Music and Musicians of Dayton
The early narratives of Dayton tell us that the first association of music lovers was called the Pleyel society, organized in 1836 under the leadership of that highly cultivated and accomplished man, John W. Van Cleve, who was organist and choirmaster at Christ church. The one upon whom his mantle descended was James A. Turpin, who for years trained classes, choirs and choruses and stood for all that was best in music in Dayton. It will not do to take a superior attitude toward what was done in the 50's and 60's in a musical way in Dayton. Small numerically it might have been, as befitted the limited census of that day, but accurate it was, conscientious and lovingly musical. The elder members of the community will remember, in Civil war times, hearing the cantata, "Queen Esther," given at the Beckel house for the benefit of the sanitary commission, with Mrs. Ella J. Kneisly (beautiful and gifted with a lovely voice, but not "Mrs." in those days) in the title role; or the senior high school class sing the "Haymakers" at the old Huston hall (on the Schantz-Elks corer). It was true music and left its lasting impression.
The Philharmonic Society. It was in 1874 that a company of Russian singers with wonderful voices and lamentable lack of business experience came to Dayton, gave one concert, and their last.
Lack of public appreciation in the middle west caused their "debacle," and when they disbanded in utter bankruptcy there was left in Dayton a musician, Leon Jasciewiescz, to whom Dayton owes the first and greatest impetus towards musical culture. He had a phenomenal ear for pitch (of which many are the stories still told among singers), a wonderful musical skill and a winning personality. It was perhaps a plan that cut both ways, to organize a chorus and employ Mr. Jasciewiescz to lead it. Thus was born the Philharmonic society, which for nearly half a century represented the best of the musical life of Dayton. The leaders in the enterprise were such well-known music lovers as H. V. Lytle, James Martin, V. V. Tilliamu, S. Phelps, Samuel F. Phelps, James L. Brenneman, Chas. F. Snyder, J. M. Bell, and others. One hundred members was the first enrollment, and their ambitious program began at once.
The list of compositions given by the Philharmonic society from that day until its abandonment a few years since would include many of the great oratorios and many of the world's masterpieces : The Messiah, Elijah, St. Paul, Creation, Athalie, Stabat Mater, Judas Maccabaeus, The Redemption, Mendelssohn's Forty-Second Psalm, Barnby's Rebekkah, "Lift Thine Eyes" and other compositions, by Handel, Gade, Jensen, Rheinburger, Goetz. Spohr, Weber and Bach. It was a proud program and one to look back upon with gratification. After the death of Leon Jasciewiescz the Philharmonic society was led by Otto Singer, under whose incumbency the society took part for two successive seasons in the May musical festival at Cincinnati. In 1878 the Philharmonics entered upon a period of new (page 107) activity which lasted nearly thirty years, under the efficient leadership of Mr. W. L. Blumenschein. Conscientious instructor, organist and choirmaster of distinction, chorus director of conscious power, composer of true genius and pianist of precision and soul, Mr. Blumenschein deserves the acclamation of his fellow citizens for the work laid down at his untimely death in 1910. Not only the Dayton society but the Ohio Saengerfests (Dayton and Springfield), the Indianapolis Lyra society and the Springfield Orpheus society were also under the leadership of Mr. Blumenschein. He played the organ at the Third Street Presbyterian church from 1878 to 1895 ; one hundred and eighty-one student recitals were given at his studios. In 1891 he became director of the Cincinnati May Musical festival. His compositions were unusual in number and quality; they comprised over fifty piano pieces, twenty beautiful songs that will always be favorites, fourteen anthems and seven secular quartettes.
The citizens of German birth in Dayton have been, as a matter of course, great dispensers and promoters of music. One of the most popular and successful of the earlier societies was the Harmonia, formed by the consolidation of the Saengerbund and the Frohsinn society. Its first officers were Daniel Leonard, president ; Dr. Palm, vice-president ; treasurer, john Stoppelman, and secretary, A. Frondhoff... The Harmonia gave beautiful concerts throughout its career.
Mention must not fail to be made of special musicians who have left their impress upon that field of Dayton's activities. Among the early names was that of Mr. Lewis Huesman, a pianist and teacher of skill ; Mr. Charles Rex, who taught the girls of the seventies their scales (and hated it as all true musicians do) ; Adolph Carpe, who had classes in both Dayton and Xenia, and married in the latter town, and F. C. Mayer, who taught music in the public schools for many years.
Mr. James A. Robert should have due credit for disseminating and promoting musical .taste in Dayton through three decades. While he was principal of Cooper seminary in the 80's and 90's, he attracted to his orbit musicians of the piano and strings, who played to appreciative groups of people the highest and best of the great composers' works. Mr. Robert's lectures before the Choral society, which he organized, on Bach, Palestrina, and other masters will not be soon forgotten. As organist of the First Baptist church, he trained the leading singers of Dayton and gave many beautiful concerts. Among those who enthusiastically assisted him were Mrs. Kneisly, Miss Agnes Stout, Mrs. La Rose, Mrs. R. N. King, Charles Peters, Chas. F. Snyder and H. V. Lytle.
The Mozart Club. It was in 1888 that, stimulated by the inspiration of Mr. Robert and the pleasure of the hitherto informal musical meetings, the Mozart club was organized. The initial meeting was held at the home of Mrs. E. Morgan Wood, who was elected its first president. Mrs. J. B. Thresher was the first vice-president, Mrs. O. F. Davisson, secretary, and Mrs. W. F. Gebhart, treasurer. The club became instantly popular and entered upon a career which resulted in broadening the musical life of Dayton as long as the (page 108) organization lasted. The plan of work was to combine the giving of music and the writing and talking about it. Each program consisted of several numbers played or sung, together with a paper upon the work of the composer, written and read by a member of the club, the paper presenting the salient points in the life of the subject and the musical part of the program illustrating his genius. Most enjoyable were the mornings spent in this way. Thirteen recitals were given by local and amateur talent each year, at which were presented the best music of the world. The range of selection included instrumental compositions, sonatas, preludes, fugues and concertos from the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Handel, and Bach ; ensemble work for piano and violin and for two pianos. The vocal range was more extended than the instrumental, the members boldly essaying recitatives, duos, trios, quartettes and choruses from oratorios, masses and operas, while the literary essays have been admirable support to the scheme.
