With Marj” occasions throughout the Miami Valley.

Marj was named editor of the Herald’s Women’s Department in 1948 and became women’s editor of The Journal Herald when the two newspapers were merged in 1949.

She gave up her title as women’s editor in 1966 and was named assistant to the editor, an honorary title, but she continued her daily “Third and Main” column for The Journal Herald’s Modern Living section.

Marj was best known for her sense of humor and devotion to anecdotes. She spun her tales from the thin thread of the most common, everyday occurrences, embroidering them with a bit of fancy and securing them in a bright burst of hilarity.

Marj’s affairs with hats were almost as legendary as her anecdotes. She seldom appeared in public without a hat and made a great fuss over them at her teas and in her column. She also demanded whenever possible that the picture that ran with her column be changed daily, each day with a different hat – a practice that left Journal Herald photographers sometimes fearing for their sanity.

Marj’s journalism prizes were numerous and her reputation as a columnist was nationwide. She won more than 75 prizes over the years in annual contests of the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Association; she won a National Headliners Award in 1946; was given the best column in Ohio award by United Press International in 1963; and her women’s pages won first place in the University of Missouri’s Penney Award for Excellence in 1964.

Marj was a regular discussion leader at women’s editor seminars at the American Press Institute at Columbia University appearing there

23 times between 1952 and 1968. She also was invited to lead similar discussion for the Ottoway Papers and the Press Associations of California, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

Marj married Emerson C. Heyduck, an insurance sales man and also a native Daytonian in 1934. Mr. Heyduck died in 1953. They had no children.

Charles T. Alexander, editor of The Journal Herald, had this to say of Marj: “She was as comfortable as home. She was as much a part of The Journal Herald as its masthead. The regard from all who knew her and read her column for her is inestimable. The depth of our personal loss is inestimable.”

Said James M. Cox Jr., chairman of the board of Dayton Newspapers, Inc.: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of Marj Heyduck, Dayton’s best loved newspaperwoman.

“Her ‘Third and Main’ column brought good cheer and warm human sentiments daily for a quarter of a century. To thousands of Journal Herald readers, Marj was a welcome morning visitor. We share with them a feeling of great loss. Marj was truly an outstanding journalist, but even more a great lady.”

As a columnist, Marj traveled widely. Many of her columns were written from the scenes of national political conventions and inaugural balls where she found anecdotes and other material overlooked by thousands of other correspondents.

She also wrote her column from the decks of riverboats bound for New Orleans; from international fashion shows on New York’s Fifth Avenue, and from her stateroom aboard the SS Independence cruising in the Mediterranean.

But perhaps her best columns were written from tips and anecdotes exchanged over the phone with friends who called her regularly and strangers who overcame their awe and phoned nervously with a good story.

She also wrote frequently about her beloved Darke County and the small Ohio city of Greenville near her home at Wayne Lakes Park where she lived alone following her husband’s death.

Marj was a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board, a Dayton Corps Trustee and a member of the Dayton Stivers Foundation.

Her three books, published by The Journal Herald, are The Best of Marj, published in 1962; The Anniversary Marj, 1964; and The Third Marj, 1966.

Marjorie Irene Heyduck died on September 15, 1969. She is located in Section 126 Lot 2. Unfortunately, no headstone was put in place for either her or her husband. The photo shows the area where Marj and Emerson are buried.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers free of charge. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

Women of Woodland: Miss America Marion Bergeron

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     A life-long public speaker and supporter of the Miss America Pageant, Marion Bergeron still holds the crown as the youngest Miss America in history, winning at the age of 15 – 1/2.
     Miss Bergeron entered the contest as the winner of a local pageant as a way to get a stash of movie theater tickets for her and her sister. She didn’t know that she would actually win and it wasn’t so easy being such a young winner. She received many prizes including a car in which she couldn’t drive and a screen test from RKO Pictures which they rescinded due to her age. The crown that had been placed on her head was stolen from her room at the Ritz Carlton the very same night she earned it.
     Marion was a typical teenager from a typical family. Born and raised in West Haven, Connecticut, she attended a Catholic high school. Her father was a patrol man with the town police and her mother stayed home and took care of the house and kids and accompanied young Marion to the pageant as her chaperone.
     While Marion was blessed with blonde bombshell looks, she was quite an accomplished singer by the age of twelve and after winning the title of Miss America, she went on to perform professionally with the “Miss America Orchestra” as well as famous musicians such as Ozzie Nelson, Guy Lombardo and Rudy Vallee who she once labelled “an octopus.”
As an active representative of the Miss America pageant, Marion traveled with other winners raising money for the Boys and Girls Club of America. When she was home in Dayton, she volunteered for Kettering Medical Center, Hospice and other local civic organizations including serving as PTO president and a Girl Scout Leader.

