History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II, Part 83

Author: Drury, Augustus Waldo, 1851-1935; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092

USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 83

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Franklin Rice, the father of Elwood E. Rice, was born in Van Buren township and has spent his entire life in Montgomery county. He formerly engaged in agri- culture, living on a farm south of Dayton, Ohio, until 1890, when he put aside the work of the fields to become prominently connected with commercial pursuits. He engaged in the implement business in Dayton but maintained his residence on the farm until 1902, when he gave up country life and removed to the city. After some years he turned his attention to the mill business and operated an elevator in Day- ton, in which connection his son had his first business experience as a salesman. Franklin Rice is a most successful man and at the present writing is operating a general elevator business in this city, his constantly expanding trade relations bringing to him gratifying prosperity. He wedded Mary Victoria Dryden, a daughter of David C. Dryden, who was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, and died December 4, 1904. When a young man he came to Ohio and married Jemima Bevington, who was born in Washington township and died December 2, 1902. The grandfather of Mrs. Rice, James F. Dryden, a son of James and Catharine Dryden. was born in Lexington, Virginia, April 18, 1801. He was the third of seventeen children and died June 21, 1860. On the 2d of October, 1823, he wedded Mary B. Goodwin, a daughter of Cornelius and Hannah Goodwin, who was born near the home of her husband August 27, 1801, and was the third of a

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family of eleven children. After a few years they drove west and located at Frankfort, Kentucky, where they lived until their death. Mrs. Mary B. Dryden passed away September 6, 1871. By this marriage there were born eleven children.

David C. Dryden, the eighth of the family, was born October 17, 1836, and in early manhood came to Ohio, settling near Dayton, where he engaged in the mill- ing business with his uncle, Joseph H. Dryden. On the 7th of April, 1859, by the Rev. David Winters he was married to Jemima Bevington, a daughter of Samuel and Mary Bevington, and the youngest of ten children. She was born near Day- ton, February 14, 1841, and died December 4, 1902, while David C. Dryden sur- vived until the 2d of December, 1904. To them were born five children : Mary Vic- toria ; David G. ; Lillie B .; John E .; and Edwin W. Of these Mary Victoria was born near Dayton, December 31, 1859, and was married to Franklin Rice, at Day- ton, by the Rev. David Winters, October 17, 1878. Their early married life was spent on a farm. To them were born three children, Elwood E., Catharine J., and Franklin D.

Elwood E. Rice, the son of Franklin and Mary Victoria Rice, was reared on the home farm and attended the country schools until twelve years of age, when his parents removed to Dayton and he completed his education in the schools of this city. His initial experience in the business world was that of a salesman in the employ of his father in connection with the milling enterprise. On leaving that po- sition he turned his attention to the manufacture of wall plaster, organizing the Rice Wall Plaster Company, and still holds the patents on Rice's Diamond Wall Plaster. His father was of an inventive turn of mind and produced several inven- tions on which he secured patents. Even in this age when fortunes are made in a remarkably short space of time the history of Elwood E. Rice is a notable one. That he possesses exceptional business acumen and executive ability is indicated in the fact that within four years he had built up an enormous business in the manu- facture and sale of plaster, increasing it tenfold over the first year's trade. He sup- plied all of the plaster for the Reibold building, the Conover building and many other large office buildings and apartments in this city. In 1902 he sold his interest in the plaster business and turned his attention to the manufacture and develop- ment of electric displays, organizing the R. R. Sign Company, of which he has continuously been the president. This company has created, manufactured and mounted various electric displays all over the country. They have been steadily bringing forth new designs and inventing new and original devices for advertising purposes, their course awakening the interest and admiration of the advertising world from the inception of the enterprise. In 1908 they over-reached any mar- ket by displays of such magnitude as to size and construction that to form a market for these powerful displays Mr. Rice organized the Rice Electric Display Company with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars and of which he is the president and treasurer. Offices are also maintained in New York city and the company is known as the operating company which was organized to create a market for the product of the R. R. Sign Company and to operate those displays, the magnitude of such is that they could not be sold outright.