For nearly thirty years the Mozart club continued to do its not inconsiderable share toward keeping alive the reputation of Dayton as a music loving center. It possessed forty active members, thirty associates and a hundred honorary. As years passed, however, younger musicians arose to whom the elder society, with its prestige, was somewhat intimidating, and who felt the need of a musical center of their own in which to develop their untried powers, and the Chaminade club was formed.
The Chaminade Club. This club was organized in October, 1902, with twenty-three members and Miss Alpharetta Brookins as its first president. Thus it happened that a new crop of music lovers came into prominence, partly pupils and partly musicians from outside, whom the limits of membership kept out of the Mozart club. This new organization fulfilled to the utmost the ambitions of its promoters and, until the winter of 1914, pursued a successful career. By that time the younger musicians had gained confidence and experience and there was a pronounced feeling that Dayton did not need two societies so nearly coincident in purpose. Representatives from both societies met and agreed to drop the older organizations and start fresh with a new one. Thus was launched the Women's Music club.
The Women's Music Club. The preamble of this club states that its object shall be "to develop the musical talent of its members and to stimulate musical culture in Dayton." Requirements for active membership in the club are, for piano, a concerto or sonata, a Bach number and two miscellaneous numbers ; for voice, an operatic aria or an aria from an oratorio, a Schumann or a Schubert number, a miscellaneous number; for violin, a concerto or sonata, two miscellaneous numbers. One number at least must be given without notes. The tests are made before the membership committee, which decides upon all applications. A two-thirds vote is required for admission to active membership. A program committee appointed by the executive board assigns the work, and active members are supposed to perform either the musical or literary work assigned to them by the committee. A permanent concert fund is held in investment to be used on the recommendation of the (page 109) executive board. Thus the scheme of the Women's Music club may be considered to combine the advantages of both the earlier clubs and to carry a much more strict standard of membership, thereby adding to its prestige as an organization. Mrs. Edith Currier Crebs is the present president.
The program committee, upon which the real work of the club depends, is composed of Mrs. Ethel Funkhouser, Mrs. Grace Hale Charch, Miss Ruth Service, Mrs. Bertha B. Herbruck and Miss Dorothy Burnham. The meeting place of the club, when not otherwise arranged, is at the Woman's Club house on North Ludlow street. The club chorus consists of twelve voices led by Mrs. Clara Turpen Grimes, with Mrs. Funkhouser as accompanist.
The activities of the club differ widely from the exclusive functions of all former musical organizations in Dayton. "Musical culture in Dayton" was formerly held to be expressive of the aims of a certain set of people within a narrow circle now it has widened to include every personality and every element of the life of the community. The club not only interests itself in its own particular concerts, but has instituted social center concerts, held sometimes in community centers, sometimes at schoolhouses and sometimes at churches, wherever, in fact, music loving souls do congregate. Many a business man has hurried from his-desk to take in a thirty-minute concert at noon at the Third street Presbyterian church. Such social center concerts are scheduled for the winter of 1919-20 at the Allen school, the Cleveland school, the Whittier school and the Webster school, with noonday musicales at the Westminster Presbyterian church.
Another of the popular activities fostered by the Women's Music club are the school orchestras.
When some years ago Walter Damrosch was approached by citizens of Akron, Ohio, on the subject of school orchestras and how to produce them, the applicants were referred to Dayton, as the city where, more than in any other, the plan had reached its best fruition. The story is worth going into, not only for its artistic capabilities but as a distinctly moral force.
The initial credit belongs to the late Edwin J. Brown, sometime superintendent of the Dayton schools. It was long a cherished plan in his mind to organize groups of children in the schools for ensemble playing. In Conrad. Yarheis, a musical German who loved more than anything else to teach and lead children, he found the man to carry the idea to completion. The soil into which the seed was first sown was the Patterson school on Wyoming street, a well-known center for all good and progressive educational movements. Miss Leota Clark was the principal, and under her enthusiastic grasping and with efficient co-operation the plan immediately took form. Several children were discovered with the rudiments of musical taste and a few instruments. From this small beginning grew the orchestra of forty instruments-piano, strings, brasses and percussion-played by children generally under fourteen years of age and led by one of their own number. Their creditable playing adds to the pleasure of not only the school as a whole at the morning (page 110) exercises, but also to outside events where music is a desired part of the program. An event of the summer of 1919 was the playing of the Patterson school orchestra at Far Hills, the home of Mr. J. H. Patterson, who gave entertainment in the form of a dinner on the lawn, where each child received as testimony of the host's appreciation a season ticket to the Civic league concerts.
From the Patterson school the orchestra idea has spread throughout the city, until now, of the forty school buildings, there is not one without its orchestra. The personnel of each group is necessarily changing as the pupils go on into the high schools, but the ranks are reinforced by constant accessions from below, thus putting a premium upon school efficiency and adding the element of emulation to the ranks of pupils.
Six hundred children in the grade schools are constantly under the direction of Mr. Yarheis, for private and free instruction and corporate playing. From the group a smaller one of picked players, to the number of a hundred and fifty, present once a year a program in connection with the advanced choral societies of the city under the direction of Prof. Wright.
The Civic Music League. Sometime during the year 1915, Mr. Henry M. Waite (then city manager of Dayton) was calling on Mrs. J. B. Thresher. Both being lovers of music, were discussing the possibilities of community music. He acknowledged his ambition was to have a civic music league after the manner of other cities, which should present to the people the best artists at a low price. Her reply was that she knew two hundred women who would see that it was put through. Her first step was to bring the plan to the attention of the board of the Mozart club, of which she was a member. The proposition met with instant response. Six hundred invitations were sent out to those known to be interested, and a meeting called at the Young Women's Christian Association. The invitation was abundantly answered and after an address by Mr. Waite, setting forth the advantages of community music as he understood it, the organization was effected with the sentiment, "The world's best music at cost," as its slogan.
