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Restored in 1963, the Germantown Covered Bridge on East Center Street, spanning Little Twin Creek, was 93 years old and is reputed to be the only existing covered bridge of its kind in the world. For 41 years this unique inverted bow string truss covered bridge spanned Little Twin Creek on the Dayton Pike in Germantown, Ohio. In 1911 it was removed to its present location where it has been restored and beautified as a link with Ohio’s early history. It is a symbol of individual initiative in America’s early history.
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The first overland route between Dayton and Cincinnati was cut by Daniel Cooper in 1795 to provide access to the new town of Dayton, located at the mouth of the Mad River in the Symmes Purchase. The survey, entered into the record by Cooper and Dr. John Hole, extended Harmer’s Trace north from near Cunningham’s Station on the Mill Creek to the mouth of the Mad River, establishing the earliest road between Cincinnati and Dayton. This five-mile segment between David Road and State Route 725 is the last remaining traceable portion retaining this name. Cooper, a miller, was instrumental in the early settlement of Dayton, and Dr. Hole, the first physician in Montgomery County, established his cabin in 1796 on this part of Mad River Road.
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In 1899, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton built a kite to test a revolutionary flight control system, and in 1900, built their first airplane (glider). With promising results, the Wrights built man-carrying gliders and airplanes to refine their ideas. Wind tunnel experiments led to accurate calculations of lift and drag. In 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made the first sustained, controlled, powered flight in history, lasting 12 seconds. By 1905, the Wright brothers had developed the first practical airplane and the skills to pilot it. The U.S. Army Signal Corps purchased a Wright flyer, the first practical military aircraft, in 1909. Through public demonstrations beginning in 1908, the Wright brothers showed the world the future of aviation.
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Charles F. “Boss” Kettering was a prolific inventor. While at National Cash Register, he invented the first electric cash register. Kettering founded the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco) in 1909 and developed the electric self-starter for automobiles, first used in 1912 Cadillacs. He also developed no-knock Ethyl gasoline, lacquer car finishes, four-wheel brakes, safety glass, and high-compression engines; made significant improvements to diesel engines that led to their use in locomotives, trucks, and buses; and collaborated with Thomas Midgley, Jr. in the development of the refrigerant Freon. Kettering served as President of the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1918, co-founded the Engineers’ Club of Dayton (1914), and was director of research at General Motors Corporation from 1920 to 1947. His interest in medical and scientific research led to the founding of the Kettering Foundation and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.
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Erma Fiste was born in Dayton on February 21, 1927. While attending Patterson Cooperative High School, she worked as a copygirl for the Dayton Herald. After graduating from the University of Dayton in 1949, she married Bill Bombeck. She returned to the Dayton Journal-Herald as a reporter. Four years later she left the paper to raise three children, Betsy, Andy and Matt. She continued to write part-time from home. In 1965, Glenn Thompson of the Dayton Journal-Herald spotted her column in the Kettering-Oakwood Times and offered her a twice-a-week column. After three weeks he brought it to the attention of Newsday Syndicate. “At Wit’s End” grew to become nationally syndicated in over 900 newspapers. Erma wrote twelve books; nine made The New York Times Best Sellers List. In 1975 she joined the original cast of “Good Morning America” on ABC-TV and appeared regularly for eleven years.
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A Shaker village called Watervliet, Ohio, was located here from 1806-1900. The Shakers, originally called the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, were followers of Mother Ann Lee who came from Manchester, England in 1774 and established the first Shaker community in Watervliet, New York. The tenets of the religion included communal living, celibacy, and public confession of sins. The frenzied dance movements, which were part of the worship of their sect, gave the members the name “Shakers.” Attracted by the great Kentucky revivals in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Eastern Shaker missionaries came west to find converts and establish communities. A discontented Presbyterian congregation in the Beaver Creek area called Beulah was the nucleus for the Watervliet Shaker community. (continued on other side)
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Named for the 1903 co-inventors of the airplane, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, Wright Field has been the center of aeronautical research, development, and weapon system acquisition since its establishment. Wright Field assumed this mission and was dedicated on October 12, 1927 after McCook Field (1917-1927), America’s “Cradle of Aviation” near downtown Dayton, closed its gates. ?Here on this ground where Wilbur and Orville Wright brought to full life man’s age-old dream of rising in flight above the earth, we of Wright Field consecrate ourselves to the splendid vision and unswerving purpose which motivated those great and honored pioneers of the sky. Their patience, their firm determination, their untiring devotion to their aim ” these we take as a light to guide and inspire us.” –Creed of Wright Field, December 17, 1942
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The first African-American to achieve prominence as a poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar was born and raised in Dayton, the son of former slaves. Working as an elevator operator while he established himself as a writer, Dunbar published his first book of poems, Oak and Ivy, in 1893. His third collection, Lyrics of a Lowly Life (1896) with an introduction by another Ohio-born author William Dean Howells, gained Dunbar widespread critical acclaim and popular recognition. Widely published in contemporary journals and literary magazines, Dunbar employed both turn-of-the-century African-American dialect and standard English verse to give a voice to the themes of everyday discrimination and struggles for racial equality. Tuberculosis cut his life short at age 33. Dunbar’s body of work includes twelve volumes of poetry, four books of short stories, a play, and five novels.
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