In no age in the world's history has there been such marked advancement in producing new, novel and unique features in connection with business affairs as are being brought forth at the present time by the R. R. Sign Company through the

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use of electricity, which has been the magic wand in the production of results such as were undreamed of a quarter of a century ago. No fairy tale of old, or legend of the past has conceived the possibility of flashing before the eye such brilliant pic- tures and effects as are now produced in electrical displays, not only by means of light that turns night into day but also brings forth all the beauty and symmetry that can be produced in color and form. The Rice Electric Display Company of Dayton was incorporated for the purpose of showing to the world the greatest elec- tric invention of the age supplied in a practical manner to the advertising of var -. ious standard commercial products. This company is now engaged on the task of placing at the heart of the business world, on Broadway, facing Herald Square, New York, the most beautiful spectacular operating electrical display that has ever been invented, planned or contemplated any place in the world and containing about twenty thousand electrical bulbs-as many as all the other electric displays burning on Broadway combined. This display will represent a Roman chariot race with all the splendor of the scene faithfully reproduced in heroic proportions, brilliant color and swift action. Already the Rice Electric Display Company has secured for its patrons in this novel method of advertising some of the most prominent corpora- tions, firms, and business houses of the entire country-those which are considered leaders of the world in their line, and the enterprise as instituted by Mr. Rice is already assured of great success.

Before organizing the Rice Electric Display Company Mr. Rice refused sev- eral very flattering offers to take charge of the sales force for extensive corpora- tions at almost fabulous salaries, but he preferred to remain in the independent venture for cognizant of his own capacities and powers he recognizes the fact that he had in his present business an enterprise which cannot fail to prove of immense value in this day and age when advertising is regarded as a most essential and re- sult-producing feature of every business. In ten years Mr. Rice has risen from a meager salary as a salesman to that of president and treasurer of a half million dollar corporation. He has a remarkable talent for initiating, promoting and con- trolling extensive interests, his power arising from his keen insight into the pos- sibilities of every situation and his remarkable sagacity in anticipating the needs and demands for the business world.

Mr. Rice's business affairs are to him a source of pleasure as well as of income. He delights in formulating plans and carrying them forward to suc- cessful completion. Industry is one of his dominant characteristics and while developing gigantic enterprises, he holds to high ideals as to his personal man- hood. He possesses a quality that draws men to him and he easily wins their confidence and respect and in his talk, he seems very deliberate, but after a few minute's conversation, one finds that he has thoroughly mastered the facts that are being presented to him, after which his decision is quickly given and is unalterable. He holds tenaciously to a course that he believes to be right. but his position is ever one based upon reason and thorough understanding. Quick in his judgment of men and affairs, he is usually accurate in his deduc- tions and opinions.

The home life of Mr. Rice is a happy one. He wedded Mary Elizabeth O'Neill, a daughter of W. S. O'Neill, a prominent tobacco merchant, now de- ceased, and Elizabeth O'Neill, who has also passed away. Their only child, Ern-

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est Hugh Rice, was born April 17, 1905. Mr. Rice holds membership in the Dayton Club, has attained the thirty-second degree in Masonry and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the First Reformed church, of which he is a trustee. Notwithstanding the magnitude of his business plans and interests, he does not hold himself aloof from participation in projects for the municipal welfare or the social life of the city in which he has lived from early boyhood, but enjoys companionship with old-time friends and readily makes new ones as his business interests carry him into all sections of the country and bring him into contact with those who by reason of their enterprise and success are termed captains of industry.

HENRY C. MOSES.

Henry C. Moses is now living a retired life in German township, where he owns two fine farms, one just on the edge of Germantown, a tract of one hundred and five acres of excellent land, and the other of one hundred and sixty acres south- west of the city on the Oxford road. He was born in that township on the 25th of September, 1824, at the old Moses homestead, about two miles south of German- town, and is a son of Robert and Mary (Christ) Moses. His paternal grand- parents were John and Catharine Moses, whose home was in Virginia, the grand- father being a retired planter at the time of his removal to this state at an early day. He was accompanied by his father, Robert Moses, who at the time of his demise was ninety-eight years of age and was the oldest man living in this part of the state. Our subject's father, who also bore the name of Robert Moses, was the first of the family to leave Virginia and come to Ohio, the others following some time later. He located near Sunbury, where he engaged in farming throughout the remainder of his life.