A committee of twenty-four was the nucleus of the league; with authority to elect officers, most of whom were members of the Mozart club except Mr. Wm. G. Frizell, who was appointed chairman. The first president was Brainerd B. Thresher, an enthusiast in all matters of art ; Mrs. E. M. Wood and Mrs. Walter D. Crebs, vice-presidents. After three years of acceptable service and devotion to the cause, Mr. Thresher resigned and Mr. Frizell was elected to fill his place.
The records of the Civic Music League show the marvelous success of this unified action toward making Dayton a musical center. It has resulted in five triumphant seasons, presenting to overwhelmingly large audiences the most expensive artists and orchestras, at a merely nominal price ($3.50 tickets for seven lectures), and with a system of partial payments which would enable anyone, with however limited an income, to become a subscriber. The league has given thirty-six concerts with a total attendance of one hundred and ten thousand people, ten thousand of which came (page 111) from neighboring cities; with receipts of $80,000 and a surplus of $4,000. Of this surplus, $3,000 was spent in promoting fifteen concerts by local orchestras, choruses and artists, $750 for improving Memorial hall stage and $500 for two music scholarships. The world's famous artists have been heard at Memorial hall by audiences that were in themselves a revelation of latent musical taste and an inspiration to both artists and citizens. The list of singers includes : Melba, Farrar, Gluck, Homer, Case, Aida, Mabel Garrison, Julia Culp, Cavalieri, Florence Hinkl, Olive Kline, and Hulda Lashanska; McCormack, Muratore, Amato, Werrenrath, Arthur Hacket and De Gorgorza ; of instrumentalists, Paderewski, Hofmann, Novaes, Heofetz, Kreisler, Zimbalist, Casals, Leo Schultz, Stefano; orchestras, the Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Philharmonic and Paris Conservatory and the Chicago Paulist Boys' choir.
The Dayton Symphony Association. The beginning of the story of the Dayton Symphony association is the work of a private individual, Aloyse F. Thiele. Born with a love of music and interested in his native city he set out to bring to Dayton high-class musicians and build up a public demand. His first venture with a large orchestra left him $400 poorer. But convinced of the ultimate successes of his theory and that a city without symphony concerts could not call itself musical he persisted in his plan, sandwiching the symphonies in with artists of drawing power. Finding it at last a losing venture, some public-spirited citizens came to his rescue and organized the Dayton Symphony association. They were Mrs. H. E. Talbott, Mrs. N. M. Stanley, Mrs. Wm. B. Werthner, F. F. McCormick, Mrs. Ferdinand Ach, W. A. Keyes, Mrs. E. A. Deeds, Frederick Funkhouser, and others with both musical enthusiasm and ample bank accounts, who met at Mr. Thiele's office and effected the organization. The record for five years, beginning with Mr. Thiele's private venture and continuing with the organization, has presented in all fifty symphony orchestra concerts, eleven grand operas, thirty-five string quartette and chamber music concerts, six ballet performances, ten concerts by singing clubs, five military band concerts, eleven musical lectures, twelve plays with musical setting and one hundred and fifty-three eminent artists, singers and instrumentalists. The Theodore Thomas orchestra, the New York, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Detroit symphonies, the Russian symphony; Schumann-Heink, Tettrazini, Gadski, Homer, Zenatello, Aida de Lucca, McCormack, Galli-Curci, Evan Williams, Kubelik, Carreno, Boomfeld-Zeisler and Maud Powell have all made their bows to Dayton audiences and received
the salvos of an "arrived" musical community.
It is regrettable that lack of space prevents any but the merest mention of musicians who in the past and the present have delighted the public with their voices or playing. In 1872 William H. Clarke, a teacher of music in the schools, organized a string quartette of two first and two second violins, of which the players were Charles Stivers, Fred Cofeen, Frank Webster and H. V. Lytle. This modest venture may be considered as the first venture towards orchestral music in the schools. In 1880 the Masonic quartette (page 112) took part in every concert given in Dayton and in concerts of their own all over Ohio. It was composed of the four probably best male voices of that time, belonging severally to J. H. Brenneman, John H. Bell, William Hyers and H. V. Lytle. This was the original group. Later Frank Kiefaber and Charles Holland took places left vacant by the withdrawal of other voices.
He who is conceded to have been our most gifted native musician, was Howard Peirce, whose series of concerts always gave enduring pleasure to others and little financial gain to himself. He bid fair to become a world renowned pianist and just as a comprehensive concert tour was planned for him, faded out of life with all his splendid spirit, fine ideals and lovely talent.
Charles K. Holstein, a violinist of splendid talent, carried on for some years a string quartette of undisputed artistic rank, in which he played first violin, Jeanette Freeman Davis second violin, Albert E. Fischman viola and Ira Leslie Davis double bass. No one has added more to the musical atmosphere of Dayton than Mrs. Katherine Houk Talbott. Her spacious home with its music room forty by a hundred feet, its two grand pianos, big fireplace, music folios and all the paraphernalia belonging to the art, has been filled with groups of people many, many times over, to hear fascinating programs or to meet eminent musicians from the outside world. One cannot think of music in Dayton without including Mrs. Talbott, her voice, her hospitality and her fire lit studio. Idelette Andrews with her faming eyes, auburn hair and musical enthusiasm gave much to Dayton while she lived. Her studio in the Cooper seminary annex was open to recitals by her pupils. An early death robbed us of her riper achievements. Herman Marstellar was a gifted violinist who gave most of our present string players their first lessons.
Harry Browne Turpin inherited from his father his love for and his gift in music as well as his place in the hearts of Dayton people. Some years ago he made a "find" in Cecil Fanning, trained his fine baritone voice, introduced him to the musical world and together they have played and sung in triumphant concert tours from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Turpin and Fanning put Dayton on the musical map.
