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Angie Hoschouer

Woodland Cemetery Offers Headstone Cleaning Workshop

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Woodland is pleased to partner with gravestone restoration expert Misti Spillman as she conducts a series of workshops for beginners who are interested in headstone cleaning and restoration.

Workshops will be conducted at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum from 10 am to 3 pm on Saturdays  June 8, August 24 and September 21, 2019.

Cost is $30 per person and includes 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 of 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.

Misti Spillman 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.

Participation is limited to those 18 and over and registration is non-refundable. Limited to 25 participants per class.

Proceeds will benefit the Woodland Arboretum Foundation.

To register, go to: http://bit.ly/HeadstoneRestoration

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: Anthony C. Brown

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Anthony Brown was born in Sussex County, New Jersey on September 15, 1816. He came to Ohio in 1817 with his parents and settled in Greene County in 1825. He arrived in Dayton in 1851 with his brother, Henry M. Brown. Together they established a hat store in 1837. Anthony inherited the hat store in 1861 after Henry died. The business was located on North Main Street where a full line of hats of the very best quality and of the latest styles were kept.

Anthony C. Brown died on October 17, 1891 at the age of 75. The memorial stone of Anthony C. Brown as noted in geological information taken from Professor Michael R. Sandy’s Guidebook No. 8, 1992 is of Sharon conglomerate, of Pennsylvania age, that crops out in northeastern Ohio. The bolder was transported by and deposited as the Pleistocene glaciers melted.

Anthony C. Brown is located in Section 101 Lot 1808.

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: Charles G. Bickham

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Charles Goodwin Bickham received the Medal of Honor for “distinguished gallantry” on May 2, 1902, in the Battle of Bayang, during the Moro Rebellion. Lt. Bickham carried a wounded soldier across a “fire swept field.” His medal was awarded by Theodore Roosevelt on April 28, 1904.

He served on the staff of Ohio Governor William McKinley. During the Spanish-American War, he served in Company G, 3rd Regiment, Ohio National Guard, and later in the Ninth Regiment, U.S. Volunteer Infantry. He served during the Philippine-American War in the 28th Regiment, U.S. Volunteer Infantry, under Col. William E. Birkhimer. After receiving his commission in the regular army as a Lieutenant, he served again in the Philippines with the 27th U.S. Infantry under then-Captain John J. Pershing. Lt. Bickham was honorably discharged from the army in June 1910. He never married.

Charles G. Bickham was born in 1867 and died in 1944. He is located in Section 101, Lot 1420. The bronze marker decorating the grave of Charles Bickham was placed there by a gentleman who traveled across the country visiting graves of Congressional Medal of Honor winners, personally paying for the honor of doing so.

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: Jacob Stickle

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Jacob Stickle was born in Neckar-Thailfingen, Wurettemberg, Germany on February 26, 1825, son of John Jacob and Katerina Stickle.

Jacob helped his father on the family farm until he was old enough to be apprenticed to a butcher. He learned the trade of butchering and stayed in the business until he immigrated to the United States, landing in New Orleans on May 1, 1849. He arrived in Dayton on the first of June.

On his arrival Jacob started working for Adam Happle, a meat packer whose business was located on Valley Pike in Mad River Township. He worked for $7 a week and board. After two years Jacob had saved enough money to rent a butcher’s stand and later opened a stall in Harshmanville, on Yellow Springs Pike, which he attended for seventeen years.

In 1868, Jacob purchased the brewery of Sander and Stoppelman on Warren Street. When he started the business he decided to use only the best quality products, and to make his beer out of only barley, malt and hops.

In 1881, the City Brewery building burnt down. Jacob Stickle rebuilt and enlarged it at an expense of eight thousand dollars, building a three and a half story brick factory. The ice houses had a storage capacity of 2,000 tons and the beer cellars of 3,000 barrels. The first year the business made 4,000 barrels of beer and by 1882 the brewery was producing 7,000 barrels annually. The business required ten men and several teams for delivering the beer to local businesses.

Jacob married Barbara Drechsel on August 31, 1851 and they had two children. Jacob’s son, William, later helped his father run the brewery. In 1890, the business moved to 653 and 655 Warren Street. Jacob Stickle merged his brewery with The Dayton Breweries Company in 1904 and then sold out his part.

Jacob died on November 20, 1908 and is buried in Section 63 Lot 1126.

Luminaries of Dayton: Harold K. Omer

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L to R: Harold Omer, Ray Danner and Lee Cummings. Danner was the owner of Shoney’s, which at the time owned the Famous Recipe franchise.

The founding of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken.

Lee Cummings, the nephew of Colonel Harland Sanders, spent his childhood in the kitchen of his Henryville, Indiana home. Lee hit the road with his Uncle Harland in 1952, selling their own special blend of spices along with their famous pressure cookers, which later became part of KFC’s “secret Recipe”. In three years, Lee and the Colonel opened over 800 KFC stores. In 1962, the Colonel sold KFC to John Y. Brown.

After the sale of KFC, Lee Cummings started developing his recipe later to be known as “Famous Recipe.” In 1966, Lee along with Harold Omer started “Harold’s Take-Home” in Lima, Ohio where Lee first introduced Famous Recipe Chicken.

By 1967, Lee and Bob Burick in Springfield, Ohio opened the fifth franchise store. Later that year, stores followed in Dayton and Cincinnati as well as in Michigan.

In 1972, Famous Recipe had 100 stores and by 1979 the number had doubled to 200. In 1981, Lee Cummings sold the chain to Shoney’s Restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee and in 1995, it was sold to RTM Restaurant Group in Atlanta, Georgia.

Locally, there are two major franchisees in the Miami Valley that keep the tradition of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken in the community.

Harold Omer was also a manager of aerospace engineering at Lima’s Westinghouse plant. Sometimes he would leave the office and go straight to his second job of frying chicken.

Harold K. Omer died in 1999. He is located in Section 100 of the Woodland Mausoleum.