One new web site is dedicated to bringing the history of Dayton, Ohio to the web. Dayton History Books Online is available to everyone at no charge.
The stated mission of Dayton History Books Online is "to make books and other materials about Dayton available to children and the general public in a format that can easily be read and searched, for use in homework and personal projects. Through the collaboration of local libraries, universities, archives, businesses and individuals, we hope is to create online the most complete collection of Dayton local histories possible."
I took a quick look at the list of books already available and found:
The Backgrounds of Early Dayton History
by Professor W. B. Werthner Copyright 1928The Bench and Bar of Dayton
by Hon. Lewis B. Gunkel Copyright 1900Boyer's, the Circus & Other Historical Reminiscences
by Chip Boyer Copyright 2003 All Rights ReservedA Boy's Impression of Dayton 64 Years Ago
by Michael Ohmer Copyright 1901Dayton From the Air
by Walter Wyatt Snypp Copyright 1923Education of Girls in Dayton Cooper Seminary
Author unknown Published 1911
And much more. The above is just an excerpt to show the sort of material found on the site; a much longer list is available.
This site has only been online for about two months but already has a lot of information available. If your ancestors lived in Dayton, you will want to keep an eye on Dayton History Books Online.
Constable Samuel Thompson (1753-1815) is my 4th great-granduncle. Son of John and Ann Thompson of NC, Samuel went first to PA, then to what is now Cincinnati. He was the LEADER of the FIRST settlers to arrive in what is now Dayton on 1 April 1796 and is thus the FIRST CITIZEN OF DAYTON, a fact too long IGNORED! Someday he will be accorded the title he EARNED but which later "historians" denied to him due to the RECORDED activities of his step-son, Benjamin VanCleve and others. It is very difficult to gain CORRECTION of INCORRECT history.
Samuel was the local Constable (now "Sheriff") for awhile.
His cabin was at the site of the present-day Wright Brothers & airplane monument on Monument Avenue (originally Water Street.) This writer, Dr. Kent, noted this in a Dayton Daily News writing long before this monument was built. The 26 Dec 2004 DDN article "Landing at home" on page E3 by Jim DeBrosse creates the impression that Louis Chmiel was the first to discover this previously "unknown" (!) fact. Did Chmiel or DeBrosse ever review this subject matter in DDN archives? See DDN 11 April 1986, page 10, "Let's begin to plan 200th anniversary" by Dr. Lawrence Kent (me).
Samuel Thompson drowned in the Mad River at age 61 in February 1815 at site of today's Keowee Street Bridge. This then unbridged site had once been referred to by locals as the "Staunton ford". Those people traveling north, riding a horse or by a horse-drawn wagon, destined for the small village of Staunton (now Troy OH...and current route to Troy beginning at our Troy Street) would ford the Mad River at that higher graveled river-bed level. The occasional warmer days, then and now, create some some early snow melt which make all local rivers dangerous on such days. Samuel trusted his footing to the always too-fast Mad River, which was named for its basic nature. He suffered the consequences. In my own youth, in Dayton long ago, drownings in our rivers were, sadly, not at all uncommon. This writer played at those rivers as a child, slid down the rushing waters at the east end of Steele's Dam (no longer possible due to huge boulders there now), played at McCook Field with our dogs, and at Deeds Park, and sometimes witnessed arduous attempts to recover bodies by "Box 21" boaters.
Samuel Thompson's wife was Catherine Benham VanCleve Thompson (NJ 1756-1837 Dayton) whose first husband was John VanCleve (1749-1791, death by scalping by Native Americans). Samuel and Catherine were married in May 1792 in Losantiville OH.
Catherine had 6 issue by husband #1 John VanCleve, i.e., Benjamin, Anna (Holt), Margaret (Reeder), William, Mary (1-McClain & 2-Swaynie), & Amey (Shields). Mary was the first to step ashore and NOT her mother Catherine (direct ancestress of the Wright family). The plaque at RiverScape is WRONG and the Carillon Park rangers have it WRONG. My CORRECTIONS of this INCORRECT history sent to directors of Five Rivers Metro Parks and Dayton History at Carillon Park gained no response nor correction of such errors!