Marion married Donald Ruhlman with whom she had three children. She became a widow in 1972. She remarried and soon found herself widowed again. In 1987, she married for a third time to Mr. Fred Setzer who made her a three-time widow in March of 2002. Marion died just seven months later in October of 2002. She had been known as the youngest winning Miss America and the oldest living Miss America.

     Marion Bergeron was was born on May 3, 1918 in West Haven, Connecticut and died on October 22, 2002 in Dayton, Ohio at the age of 84 from complications of leukemia. She is located in Section 123 Lot 11.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

Women of Woodland: Betty Dietz Krebs

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A nationally recognized writer on music, Betty began her career at the age of 15 when she wrote freelance music reviews for the former Dayton Journal newspaper. During her 53 years at the Dayton Daily News, she held the positions of women’s page editor, art critic and arts editor.
During World War II, she held brief stints in nearly every editorial post at the paper and in the 1950s, she hosted her own television show on WHIO-TV. It was in 1962 that Betty created the annual Ten Top Women Awards program that honors women who have made significant community achievements. To date, more than 550 women have the the honor as a Ten Top Women Awards recipient.
Betty Dietz married William J. Krebs who was a nationally known choral conductor and founder of the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus. 
Mrs. Krebs was born on  February 14, 1921 in Dayton, Ohio and died on December 31, 1999 in Dayton at the age of 78. She is buried in Section 126 Lot 398.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

Street Names of Dayton: Torrence Street and Huffman Avenue

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HUFFMAN AVENUE and TORRENCE STREET are named for Torrence Huffman, real estate developer and owner of Huffman Prairie where the Wright Brothers flew and tested their airplanes.

Torrence was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Woodland Cemetery Association from May 1903 until his death on January 6, 1928. He also served as its treasurer from 1890 to 1896. He was a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio and served as one of their trustees and chairman of the finance committee. He was one of the original organizers of the Fourth National Bank and first served as its vice-president for five years and then president for twenty five years until the bank merged with the Dayton Savings and Trust Company. In 1916, he became financially involved with the Buckeye Iron & Brass Works serving as its director and principal owner until his death in 1928. He was also a director at the Dayton Railway Company as well as the Dayton State Hospital. 

 

Torrence Huffman was born in Dayton, Ohio on March 20, 1855 and died on January 6, 1928. He was married to Annie Beckel, daughter of Daniel and Susannah (Harshman) Beckel. Torrence and Annie had four children: Susannah, William, Geraldine and Charlotte. The entire family is buried in Section 52 Lot 1167 in Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers free of charge. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm and until 7 pm during Daylight Saving Time. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

 

Luminaries of Dayton: David D. Albritton

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David D. Albritton was an Olympic medalist, state legislator, and longtime Dayton businessman. He won a silver medal in the high-jumping competition at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, competing alongside his lifelong friend and Ohio State University teammate Jesse Owens. He established the world high jump record, at that time, with a leap of 6 feet, 9 and 7/8 inches. He later became a teacher and coach at Dunbar High School, where he led the team to three state track championships and broke the segregation barrier, leading the way for Dunbar to compete in the Public High School League. In 1960, Mr. Albritton was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. The Ohio Amateur Athlete of the Year award is named in Dave Albritton’s honor.

Mr. Albritton died on May 14, 1994. He is located in Section 300 Lot 86.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the UD Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland website.

Luminaries of Dayton: John F. Edgar

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John F. Edgar was born October 19, 1814 on the farm that Robert, his father, had established in 1811, on the hills east of Wayne Avenue in Dayton. John received his formal education mostly on his father’s farm and the “Old Red Schoolhouse,” the former tavern of William VanCleve. Mr. Edgar lost his appeal for farming and eventually turned to the trade practiced earlier by his father, that of building contracting. His father helped provide him with all the secrets of the trade and by the year of 1832, he became a sole agent, becoming extremely successful at his craft. In 1838, because of his building contracts, he worked on railroad and turnpike construction projects and soon became an incorporator and secretary of the Dayton-Springfield Turnpike. By 1842, he was one of the organizers of the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad and was appointed superintendent. John F. Edgar was an original subscriber to the 1841 Woodland Cemetery Association.