Jefferson Walters is a violinist of remarkable power and in constant demand for concerts. He is a teacher of wide repute and has recently brought forward Ruth Smith Boyd, one of his pupils, whose reception has been a tribute to both her own gift and her teacher's skill.
Mrs. Clara Turpin Grimes is another of the musical discoveries due to the discrimination of Harry Turpin, but who has long ago emerged from the leading strings of pupildom and taken her place as perhaps the foremost of Dayton's women singers. Her rich and melting soprano voice is heard and welcomed in every concert that offers the best. Her rendition of the Messiah solos is a yearly treat to music lovers at Christmas tide. After her first lessons with Mr. Turpin she studied in Boston with Max Heinrich and in New York with Herman Klein. In 1902 she was selected as soloist for the Cincinnati May festival and later at a May festival in Salem, Mass., (page 113) and has been heard in oratorio many different times in many different cities.
Mary Goode Royal has a most satisfactory alto voice, which has been a part of the choir of the Lutheran church for a number of years. She has a studio and a large class of voice pupils.
The Funkhouser family are all delightfully musical, the grafted members as well as the original clan. Mrs. Ethel Martin Funkhouser inherited from her father, James Martin, her absorption in music and from her mother her accuracy in piano work. She ranks easily as the foremost accompanist in the city. Mrs. Jessie Landis Funkhouser possesses a sweet and true alto voice, while Mrs. Charles F. Funkhouser is an accomplished organist and choir leader. Another musical family is the Schencks. Joseph Schenck was organist and choirmaster for many years at, Emmanuel church. He trained his daughter Nora in music and she has now developed into an accomplished organist almost equal to her father. She has further ripened her art by study in the east. A son, Robert Schenck, is a violinist with the New York Symphony orchestra. Mary Blue is a sudden and welcome apparition of charm in the musical world. She is still quite young, having graduated as honor pupil at Steele high school only a few years ago. Music was an obsession with her and was pursued entirely at night after her school lessons were gotten. She went to New York, entered the School of Musical Art, graduated and is now being pushed as one of their soloists. A future of great accomplishment is without doubt before her.
Henry Ditzel is another self-made musician of whom Dayton is proud. He was a bookkeeper and took lessons of Mr. Blumenschein at night ; did all his practicing at night and at last achieved the organ at the First Reformed church. He went to Germany and spent several years with leading masters of piano, graduated, came home, took the Lutheran organ, started classes in piano and organ and is firmly established.
The Dayton Conservatory of Music. The Dayton Conservatory of Music was founded in 1913 by Charles Arthur Ridgeway and under his continued direction is accounted one of the city's chief artistic assets.
Mr. Ridgeway was a New York man in the beginning, a graduate of the University of Minnesota and later of the Boston Conservatory of Music. After spending some time in Boston and teaching a few years at Columbus he came to Dayton, where he took pupils in piano and organ and theory. In 1913 the E. M. Thresher home on West Monument avenue, a house long associated in the minds of Dayton society with pleasant hospitality and particularly with musical experiences, was empty. It seemed an ideal place in which to go on perpetuating the memories it had aroused. Mr. Ridgeway secured it for a studio, which was afterward enlarged into a conservatory. The original faculty was C. A. Ridgeway, piano, organ and theory; Mrs. Clara Oglesby, K. Lyman and Miss Marie Hammer, piano; Miss Mary Goode Royal and Lelis P. Legler, voice; Charles K. Holstein and Albert Fischman, violin, and Eleanor Just Winsey, expression. To these first teachers there (page 114) have been added other musicians of undisputed talent, until the staff now numbers twenty-five and the subjects cover piano, organ, theory, violin, harp, 'cello, chorus conducting, dramatic art and interpretative dancing. Several very successful public performances have been given in the latter department under the direction of Mary Mays Coler.
Over five hundred students now avail themselves of the advantages of the Dayton conservatory and four courses are open to those enrolled ; the regular, elective, the teachers and the artists.
Diplomas are granted in all courses except the elective. So high is the standard in the artist course that thus far there have been but two artist graduates, Miss Mary Elizabeth Blue, piano, and Miss Ethel Apple, voice.
The equipment of the' conservatory is unexcelled, consisting of four grand and five upright pianos, and a duo-art reproducing piano by means of which the playing of the world's greatest artists is at the command of the school. There is a large recital hall on the first floor, with a number of smaller halls, studios and practice rooms for the various departments. Every two weeks co-operative recitals are given, to which teachers from all departments contributed not to exceed two numbers. The Conservatory Students' club is one of the important factors in the life of the school.
Director Ridgeway was for seven years organist of the Third Presbyterian church, for two years in the Linden Avenue Baptist church and for the past two years at the First United Brethren church.
In 1916 the conservatory adopted as the basis of the normal course "The Progressive Series of Piano Lessons," and since that time some fifty of the teachers and pupils have taken up this modern method. The highest possible standards of efficiency are attained in the Dayton Conservatory of Music.
Grace Tomlinson Soward (Mrs. Lucien A.) has a lyric soprano voice of charm and power which has been beautifully developed by training under Oscar Seagle in his summer studio in the woods of the Adirondacks. She has spent two seasons there in a musical atmosphere unexcelled in this country. Her first choir position was in Christ Episcopal church, after which she sang in the Westminster church and is much in demand for concerts both in Dayton and elsewhere.
Paul Katz is Dayton's boy prodigy. He is of Russian parentage, although most of his short life has been spent in Dayton. He began on the violin at five years of age. He is now eleven and has played before Leopold Auer, Eugene Ysaye and other world renowned musicians who unitedly predict for him a wonderful future. He is a small curly-headed boy and full of artistic instinct. He was first presented at Memorial hall on May 15, 1919, by the Women's Music club, when his hearers' sentiments were a combination of astonishment and delight. Unless all present signs fail, the world will sometime count Paul Katz among its great artists. Georgianna Deifenbach (now Mrs. Martinez) was brought out under the tutelage of Henry Ditzel and made her professional debut as concert pianist with the Cincinnati orchestra at Memorial hall (page 115) in 1910, Kunwald directing. She also studied in Boston and has played widely on concern programs.
