City of Dayton Overview

The City of Dayton was founded in 1796 and incorporated in 1805, and was named after Jonathan Dayton, a Captain in the Revolutionary Army and a signer of the U.S. Constitution. Click Here for and picture of Dayton in 1870.

Dayton suffered a severe flood in 1913, an event that remains to this day the city’s worst natural disaster, and which lives to this day in the city’s history. The city itself is home to nearly 200,000 citizens, is home to several international corporations, including (but not limited to) NCR, LexisNexis, and MeadWestvaco, and is widely recognized as the birthplace of powered flight, as the Wright Brothers made their home here in the “Gem City.” The Dayton Region is also the home to one of the largest bases used by the U.S. Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, named after the Wright Brothers, and John Patterson.

Famous Daytonians

The Dayton region has produced many influential thinkers, inventors, authors and athletes, so many in fact, that it would be impossible to list them all here. However, what follows is a list of just some of the notable Daytonians throughout history, organized categorically.

• Athletics
  • Edwin C. Moses - A member of the U.S. Olympic Team, Moses brought home the Gold Medal in the 400-meter hurdles at both the 1976 and 1984 Olympics, and is a four time world record holder in his event.
• The Written Word
  • Paul Laurence Dunbar - The first African-American novelist and poet to be recognized as an international literary force. Dunbar loved the city of Dayton, and it is widely speculated that Dayton's nickname, "the Gem City," was first coined by the poet.
  • Erma Bombeck- - a lifelong resident of the Dayton Region, she was a nationally recognized humorist and newspaper columnist whose subject matter ranged from international travel to family to death. Beloved by the Dayton community, Bombeck's legacy lives on in the form of both an online museum and an annual humor writing contest in Dayton.
• Entrepreneurs and Inventors
  • Orville and Wilbur Wright - Perhaps Dayton's most famous historical figures, the Wright brothers quite literally changed the world by inventing the airplane, and though their historic first flight took place in Kitty Hawk, their origins and much of their work occurred in Dayton, Ohio.
  • John Patterson - Founder of National Cash Register (NCR), Patterson was a business innovator who revolutionized the way in which American business was conducted. Patterson was so influential, in fact, that by the 1920's, it is estimated that one-sixth of business executives in America at one point worked under Patterson at NCR. Much to the chagrin of Donald Trump, historians recognize Patterson as the first to coin the term "you're fired."
  • Charles W. Kettering - Kettering, who was also a business associate of John Patterson, was an the inventor of, among many others, the electric cash register, electric automobile ignition, modern Freon refrigeration, synthetic aviation fuel and the automatic transmission. Much of the vast fortune he earned during his life was poured into philanthropic efforts following his death, and the name Kettering is known well beyond greater Dayton.