About the time of the Civil War, Mr. Edgar left the construction business and opened a family grocery on Main Street.  It was while conducting business and conversing with the various citizens that he was able to learn firsthand accounts from those directly involved with the city’s development. He soon became so apt in his knowledge of local history that he was considered by many as the official historian and received much acclaim. His history book, “Pioneering Life in Dayton & Vicinity,” was published and available when the Centennial of Dayton was observed for one week, beginning on September 14, 1896. Needless to say, it met with instant success. Today his work is still being read and borrowed from by so many of us who are caught up in the study of our city’s history.

John Farris Edgar died on August 15, 1905 at the age of 90. He is located in Sec 57 Lot 44.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers free of charge. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

Luminaries of Dayton: Swords as a cemetery symbol

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Crossed swords are often see on the gravestones of veterans, especially officers and symbolizes that the deceased died in battle.

 

G. A. R. – stands for Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization for men who fought and were honorably discharged from the Union Army during the Civil War.

On Capt. Curtis’s head stone we find quite a bit of information. His rank, his regiment and state served from, where he died in battle and date and his age at death.

Capt. D. K. Curtis of the 11 REG ONG fell at Mission Ridge, Tenn. November 25, 1863. Aged 23 years, 11 months, 17 days.

John S. Downs was a Civil War Union Army Officer. He served during the Civil War as Captain and commander of Company B, 4th New York Volunteer Infantry. He was killed at the Battle of Antietam during his regiment’s participation in the Union assault on the Sunken Road. His name is inscribed on the 4th New York Infantry Monument that stands in the Antietam National Cemetery, and on the New York State Monument in the Antietam National Battlefield.

Captain Downs died on September 17, 1862 at the age of 38.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the UD Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. Fore more information call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland website.

Luminaries of Dayton: Daniel C. Cooper

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What if Dayton had been named Cooperstown?

Seventeen days after the Treaty of Greenville, Judge Cleves Symmes of New Jersey, sold the seventh and eight ranges of his vast land holdings, between the Great Miami and Mad Rivers on one side and the little Miami on the other to Governor Arthur St. Clair, General Jonathan Dayton, General James Wilkinson, and Colonel Israel Ludlow. Jonathan Dayton was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence but he never saw or visited his name-sake city. Gen. St. Clair employed Benjamin VanCleve and Daniel C. Cooper, a surveyor, to be their agent. Cooper blazed the trail from Fort Hamilton up the east bank of the Miami River to the mouth of the Mad River. The next expedition was conducted personally by Colonel Ludlow on November 4, 1795.

During the winter of 1795, forty six men in Cincinnati agreed to settle in the new town but when the time came, only nineteen responded. William Hamer and George Newcom were in charge of the two overland parties, which would follow the trail laid out previously by Cooper. Newcom’s party, walked the distance of 55 miles, taking two weeks to make the journey. The Samuel Thompson party made the journey in ten days, by pirogue. Benjamin VanCleve was one that helped propel the boat. It was a long narrow boat which had boards running along each side which walked those who would propel the boat. They would hold their poles against the bottom of the river near the head of the boat and bringing the ends of the poles to their shoulders and then walked slowly down the running board to the stern, returning at a quick pace to the bow for a new set. VanCleve, who surveyed with Daniel Cooper, was so impressed with the Dayton area, that it was his enthusiasm which enticed the settlers to make the journey.

Newcom’s Tavern was the first cabin erected, and soon the town was well under way, but trouble soon erupted in 1800, and the town nearly folded. Judge Cleves Symmes had not made good on his government land contract. The U. S. Government decided to increase their demand for payment from the original 68 cents per acre to 2 dollars per acre. Some of the Dayton settlers left town in disgust. In 1802, only five families remained in Dayton.

Cooper Female Academy

It was Daniel C. Cooper who came to the aid of the settlers. Most of all it was Cooper’s utmost faith in Dayton which moved him to action. Therefore a petition from his own hand was dispatched to Congress telling them what a hard time the Dayton people were having, how faithfully they had worked and how cruel it would be to dispossess them after such a good start. Cooper then took over on his own responsibility the title risk and bought outright from each settler his holdings, until practically the whole of Dayton was his. Because of Cooper’s generosity, the town was forever free of invalid titles and all future arrivals had their titles secured. Cooper donated land areas for churches, schools and businesses and even two cemeteries.

Daniel Cooper was the first surveyor, he also donated the land for the first graveyard located at Third and Main streets in 1805 and again donated land about 10 years later to establish the Fifth Street Graveyard located between Ludlow and Wilkinson streets. It was at his mill in 1799, that the first death was recorded, that of John Davis, and due to the death of Mr. Davis, the first fire department was established. Mr. Cooper also had the first distillery which was located on his farm in 1799, and he ran the first carriage in 1817.