Kyle Dunkel was for years organist and choirmaster at Christ Episcopal church and successful teacher of piano. During a trip abroad for the study of music he filled the post temporarily as organist of the English church at Paris. In the summer of 1919 the post again became vacant and this time was offered to Mr. Dunkel as a permanency, the choice falling on him out of sixty-six applicants. It is the largest Episcopal church on the continent and the appointment has come as a signal honor to a Dayton boy. He assumed his duties September 10.
Mrs. Ella Brusman Williams cultivated her beautiful soprano voice under Mr. Blumenschein and has sung for years in choruses and choirs, both in Dayton and outside.
Mr. William A. Keys is in large demand for bass parts in choir and chorus singing and is always gladly heard. Although Miss Amy Kofer (now Mrs. William Steete of Rocky Ford, Colorado) has not lived in Dayton for a period of years, it would not be fair to her to omit the part she played in the musical life of Dayton, when, in her pleasant studio and music school on the top floor of the McIntire building she and Miss Parke and Miss Schwin gave instruction to young ones and pleasure to their elders. The earlier teachers in Dayton were satisfied to merely teach. When their pupils were asked to play for friends they had stage fright and were "out of practice" or "couldn't play without their notes." Miss Kofler held that it was not enough to practice in private, the pupil must play in public. Therefore even her youngest pupils were in the habit of taking part at her monthly recitals and thus before an audience of fathers and mothers and sympathetic friends forgot their fears and took the public work as a matter of course. To Miss Kofler more than any other of the teachers this advance is due. Some of her pupils are playing yet at concerts or are themselves teachers and help to keep with their own pupils the habit of frequent recitals.
The Proctor School of Music, of 14 West Monument avenue, Dayton, Ohio, was established in 1912 by Harry Wilson Proctor, well known pianist and teacher of that city. The aim of the school, from the beginning, was to provide serious music students with a thorough musical education along lines that conform to the highest modern educational ideals.
That this aim has been realized is evidenced by the rapid growth of the school. Starting with a faculty of but three teachers, two departments, and several studio rooms located on the top floor of the Aeolian company, then on West Third street, the Proctor School of Music now occupies an entire building, has a faculty of eleven teachers and operates one branch school in West Carrollton, Ohio. The school enjoys a large patronage of music students, an increasing number of whom are becoming identified as successful professional musicians of Dayton. The school offers complete courses in piano, voice, violin, 'cello and clarinet. These departments are all under the direction of competent teachers who are artists in their respective branch.
(page 116) A special course for young piano pupils called the "Proctor Music course" is used by the school to provide children with a thorough musical foundation from the beginning.
Graduations with diplomas are granted to those students who qualify. As to the director himself, personally, Mr. Proctor was born in Dayton in 1885, educated in the public schools and began his study of music with the late Waldemar Sprague. His first essay in music as a profession was to join an orchestra, after which he organized the above described school of music first in Aeolian hall and afterwards on Monument avenue. His wife was Miss Estella Taylor of this city.
Dayton's Industrial Contribution to the War
It did not go for nothing that-Dayton was "a city of a thousand factories," when war was declared. It was one of the centers to which the government immediately turned for the help that it needed-the production of war material. Many of our factories had already been at it for the allied nations, before the entrance of the United States into the belligerent ranks. Large quantities of shells had gone to Russia when her emissaries came to us and bestowed their orders; France and Italy had also been supplied according to their needs.
But with the declaration of war between us and Germany, a new order was established. Within a few hours representatives of the government were on the field for personal , interviews. They represented to our manufacturers both sides of the question-the business side and the patriotic side. The manufacturers caught the spirit and immediately large changes were under way. To thus change the product of a factory meant in many cases the introduction of new machinery, the purchase of innumerable new tools, the training of workers in untried work, and in some cases it meant the construction of new and large buildings and the acquirement of added territory, all of which was cheerfully done. And done also under the strictest secrecy. The general public, ordinarily conversant with our manufacturing advantages, never dreamed of this wholesale change that was taking place with unparalleled rapidity in our midst.
The other side of the story must also be taken into consideration-the changing back to peace production after the armistice.
Prior to November 11, 1918, our plants were turning out guns, shells, tanks, synchronizers, bombing planes, and pistols. Suddenly they were called to halt, change everything back again, and begin once more to produce cash registers, pumps, starters, delco-light, sewing machines, lasts, fare registers and other peace products. They were left with piles of raw material that they could not use, warehouses full of war products that the government no longer wanted, buildings that gave more space than they could use, and hundreds, no, thousands, of workers more than were needed, which they hated to discharge. Moreover, large sums of money were locked up in these repudiated orders which would take a long time for the government to reimburse. The reconstruction of our (page 117) manufactories for war and the re-reconstruction for peace reads like a fairy tale to the uninitiated, but a fairy tale that cost blood and tears (figuratively speaking) to make true.
The De Haviland-4 Bombing Plane. By far the most important contribution from Dayton factories to the war was the De Havilland bombing plane turned out by the Dayton-Wright Airplane company. After the mission to the United States (led by Col. Bolling) had decided on the type of machine to be produced on this side, samples were sent and with them some not very definite instructions as to their construction. On July 18, 1917, the first De Havilland was received in New York and, after being sent for examination to Washington, was then forwarded to Dayton, where it arrived on August 15. This plane arrived without its engine and lacking many other accessories later included in the equipment of a fighting machine. The plane had to be re-designed and altered to take the Liberty engine and our machine guns and instruments.
The first De Havilland plane, known as the Canary Bird, was completed in October and flown on the 29th by Howard M. Rinehart. It was used all that winter by the flying force and is now exhibited as a relic of aircraft production in the Smithsonian Institution.