Henry C. Moses obtained his early education in the common schools of this county and in early life became thoroughly familiar with the occupation of farm- ing, to which he has since devoted the greater part of his time and attention with good results. At an early day he took charge of the old home farm and in its management met with success from the start. Thorough and systematic in his methods of carrying on his work, he is now considered one of the best farmers of German township, and the prosperity that has come to him is but the just reward of his own untiring efforts.

On the 15th of January, 1857, Mr. Moses was united in marriage to Miss Grace Annie Rowe, and to them were born the following children: Elizabeth, the eldest, married C. T. Enninger and became the mother of two children, Harry and Lena, now the wife of Samuel Judy, by whom she has one child, Harold, the great-grandchild of Henry C. Moses. Grace, the second of the family, is the wife of Henry Huffman of Dayton. John married Nettie Emrick. Charles, the son of a former marriage, still resides at home and assists his father in the man- agement of the farm.

Mr. Moses and his family are connected with the Lutheran church and he takes a very active and prominent part in all church work, having served as elder

HENRY C. MOSES

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for a number of years. The cause of education finds in him a warm friend and he has done much to promote its interests as a member of the school board, serv- ing in that position for fourteen years and then resigned.

WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT.

Wilbur and Orville Wright need no introduction to the readers of this volume or in fact to the scientific world for they were the first to solve the prob- lem of aerial navigation through the invention of a successful flying machine. Their work in this connection has brought them world-wide fame but they wear their honors with becoming modesty and still give their attention to the solution of questions of great interest and of vital importance in scientific circles, while the practical utility of their labors is such as men have dreamed of but into the realization of which they are just entering with untold possi- bilities ahead. Thinking out along original lines, it is not only possible but probable that their contributions to the world's progress have by no means reached their end. In fact they are making history day by day and there is hardly a name that appears in such frequent mention in the press throughout all. civilized countries than that of the Wright brothers. Dayton, once sceptical of the value of their achievements, is now proud to claim them. Theirs has been the history of every successful inventor whose new ideas given to the world in tangible form are first sceptically received until use and familiarity, that brings a knowledge of their value and worth, change its attitude for that of a cordial receptiveness.

Wilbur Wright was born in Henry county, Indiana, April 16, 1867, and Orville Wright in Dayton, August 19, 1871. They are descended from a long and noble line of ancestry which can be traced back through a number of generations in Essex, England. The progenitor of the American branch of the family was Samuel Wright, who was among the original settlers of Spring- field, Massachusetts, in 1636, having previously located for a short time in Dorchester, that state. He was a deacon and lay preacher, by reason of which fact he was usually known as Deacon Wright. The line of descent is traced down through James, Samuel, Benoni, Dan I., Dan II. and Milton Wright to Wilbur and Orville Wright. Family connections have also included the Rev. John Russell, of Hadley; Rev. Joshua Moody, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire ; Judge John Otis, of Barnstable, Massachusettts; Edmond Freeman, of Sand- wich, Massachusetts; and John Porter of Windsor, Connecticut.

The first of the Wright family in Ohio was Dan Wright, who located in Centerville, Montgomery county, in 1814. His son and namesake was there married in 1818 to Catharine Reeder, whose mother, Mrs. Margaret Reeder, was a sister of Benjamin Van Cleve, one of the founders of Dayton. Her father was killed by the Indians in Cincinnati in pioneer times and her mother, who after- ward married Samuel Thompson, was the first white woman in this city. John Van Cleve, the founder of that branch of the family, emigrated from Holland to Long Island about 1650.