“In no way did Daniel Cooper confer a greater benefit upon his town,” wrote Robert W. Steele in his history, “than by inducing a number of men of

superior education, character and business capacity to come here from his native New Jersey and other places between 1804 and 1808.” Charles Russell Greene, Joseph Pierce and Horatio Gates Phillips were among those men.

From the Roz Young series of articles written about Cooper and published in the Dayton Daily News in 1994, she writes:

On the morning of July 13, 1818, Phillips walked to Cooper’s house. “The church bell was delivered to my place this morning,” he said.
Cooper looked at his pocket watch. “There’s time to take it to the church before lunch,” he told Phillips. “I’ll pick it up directly.”

He fetched a wheelbarrow from his barn and pushed it to the store on the southeast corner of Second and Main. He set the wheelbarrow down by the bell where it rested on the gravel street. It never occurred to him to ask Phillips to help him load the bell on the wagon. It was heavy, and he tugged and pulled and strained to hoist it into the barrow. The veins on his forehead head stood out as the blood rushed through them as he struggled. Finally with the bell in the wheelbarrow, he started for the church.

He started down Second Street, but before he had gone very far, his hands lost their grasp on the barrow handles and he fell over in the street.

Daniel Cooper was dead. A blood vessel in his brain had burst.

When he died, Cooper was 45, the leading citizen of Dayton. He had a beautiful wife and a 6-year-old son. He had recently begun building a new home, which was planned to be the most imposing, elegant house in Dayton.

His death stunned the community.

Of all the land that Cooper gave to the city, only the plot he gave “for a public walk forever” still remains. The Montgomery County Public Library was built on the land, and for a few years the surrounding area was called Library Park. But finally the city fathers passed a resolution that it should be called Cooper Park.

Cooper Park Historical Marker

Near the rear entrance of the library the Montgomery County Historical Society erected a marker in 1974, which reads:

Cooper Park

Daniel C. Cooper (1773-1818) perhaps more than any other deserves to be called the founder of Dayton. A surveyor with Israel Ludlow, Cooper settled in Dayton in the summer of 1796 and became the titular owner of the town when the original proprietors defaulted. He platted the city, laying out broad streets “four poles wide” and built most of the early mills. Cooper served as Dayton’s first justice of the peace and as a member of the state legislature. He donated ground for a graveyard, lots for churches, schools and public buildings, as well as the land for this park.

Daniel Cooper died on July 13, 1818. He was the 28th interment at Woodland Cemetery having been removed from the old 5th Street Cemetery to Woodland on May 4, 1844. He is located in Section 55 Lot 1.

July 13, 2018 marks the 200th Anniversary of the death of Daniel Cooper. We hope you will come out to pay a visit to the “Father of Dayton” and thank him for putting the Gem City on the map.

Luminaries of Dayton: John C. Cline

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John Cline died from a stroke of paralysis in 1922 at 78 years of age. He had served his tenure of 53 years at Woodland Cemetery of Dayton, working at the cemetery from the age of nine. His parents, John and Teresa Cline, had arrived in this country from Switzerland in 1844, the year John was born. They moved to Dayton soon after arriving, but one year later John became an orphan after his father died of cholera and his mother died the same year. Mr. Cline was adopted by George Lane, the third sexton of Woodland Cemetery. When John was a boy of 12 years, Mr. Lane gave him his first employment as a gate attendant, opening and closing the gates, and perhaps it was there he learned reverence for the dead, as horses and buggies solemnly entered and exited the cemetery. At the age of 25, Mr. Cline took upon himself the job of Superintendent of Woodland Cemetery on May 14, 1869.  He attended 38,377 burials before his death in 1922. Many of the improvements of the cemetery were attributed entirely to the efforts of Mr. Cline, especially the original surveys of Woodland he did for John W. VanCleve, the founder of the cemetery. At the outbreak of the Civil War, John enlisted in the Union Army, serving three years with the First Ohio Volunteer Regiment.

John VanCleve successfully set up the cemetery, with paid Sextons and they were: Benjamin Hughes, (July 1, 1843 – July 1, 1848), William Myers (July 17, 1848 – March 1, 1853), George Lane (March 1, 1853 – Sept. 5, 1860), and being succeeded by his son, William W. Lane (Sept. 5, 1860 – June 14, 1869). A new position of Superintendent was filled by John Cline, his son Luther and his grandson John C. Cline. The Cline Family remained in the position of superintendent for well over 100 years.

John C. Cline died on August 22, 1922 and buried in Section 46 Lot 190.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers free of charge. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.