During the months of December, January and February many acute difficulties were met, struggled with and overcome and on the 8th of April another plane known as No. 31 was finished and taken as a model for all future planes. The characteristics of the De Haviland-4 as established by the No. 31 were as follows :
Endurance at 6,500 feet, full throttle 2 hours, 13 minutes
Endurance at 6,500 feet, half throttle 3 hours, 3 minutes
Ceiling 19,500 feet
Climb to ten thousand feet (loaded) 14 minutes
Speed at ground level 124.7 miles per hour
Speed at 6,500 feet 120 miles per hour
Speed at 10,000 feet 117 miles per hour
Speed at 15,000 feet 113 miles per hour
Weight, bare plane 2,391 pounds
Weight, loaded 3,582 pounds
It must be explained for the benefit of the uninitiated that the De Haviland-4 is an observation two-place biplane fully equipped for fighting and with a Liberty motor. This type of machine was adhered to throughout the time of production. The quantity produced is hereby given as an interesting fact when the difficulties of quantity production in a thoroughly new and unfamiliar enterprise are taken into consideration.
After the winter months had brought with them their results of research and experiment, planes began to appear from the factory to the training field. In March there were four completed; in April, fifteen; in May, a hundred and fifty-three; in June, three hundred and thirty-six; in July, four hundred and eighty-four; in August, eight hundred and fifty-seven; in October, a thousand and ninety-seven; in November, a thousand and seventy-two, and then (page 118) the armistice put an end to production. A total of four thousand five hundred and eighty-seven were completed and shipped over and the output would have continued at the rate of a thousand a month as long as the war demanded.
Mention must be made here of the remarkable work of Howard Rinehart, who will be instantly remembered whenever the name De Haviland-4 is spoken. To only a few is known the whole story of Rinehart's part in the development of the American air program. An intrepid flyer, he was one of the first trained by Orville Wright and after an extensive experience in radio work he became military aeronaut, flying the Wright model H-S machine. Later in the Wright flying school he trained over two hundred flyers and when definitely connected with the Dayton-Wright Airplane company he did the major portion of the development, flying with the De Haviland-4 machine. It is said that only those who went through that discouraging winter of 1917-18 realize the degree of Rinehart's devotion to the work.
The National Cash Register Company's War Work.-It was quite early in the game when the cash register plant and all its facilities were placed at the disposal of the government. A war work committee was immediately appointed who started new contracts through the factory, made priority rulings and saw that time schedules were fulfilled. Cash register production was cut down to twenty-five per cent of previous output and the balance of the line of work was standardized.
Special orders were cut down, production of non-essentials stopped, women employed so as to release men and the plant rearranged. In addition two permanent buildings were immediately put under construction with a total floor space of a hundred and thirty-seven square feet, bringing the total of buildings in the plant up to twenty-one.
One motto was adopted at the instigation of the president: "War first and business second if there is any time for business." Work was speeded up, the works going night and day, with the result that the war work was finished either on time or ahead of time.
Ten things were on the order to the N. C. R. plant from the government : (1) Metal fittings for standard J-1 training airplanes, for which work it was necessary to have over a thousand new tools made, six thousand detail parts constructed and a million five hundred thousand units assembled, involving one hundred thousand seven hundred and twenty hours' work.
(2) Liberty motor parts, including over two million pieces which had to be produced with the utmost accuracy and precision and in the shortest possible time. Both were accomplished.
(3) Tel tacheometer. An instrument used to register the speed of the propeller shaft ; ten thousand made, requiring more than a million parts, requiring in turn over two thousand tools and taking fifty-five thousand hours' work.
(4) Ailerons, rudders and stabilizers for two thousand D. H. airplanes, requiring two hundred and nineteen thousand feet of lumber, out of which were constructed eight thousand ailerons, two thousand rudders and two thousand stabilizers.
The Patterson Log Cabin, the first home in Lexington, Ky., built by Col. Robert Patterson of Revolutionary fame for his bride, Elizabeth Lindsay.
Rubicon Farm, built in 1810, by Col. Robert Patterson, afterwards the residence of Jefferson Patterson.
(page 119) (5) Air speed indicators and pilot tubes ; an instrument used to record the air pressure on airplane. Order placed April 29, 1918. First instrument finished seven days later. Seven hundred and five made, faster than the shipping orders came in.
(6) Battery commander's periscope bracket. Eleven thousand seven hundred ordered, same delivered. Two hundred and twenty-one tools made ; nearly six thousand hours of work.
(7) Battery commander's tripod ; nearly sixteen thousand ordered and made; twenty-one thousand hours of work.
(8) Azimuth head for directing shell fire. Fifteen thousand seven hundred and fifty ordered. Contract still running. Production has reached over one hundred and twenty-five a day. Measurements had to be accurate to the one ten-thousandth of an inch.
(9) French bracket 75 mm. shrapnel fuse setter. Six thousand ordered and ninety-nine hours of schedule time had been put in when contract was canceled.
(10) Colt .45 automatic pistol. Five hundred thousand ordered. Twenty-six million parts required. The shops were up to schedule for the production of tools and machinery when the signing of the armistice caused suspension of the contract.
The Davis Sewing Machine Company.-The work in this plant for war production began in the spring of 1915 with the manufacture of the 3-GT Russian fuse used by the Russian government on their three-inch high explosive shells. This output continued for nearly two years. After the United States entered the war the amount of work done by the Davis company rapidly increased until at the time of the signing of the armistice about sixty per cent of the factory
force was so engaged.
For the United States government the Davis company made the Russian type mark I fuse and the French type mark V fuse. The latter was made in both the delay and non-delay type and were used in the 75 mm. shells. Production continued on the Russian type mark I fuse for about six months and on the French type mark V fuse for nearly a year.
The detonator department contained about fifty-five thousand square feet of floor space and employed over seven hundred men and women. By them some millions of fuses were produced and the company's record was second to none in the country engaged in similar work.
The bicycle department was one of the three sources of supply for the government, which was furnished with a specially constructed military model Dayton bicycle, which was used in both the United States and France.
The sewing machine department manufactured a specially constructed sewing machine for use in the United States balloon corps.