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In 1821 Dan and Catherine Wright, grandparents of Wilbur and Orville Wright, removed to Rush county, Indiana, where Milton Wright was born No- vember 17, 1828. He supplemented his country-school education by study in Hartsville College for a short time and then continued his studies privately, re- maining throughout his life a broad reader and deep thinker. In 1853 he was licensed to preach by the White River conference of the United Brethren church and in early manhood divided his time between teaching and preaching, acting as principal of the denominational school in Oregon from 1857 to 1859. On the 24th of November of the latter year he married Miss Susan Catherine Koerner, of Union county, Indiana, daughter of John G. Koerner, a wagon and carriage maker. Mrs. Wright was born in Hillsboro, Virginia, April 30, 183I, and was a student in Hartville College, where she manifested particular skill in mathematics. While of a retiring disposition and extremely modest, she was most devoted to the welfare of her family. She died July 4, 1889. The husband and father, Bishop Milton Wright, was engaged in preaching be- tween 1860 and 1869. In the latter year was made editor of the Religious Telescope, published in Dayton. He continued his editorial work for eight years and in 1877 was elected bishop, in which office he served twenty-four years. In 1878 he removed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and in 1881 became a resi- dent of Richmond, Indiana, where in connection with his work as presiding elder he edited the Richmond Star. In 1884 he again became a resident of Dayton, where he yet resides. He is a man of strong mental attainment and full of courage and determination and all through his life has taken a cordial interest in his sons' undertakings, stimulating them by his advice and counsel. The members of his family were: Reuchlin, Lorin, Wilbur, twins who died in in- fancy, Orville and Katharine. The daughter is a graduate of Oberlin Col- lege, class of 1898, and is now a teacher in the Steele high school of Dayton and is secretary of the Dayton Association of College Women.

As the family removed to various places the children attended school and Wilbur Wright all through his youth manifested keen interest in scientific ques- tions. As a boy and man he has been of studious habits, while Orville Wright is the enthusiast in the partnership, and yet both have been actuated by the same resolute purpose of accomplishing the tasks to which they have set them- selves. In 1884-5 Wilbur Wright in the Dayton high school took what was practically the final year's work. His health prevented him from pursuing a college course but he read broadly and assimilated what he read, manifesting at all times a great interest in scientific publications.

Orville Wright was about seven years of age when the family removed from Dayton to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and after three years there passed he also spent three years in Richmond, Indiana, and then returned to Dayton, where he supplemented his education previously acquired by study in the Dayton schools, covering five and a half years, which brought him to the age of eight- een. One of his earliest activities was printing. When he was but fifteen years old he and a friend published a little four-page paper called The Midget. The father took deep interest in the undertaking but when in their first issue they ran out of news and left the third page blank he suppressed the whole edition because it was imperfect work. Wilbur Wright was not connected with the

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Midget beyond his deep interest in the printing plant. In February, 1889, how- ever, the Wright brothers established a little weekly paper called The West Side News. Wilbur and Orville Wright made a press entirely of wood unlike anything seen before but which performed the work as well. It was soon after this that the publication of The West Side News was begun, Wilbur Wright, however, taking no active part in the work of the office. The paper was pub- lished for a year and a half and at the same time a job printing business was conducted. On the expiration of that period the Snapshot, an advertising pam- phlet, succeeded The West Side News and was conducted for two years, al- though job printing furnished the principal sources of revenue to the office and the business of that department continued until 1896. In the meantime the brothers had become interested in a bicycle business, not only engaging in the sale of wheels but also established a repair department and later manufacturing for their own trade, their highest grade wheel being called the Van Cleve, an honored ancestral name. The growth of the bicycle business caused the brothers to discontinue the job printing establishment in 1896. An earlier interest in the flying machine was revived about this time and research, experiment and invention have since led them to the prominent position which they occupy as the world's two greatest aeronauts. They not only had a practical but also scientific knowledge of mechanics and for the purpose of the work and busi- ness in which they became engaged secured a working acquaintance with differ- ent modern languages.