Samuel and Catherine Thompson were parents of four children, as follows. Sarah (Ensey), Matthew, Catharine (Beebe), and Jane Thompson.
The nephew of FIRST CITIZEN OF DAYTON Samuel Thompson was Sylvester Thompson (NC 1766-1826 Miami Co. OH), my 3rd great-grandfather. Sylvester Thompson sold his NC property, which included, land, two copper (whiskey) stills and two slaves, in 1804. This was 8 years after Sameul settled in what is now Dayton. Following his uncle Samuel's lead, Sylvester then bought property in north Montgomery County OH (in an area which was to become Miami County 3 years later in 1807).
Sylvester's wife was "Polly" Mary Seward Thompson (ca.1775-1843). "Polly" is the daughter of Samuel Seward Sr. (NJ 1754-1815 KY), my 4 GGF, who began what became known as the "Ole Augusta Ferry" on the Ohio River from Bracken County KY to the Ohio from 1798 to his death in 1815. Many of Ohio's first settlers, and ancestors of many current-day Ohioans, entered via Seward's ferry.This ferry was still in operation in 1986 near Augusta KY (see DDN, 7 April 1986 page 1 and see DDN 2 May 1986 page 24.)
This writer's paternal Seward blood-kin include U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward (1801-1872), Lincoln's only supporter in his cabinet. All of the Lincoln cabinet members, except Seward, wanted to punish the South. Lincoln opposed such punishment. Returning from his Richmond visit after the Confederate defeat, Lincoln went first to the bedside of Seward, who had eventually become his friend and supporter. This was a few days before Lincoln's murder.
In May 1860, at the Wigwam in Chicago, NY Governor Seward had also sought the Republican presidential nomination. On the first ballot Seward received 173 1/2 votes and Lincoln 102. On the third ballot Seward garnered 180 votes to Lincoln's 231 1/2 votes. The nomination was thus secured by Lincoln and, at first, they had been rivals. However, that had changed over time.
Before Lincoln's return from Richmond, Seward had received major injuries in a carriage accident and had become bedridden at his Washington mansion. A conspirator had forced his way into Seward's home, on the night of Lincoln's assassination and tried to kill the bedridden Seward. This writer has the Lincoln assassination newspaper (from his paternal family's possession) the NY Herald of 15 April 1865 which also details the attack on Secretary Seward. He did survive and in the Johnson Administration he convinced the Czar of Russia (also blood-kin of this writer) to sell the Alaska to the USA. "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox" proved to be otherwise!
In addition to the previous kinship-by-marriage of this writer and the Wright Brothers (via the marriage of Samuel Thompson and Catherine Benham VanCleve Thjompson), this writer is also the blood-kin of the Wright Brothers.
Deacon William Parke Sr. (1606/7-1685) and Martha Holgrave Parke (1611-1708) are the 6th great-grandparents of the Wright Brothers and the 8th great-grandparents of this writer.
See DDN 24 Dec. 1985 page 14 by Dr. Lawrence Kent (me) and the two books cited in that writing, re: the first 12 individuals arriving by pirogue on 1 April 1796.
My writings over the years, in multiple disciplines and in many publications throughout the USA, have striven to enlighten the readers thereof as to the TRUTH. One wonders at the success of such endeavors given the falsities too often repeated!
In years past I tried to stop errors in print at the DDN and errors in editing my writings by the DDN. I seldom submit my thoughts to the DDN anymore, prefering the Dayton City Paper for several writings since I last returned from Florda residency to Dayton.
My writing on the DAI directorship (DDN 12 Aug 07 page A15) had been in the third person, as I preferred, but it was changed to a first person writing by DDN editor. I did not care for other editing and omissions by DDN editors either. Most editors think they are better writers than any other writers.and they often mangle original compositions of others. DDN and all other media should publish commentary VERBATIM as originally written, including all spelling and grammatical errors and other "warts" as is. If a writer is not HI IQ and/or well-educated, the reader would then easily realize such factors and take that into account in weighing the writings truth and/or value. If all "corrections" by editors were no longer standard practise, we all would have a better perspective on the writer's knowledge and capabilites.