Luminaries of Dayton: Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth

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Lorenzo L. Langstroth (1810 – 1895)
Father of American Beekeeping

Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth was born December 25, 1810, in Philadelphia. He became pastor of the South Congregational Church in Andover, Massachusetts in May of 1836 and was a teacher at Yale University. In 1852, he moved to Oxford, Ohio and took up the work of bee keeping for which he is best known. The world of insects held a fascination for Lorenzo from a very early age but the one that turned out to be his life-long ambition was the bee. It was while visiting the home of one of his church members, who was a keeper of bees, that his interest in bee keeping was once again revived. Mr. Langstroth tried his hand at beekeeping and quickly became dissatisfied with the primitive methods of harvesting the honey. He read the latest books of his time, but their methods were crude, resulting in the death of a large amount of the bee population, so in order to attain the honey he constructed a beehive which contained a baseboard where the bees entered. What was the main difference between his beehive and the rest?

Patent No. 9,300 Bee Hive L. L. Langstroth 1852

Before Mr. Lanstroth’s invention, the bees attached their combs to the walls of the hive and the only way to get the comb out was to cut them out, which spoiled the comb and wasted much honey.

Mr. Langstroth’s hive housed a removable frame, a place to store the excess honey and a roof. He left a 3/8″ space between the hive wall and the frames in which the combs were built. The bees did not build across the space, leaving the comb frames free to be easily removed by the bee keeper.

His book, “Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee” written in 1853, was reprinted, revised and translated into various languages before and after his death. Though his invention was used throughout the world, he made little money because of infringements of his copyright, Patent No. 9300. He did not have the financial resources for attorney fees, court costs, etc. Mr. Langstroth lived in the East End of Dayton in 1894 with his daughter, Anna L. Cowan. Lorenzo Langstroth passed away at the podium while addressing the Wayne Avenue Presbyterian Church on October 6, 1895 at the age of 84. Mr. Langstroth is located in Section 103 lot 2634 at Woodland Cemetery. Cemetery records reflect the name on the file card was Longstroth but someone had later hand written the name Langstroth and added “Bee Man”.

Lorenzo L. Langstroth Monument at Woodland Cemetery

The following is the inscription on the front of Mr. Langstroth’s monument:

Inscribed to the memory of Rev. L.L Langstroth, “Father of American beekeeping,” by his affectionate beneficiaries who, in the remembrance of the service rendered by his persistent and painstaking observations and experiments with the honey bee, his improvements in the hive, and the literary ability shown in the first scientific and popular book on the subject of beekeeping in the United States, gratefully erect this monument.

The back of his monument reads:
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,
that they may rest from their labors, and their
work do follow them.”

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s five oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio as you will see as you read through this new MostMetro.com series. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers free of charge. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the UD Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland website.

 

Luminaries of Dayton: Dr. Dagobert Anton Scheibenzuber

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Dr. Dagobert  Anton Scheibenzuber was devoted to the practice of medicine and displayed considerable power in coping with the intricate problems that continually confronted him as a physician. He was born near the Danube in Austria on December 5, 1868. His father, Anton Scheibenzuber, was also a doctor and brought the family to Hamilton, Ohio in 1870. Anton moved his practice to Dayton after a few years and died in Dayton in 1891.

In 1886, Dagobert became a student at the University of Vienna, where his father had previously been a student. There he attended lectures for four years and spent six months studying his profession in Prague before moving back to the states. In 1891, he graduated from the Cincinnati School of Medicine & Surgery and practiced in Dayton. He was a Professor of Pathological Anatomy and Histology at the Cincinnati School.

Dr. Scheibenzuber was the first pathologist appointed at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Dayton and served in that capacity for five years. He served as physician and surgeon for St. Joseph Orphans Home in Dayton and was Medical Examiner for the Cleveland Life Insurance Co.

Dr. Dagobert Anton Scheibenuzber died on February 25, 1936 at the age of 69.He is buried in Section 113 Lot 101. Anton Scheibenzuber died on August 11, 1891 at the age of 49. He is located on the family lot in Section 113.

Woodland Cemetery, founded in 1841, is one of the nation’s oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. Visit the cemetery and arboretum and take one of the many tours Woodland offers free of charge. Most of Dayton’s aviation heroes, inventors and business barons are buried at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum is located at 118 Woodland Avenue off of Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. The Woodland Office is open Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm and Saturday 8 am to 12 pm. The Cemetery and Arboretum are open daily from 8 am to 6 pm. The Mausoleum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 937-228-3221 or visit the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum website.