It has often been that the great things of life have been called forth by some seemingly trivial incident, and the interest of the Wright brothers in aeroplanes dates from the autumn of 1878 when their father brought home a toy called a heliocopter, which was so constructed as to rise in the air, its two screws being driven by twisted rubber bands. When Lilienthal, the bold and ingenious Ger- man experimenter, lost his life in coasting on the air, in 1896, their attention was more decidedly turned to the problem of mechanical flight. In a spirit of sport, as they imagined, they began their experiments, but were soon impelled by more practical motives and they began the work of experimentation and invention. Having decided on a plan of a machine embodying somewhat the principles of kite flying, they conducted experiments in 1900 and 1901 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and selected Kill Devil hill as the place of experimenta- tion because of the prevailing strong and steady winds. The main object was to devise and test means for guiding and balancing and the use of the forward rudder and the warped planes for these purposes was adopted and proved in a high degree successful. After the experiments of these two years Wilbur Wright, in an extended address delivered at Chicago before the Society of Western Engineers, indicated the point of difficulty toward which the brothers were so persistently directing their attention. He said: "The difficulties which obstruct the pathway to success in flying-machine construction are of three classes: I. Those which relate to the construction of the sustaining wings. 2. Those which relate to the generation and application of the power required to drive the machine through the air. 3. Those relating to the balancing and steering of the machine after it is actually in flight. Of these difficulties two are already to a certain extent solved. * * * As long ago as 1893 a machine weigh-

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ing eight thousand pounds demonstrated its power both to lift itself from the ground and to maintain a speed of from thirty to forty miles per hour, but it came to grief in an accidental free flight, owing to the inability of the operator's to balance and steer it properly. This inability to balance and steer still con- front students of the flying problem, although nearly ten years have passed. When this one feature has been worked out the age of flying-machines will have arrived, for all other difficulties are of minor importance."

The machine referred to was the Maxim machine, which was confined near the ground by an upper rail. A gust of wind struck the machine causing it to break the upper rail, thus permitting a short flight ending in the overturning and wrecking of the machine. In 1902 and 1903 further experiments were conducted at Kitty Hawk. leading to improvements in the lines already adopted. It was found necessary to construct new tables as to air pressure on planes at different angles and on differently formed surfaces to take the place of the faulty and incomplete ones previously existing. The steering and balancing problems having been largely solved, a motor and propellers were now to be brought into use. Purely by scientific calculations the screws were designed and were found exactly to meet the requirements. The motor made by them- selves yielded better results than expected. The shaft, however, broke, three weeks being required to secure another from Dayton. This also broke. Orville then returned to Dayton and provided a shaft that met all requirements. Diffi- culties and accidents were met in the first attempt at flight, but December 17. 1903, the machine carrying a man rose by its own power in free flight, the first instance of the kind in the history of the world. Other successful flights were made. A little later the machine, while at rest, was wrecked by being over- turned by a sudden wind.

In 1904 and 1905 experiments were conducted near Simms Station, eight miles east of Dayton, the devices for steering and balancing being greatly im- proved as a result of these tests. In 1905 Orville flew twenty-one miles. The next day Wilbur flew twenty-four miles. After the successful flights of 1905 the Wright brothers were occupied in perfecting details and in business nego- tiations. The French government sent a commission to Dayton to make inves- tigations and to negotiate. The reports were favorable but the cabinet turned down the proposed agreements, evidently because some persons desired that the needs of the French government should be supplied by Frenchmen. A con- tract was entered into with the United States government to furnish a machine to the government that should comply with certain requirements. As a con- tract has been entered into with a French syndicate, which required that tests should be made in France at the same time that tests were to be conducted by the United States government, Wilbur departed to France with one machine, while Orville arranged to begin tests at Fort Myer, near Washington, as per contract with the United States government. The brothers should have been together, as the new exigencies arising, to say nothing of the demands and interference of the public, were taxing in the extreme. The tests in France and in the United States were entirely satisfactory to all of the parties concerned. The sad accident at Fort Myer, resulting in the serious injury of Orville and in the death of Lieutenant Selfridge, in no way destroyed confidence in the merits

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History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II, Part 83

Author: Drury, Augustus Waldo, 1851-1935; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, pub Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1092

Author: Drury, Augustus Waldo, 1851-1935; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1092