This writer has toiled in many disciplines, many fields, and is now in the beginning of his 8th decade. Having a love of genealogy and family history, he does disdain snobbery in all of its forms, including those who think having "fancy kin" makes them special. It does NOT. We all have such blood kin. With that said, I am quite proud of a recently discoverd kinship. I am the 8th cousin, by blood, to Senator Barack Hussein Obama Jr., the next President!!!
Sharing ancestry with 24 Presidents, I am the founder of Presidential Families of America, established in Orlando, Florida on 14 July 1995 by me alone. It is now a very successful hereditary society with hundreds of members nationwide who represent the bloodlines of all Presidents. PFA officers now reside in many states. The 4th PFA president is an attorney in San Francisco who lives in Tiburon CA.
As PFA Founder, by my letter of 30 August 2006 to Brady Kress, I proposed a "HALL OF THE PRESIDENTS AND FAMILY HISTORY" at Carillon Park to Mr. Kress, Director, Dayton History.
This proposed new institution would be a magnificient and appropriately grand facility for genealogical research, historical records and family records preservation, and location of PFA archives (many of which I now possess), and possibly the PFA HQ.
Louisville KY secured the HQ of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution some years ago, a real coup by Louisville leaders. I'm member of SAR and many other hereditary societies. The genealogical collection at the Ft. Wayne IN library draws a large number of genealogists and family history researchers consistently. So does the LDS facility in Salt Lake City and the National Archives and DAR in Washington DC. Dayton could be on that band wagon if my proposal had been heeded!
Family and general historical research and records preservation at the proposed new Dayton institution especially pertains to U.S. Presidents, but also pertains generally to all family history as well. The draw would not be limited to local people only but would include living members of all families wherever they now might reside nationwide or worldwide. PFA national HQ could be located at this proposed new Dayton institution. Statues of all Presidents would be a logical feature, as well as media presentations on ALL presidential administrations. In time it might well become the premier and ONLY facilty pertaining to ALL Presidents of the United States and a major tourist attraction itself. The PFA membership represents the bloodlines of all U.S. Presidents and its membership will expand even more through the years. As I envision this new institution, the HALL OF THE PRESIDENTS AND FAMILY HISTORY would best be located between Locust Grove School and the Carillon Blvd. entrance gate behind the Carillon itself but visible from Patterson and Carillon Blvds. A truly creative and imaginative person can easily visualize what a very special and spectacular addition this HOTP&FH could represent at Carillon Park.
My proposal fell on deaf ears! I might well be dead soon and, without me, no one at PFA would even consider locating PFA archives and PFA HQ at Carillon Park, or anywhere else in Dayton for that matter.
I'm a native of Dayton who TRULY loves the Greater Dayton Region. I've spent 50% of my life elsewhere and this is my sixth residence here! I've always come home eventually because I much prefer THIS spot on earth over so many other former places of residence or visitation. Once I'm gone, who else would be bold enough locally to propose that which I had easily envisioned as logically belonging in DAYTON, the birthplace of The Founder, Presidential Families of America? Who else?
Perhaps I will live long enough to again propose the founding of such an institution and to assist in its establishment some day...but not in Dayton, where I would have preferred its location. Short-sightedness at Dayton History must someday be overcome! I have always been a person who thinks BIG and who can grasp the POTENTIAL of a worthy proposal. Will others in the Greater Dayton Region of 1.6 million people continue to think SMALL?
Posted by: Dr. Lawrence Kent | August 19, 2007 at 04:16 AM
Dr. Kent,
Would you please provide me with the documented details of the parents of Samuel Thompson? He is my 6th GGF through Catherine Thompson Bebee.
Thank You,
Chuck
Posted by: Chuck | March 12, 2008 at 02:18 PM