Whatever happened to the Industrialist families of Dayton? (Oakwood, Jackson: 2014, home)

[randomparent]

I think I found it, but the addresses aren't lining up with what I see in the Dayton directory. It's a very large foursquare on the southwest corner of the intersection, facing Constance. In any case, I can tell you that there are Crauders in Carrmonte from the '30s through the '50s associated with NCR.

[trajan12345]

Thanks
NCR, that would make sense...

[randomparent]

Originally Posted by trajan12345

Thanks
NCR, that would make sense...

Yeah, and remember that a train service came right down Dixie from the NCR campus at one time, so I imagine a lot of SH residents were connected with the company. I do notice that the house is quite a bit nicer than its neighbors, as you pointed out, so perhaps the home's builder had a somewhat prestigious position. The street being named after the family does pique my curiosity. Do you remember anything else about the Crauders?

[trajan12345]

No, don't really know much more. Just something that has stuck with me since childhood.
Didn't know about the train running down Dixie, would love to see some pictures of that. It was already built out to it's Rt.25 configuration as a Boulevard when we moved there in 1960.

[randomparent]

Originally Posted by trajan12345

No, don't really know much more. Just something that has stuck with me since childhood.
Didn't know about the train running down Dixie, would love to see some pictures of that. It was already built out to it's Rt.25 configuration as a Boulevard when we moved there in 1960.

Ah, that I can do. Look here for an UrbanOhio article about the Carrmonte and Berkley Heights neighborhoods. It includes a photo and a description of the train's route.

[trajan12345]

Wow, that's a great article, thanks. I need to spend some more time on it tomorrow.

[randomparent]

Originally Posted by trajan12345

Wow, that's a great article, thanks. I need to spend some more time on it tomorrow.

Yep. Isn't it wonderful? I've learned a tremendous amount from Jefferey's articles about Dayton. Wish I knew him personally, because his research is just incredible.

[randomparent]

Originally Posted by GenericUsername73

You never hear anything about the Kettering family anymore, they seem to have no influence whatsoever. Ditto the Pattersons. It seems all they left is their names and their graves, but the families themselves either left or got diluted over the generations.
Do these families still exist at all? I've always wondered this.

I want to go back for a moment to this part of the post that kicked off the thread, because it's been percolating in the back of my mind for a couple of days, and it's worth discussing further. I think there are a few possible explanations to consider.

The first is the daughter issue. Some of these families were blessed with daughters whose names changed at marriage, obscuring the source of their inherited fortunes. Some of them married into other prominent Dayton families. (Huffman ---> Patterson) Others sent their daughters to be educated elsewhere where they met and married into wealthy and prestigious families from other parts of the country or even world. (Patterson ---> Prescott)

As an aside: Although I haven't checked, I'm wondering if a few of the families who live in the hills of east Oakwood and Kettering and donate generously to the various foundations and charities around the city are heirs to these fortunes. Same money, different names. Note: Although it would make for interesting reading, I'm trying to exercise some restraint in tracing families forward to the current day on a public forum. If I were an heir trying to raise my children out of the limelight, I wouldn't want their names splashed all over the web.

A second issue is the business merger or takeover. Sometimes a company joined forces with one or more other companies doing related work in another part of the country and designated a son, daughter (who has a different surname), or son-in-law to head things up. This could have been the case with families whose fortunes went east, like the Deeds.

Third, we have the remoteness issue. Let's face it, by most standards, Dayton is a pretty small city and a long way from the financial and political powerhouses of New York and DC. These families ran in social circles far beyond the reaches of southwestern Ohio, which leads us back to issues number one and two. I'm thinking here of the Mead family, whose marriage of their first daughter to a Walker smoothed passage of a Mead grandchild into politics.

A fourth issue came about when a local companies went public, thus diluting the originating family's influence. A Board of Directors brought in outside interests who were not rooted in Dayton. I think this was a huge issue for NCR. John H. Patterson was a progressive (at least for the time), who invested heavily in Dayton social programs.* His son, Frederick, stuck around for a few years and then took the company public. At that point, I think the final chapter was written, although it took many decades for NCR to pull up stakes for Georgia. When the descendants lose their place at the table, they'll seek their fortunes (or spend them) elsewhere.

Anyway, this is what has been bouncing around my head. Make of it what you will.

* Somewhere in my research, I came across a statement attributed to Patterson that I found intriguing: "A shroud has no pockets." I don't think you'd find many business magnates today with that attitude!

[randomparent]

The Parrotts...

In a previous post, I mentioned that a Reynolds daughter had married into the Parrott family. The Parrotts made their money in linseed oil (also, apparently, a foundry and marble dust), and they played a significant role in the founding of Oakwood. An archivist named Lisa Rickey with Dayton Public Libraries and the Dunbar Library at WSU has a blog called Glancing Backwards where she wrote a post about the Parrotts. Check it out. The whole blog is absolutely wonderful and a treasure trove of Dayton history. Definitely worth the time to explore.

Moving forward, I noticed toward the end of the blog post that a Parrott child married an Ohmer. The Ohmers are another fascinating Dayton family, and some of you may have knowledge of Nicholas Ohmer's house on Creighton St. in the Walnut Hills neighborhood east of Woodland Cemetery. Nicholas was a very prominent botanist, but he wasn't the only successful member of the Ohmer family. His brother did some pretty interesting stuff, too. I'll tackle the Ohmers in another post.

[randomparent]

For those of you visiting this thread from Facebook, thank you so much for your complimentary responses to my contributions here at City-Data! I am not a member of Facebook, so I have no capacity to post there, but please know that I'm flattered.

Although I haven't lived there in many years, I am a fifth-generation Daytonian with connections to many parts of the Miami Valley. About twenty years ago, I experienced a really strong impulse to research my family roots and jumped down the rabbit hole so to speak. With each new branch discovered my knowledge of my hometown grew.

It's sometimes a little difficult to do effective research from such a distance, but I have a selection of bookmarks on my computer to Dayton history websites like Dayton History Books On-line and Daytonology. And of course Google Maps/Streetview, the Montgomery County website, and Ancestry are my constant on-line companions. I also have access to a great public library with an extensive genealogy department where I've worked with professional historians much smarter than me.

I make no claims to be an expert; I'm just someone with a lot of interest in the region and a lot of time to read. I know there are others like me out there, and I'd love to see what you've uncovered, too.

Best regards...RP