Davis-made types of sewing-machines were widely used by manufacturers of tents, balloons, knapsacks, leggings and similar products, while Davis machines of the family type were used at various Red Cross centers.
The forge department, which is one of the best equipped of the kind in Ohio, produced parts as follows : 12 parts for fuse centers, 4 (page 120) parts for Liberty motors, 4 parts for the De Haviland-4 airplane, 1 part for the Dietrick-Lorraine airplane motor, 2 parts for army jacks, 2 parts for navy rigging, 3 parts for army trucks and 1 part for hospital fan.
The Story of the Tanks. For two years Dayton people read the New York papers for every scrap of information they could pick up on the subject of those wonderful and mysterious machines of modern warfare-tanks. Yet, had they gone out over the Herman avenue bridge in Riverdale and turned to the right, if they could have seen through a heavy and high board fence and got by the armed sentry at the gate, they would have seen tanks not only in course of manufacture, but several of them trundling around in the large enclosure that surrounds the Maxwell Motor Car company, being tried out for their future career on the Flanders battle front. But the censorship was rigid. Nobody saw the tanks or knew that with four French tanks as models, with French officials as consultants and two thousand workmen in the shops, the Maxwell company and the Platt Iron works were busy making in quantity these modern military monsters.
Had the war lasted a few months longer Dayton, in addition to being the air-metropolis of the world, would have also been recognized as the leading city in the United States in the manufacture of tanks. To have been the center of the tank industry in the nation, it was only necessary that the war should have lasted some three months longer. It is now definitely known that the facilities here were so much better than elsewhere, skilled labor so plentiful, shop equipment so complete, that the government would never have looked elsewhere for this industry. In fact large contracts with the Ford and the Hudson companies were entirely shut off. Tank construction in Dayton began in the closing days of 1917. Like airplane production, the story of tank production was a long list of difficulties. First the difficulty in translating French plans, then that of securing the necessary parts of the tank. Many of the smaller parts had never been constructed before and on account of their unusual shape and structure no profit could be made and concerns fought shy of the job. But all difficulties were overcome, and now that the smoke of battle has cleared away and they can see the work "en large," the manufacturers at the head of this unusual industry may congratulate themselves that their record for accomplishment is so good. Also that their department of the military service is among the few that escaped criticism and investigation. Tank construction in Dayton really began in the closing days of December, 1917, but it was not until months afterward that this fact was generally known. Appearance of the tanks on the streets of the city in the "Armistice" celebration was the first intimation that the general public had that they were being manufactured here. Approximately four hundred and fifty tanks had been built and tested in Dayton before November 11. Overseas shipping had started and tanks were leaving Dayton every day for Cincinnati, where they joined the army convoys and proceeded by train to the seaboard, where the were lifted by derricks into waiting vessels and started to the front.
(page 121) It is stated with authority that tanks will continue to be produced in Dayton under the original contracts. Three thousand and ninety were to have been completed under the first order. The production was at the rate of from two to seven daily. As the tank left the Dayton plants it was ready for action with the exception of installing the guns and ammunition. In a short time longer they would have been equipped with wireless apparatus. There is now on hand at the factories $10,000,000 worth of tank material, including valuable parts that can be used for no other purpose. No new raw materials are being procured. If tanks continue to be-manufactured it will be for the following reasons: To replace tanks borrowed from the French; to have a number of tanks on hand as a part of the preparedness program ; to give employment to labor which will and is suffering from too prompt demobilization.
Early in the war the Platt Iron works offered to build a large number of the small type of "one-man" tanks of the design developed by Renault in France which has proved so successful on account of the rapid movement and speed of maneuvering. After protracted negotiations concerning points of construction and methods of manufacture an order for over fourteen hundred tanks was placed by the government and simultaneously the Platt Iron works made extensive plans for rapid production.
One large building was completely cleared of the machinery it contained and converted into an assembling building. At a later date a part of the foundry was also cleared and converted to the same use. The machinery of parts was performed in the general machine shop, a large number of special machine tools being purchased for
the purpose. However, the speed of production was such that all the parts could not possibly be made in the company's own factory and a part of the plan originally contemplated involved placing subcontracts for all such parts as were adapted to the special equipment and facilities of other factories. At one time there were as many as five hundred sub-contractors, furnishing various parts to the Platt Iron Works company.
The work of organizing, correlating, checking and inspecting the mass of work involved in such contracts, not only to get the work out with the required speed and accuracy, but also to satisfy the strict requirements of the government as to accounting and other records, was a task of great magnitude, particularly in view of the many novel features involved, the frequent modifications in design and methods which had to be observed.
As the great production machine was set in motion many unforeseen difficulties arose that had to be overcome. The design was based on the French design and French methods. American practice was found in some instances to be totally unable to take care of this and the great machine was slowed up by reason of some sub-contractor discovering this and throwing the productions program out of gear. All of which vast transactions involved had to be conducted according to the rules established by the priorities division of the War Industrial board, which rules were embraced in many publications subject to frequent changes and revision. (page 122) However, all these problems were at last solved and production started. The first delivery of finished tanks began to come forward in the fall of 1918, though coincident with this delivery and further back in the line of production the parts for all the machines were completed and on hand for the entire order. The initial requirement of fourteen hundred tanks involved an estimated expenditure of about $7,000,000.
With the signing of the armistice the program was halted and as soon as a definite decision was reached it was decided by the government to complete only three hundred and twenty-five tanks.
Considerable delay attended this decision, so that the last of the tanks was not completed before April 30, at which time they were being finished at the rate of four a day-one every hundred and fifty minutes.
These machines were shipped to their various destinations, but the storage buildings of the Platt Iron works are still filled, ceiling high, with parts of tanks, boxed, checked and marked, the vistas of these being silently eloquent of immense activity and expenditure.
Shell Production in the Platt Iron Works.-In 1915 the Russian government contracted with the Platt Iron works for a million three-inch shells, for which purpose a splendid building was erected and equipped with the most modern shell-making machinery. A further contract for an equal number came from the same source. At the conclusion of these contracts, there being such demand for machinery of this description and the United States not being in the war, the company was about to accept an offer for the equipment when officials from our government approached the management (as they did other large manufacturers) to retain its machinery in case of the United States being involved.
Shortly after, war was declared and the government immediately placed one order for a hundred thousand army shells followed by another for the same number of navy shells, both of which orders were filled. Subsequently an order for 800,000 75 mm. shells was given, which order was doubled at a later date.
Work on the contracts went on, even after the armistice was signed, until January, at which time it permanently ceased on all 75 mm. contracts. The output of the plant reached from six to eight thousand shells a day, or three hundred an hour. Preparations were completed to double that output. In connection with these figures it must be remembered that shells are made of the very hardest steel and must be constructed with an accuracy of approximately one thousandth of an inch in many of their dimensions. The action of the government in canceling its contracts was to ask all manufacturers to submit claims covering losses by reason of cancellation. Inasmuch as very large sums had been invested in preparation work and special appliances, the setting up of a claim proved to be a very complicated matter.
The Ohmer Fare Register Company and the War.-In the summer of 1917 the Ohmer Fare Register company was busily engaged in the manufacture of its regular products. These consisted of indicating and recording fare registers for use in electric railway cars (page 123) and records in taximeters for taxicabs. The fare registers were already in general use throughout the country and the demand for them increasing. The taximeter, though a newer device, was also rapidly increasing in popularity and the future of the business from a peace time standpoint was assured.
During the period of the war before the United States threw down the gauntlet to German autocracy, many tempting war contracts had been offered the company, which, however, were invariably turned down. When America entered the war, however, Mr. John F. Ohmer, president of the company, and his board of directors offered the entire facilities of the plant to the government and a contract, the first of three, was undertaken. This contract was placed by the Navy Department and called for the manufacture of one thousand mounts and sights for three-inch naval guns. The factory, although well equipped for the making of its original output, including recording devices and the finer and more delicate parts of gun sights, was far from being able at that stage of the game to handle heavy steel castings weighing thousands of pounds and requiring large electric cranes to move them. Fortunately, however, the factory had been built with a view to early expansion and there was plenty of adjoining land to accommodate other buildings. Forty days after signing the first government contract a large tract of land occupied by a maturing crop of potatoes was transformed into the site of a brick and steel factory building, equipped with electric cranes and with the machinery running. The German submarines were then at the climax of their history of frightfulness, and every agency toward rapid and early production of the sadly needed gun mounts was utilized.
Contracting to manufacture gun mounts and sights meant to manufacture the entire gun with the exception of the barrel and the optical instrument or telescope. Anyone who has ever studied the mechanism necessary to train a naval gun, the devices for taking up the recoil, the fine co-ordination of parts necessary to make an effective and reliable weapon, will appreciate the monumental task accepted by these producers of registers and taximeters. The making of fine tools had already won for the company a reputation for accuracy and the tool-making departments immediately started on a task which required the finest and closest work. On December 11, 1917, an additional contract was entered into calling for five hundred and sixty-five mounts and sights for four-inch naval guns. This meant a still further increase in the equipment of the plant for the handling of still heavier castings. The existing organization had already been keyed up to the necessary pitch of speed and was able to handle the additional work, but new buildings had to be built and built quickly. New machinery had to be purchased, to say nothing of the vast increase in the amount of raw material required. This contract was followed by a third, calling for five hundred more of the four-inch mounts and sights and the contract was promptly accepted.
Early in the year 1918, gun mounts and sights began to be shipped and soon there was a constant flow of the units to the seaboard, where necessary tests having been made they were loaded (page 124) onto merchantmen for protection against the submarine. The authorities at Washington found the products of this Dayton factory to be good and the rate of production entirely satisfactory. The Ohmer Fare Register company at this time was practically the only source of supply in the country for three-inch naval mounts and sights. The four-inch mounts necessarily got into production a little later. These were beginning to leave the factory in satisfactory quantities at the time the armistice was signed. International Clay Machinery and the War.-Contracts were taken by the International Clay Machinery company in the early part of 1918 for forty thousand 75 mm. high explosive shells, being a direct contract from the Ordnance department of the United States government and a result of former orders filled for them. There were many delays, due to the difficulties in getting machine tools, but at the time the armistice was signed thirty thousand shells had been shipped.
When the emergency fleet program was started the International sub-contracted with the following firms for the manufacture of turning engines: The Hooven-Owens Rentschler company, Hamilton, Ohio; the Badenhausen company, Philadelphia; the Ingersoll-Rand company, Phillipsburg, N. J.; the Hardie-Tynes company, Birmingham, Ala. The "turning engine" is the starting engine on the large 2,800-horsepower marine engine for bilge pumps, evaporator feed pumps and other 2,800-horsepower parts complete. These contracts were partially canceled on March 1, 1919; the remainder were filled by April 1.
In addition to these war orders the International did considerable work for the gas mask plants of the Gas Defense division in the way of gas producers, annealing cars and structural equipment. In short, for the six months directly preceding the armistice, this firm had virtually abandoned its original product and was doing ninety-eight per cent war work.
The Dayton Metal Products Company's War Work.-This firm was incorporated April 28, 1915, and the first contract secured was on May 19 from the Canadian Car & Foundary company for 1,500,000 3 G T Russian detonating fuses, which contract was rapidly followed by one from J. P. Morgan & Co. for the same for the British government in February of the next year for 1,000,000 3 G T detonating fuses and 1,000,000 4 G T of the same.
On January 13, 1916, on November 2, 1916, and January 6, 1917, respectively, came contracts from the International Steel & Ordnance company for 1,000,000, for 250,000 and for 50,000 3 G T Russian detonating fuses. On May 8, 1916, the United States Navy department contracted for 22,000 3 G T Russian –detonating fuses.
All these contracts were completed by March, 1917. Again in April, 1917, the United States Navy department contracted for 12,000 4 G T Russian detonating fuses, while the United States Ordnance department ordered 1,000,000 of the 3 G T fuses, which was later changed to Mark 1 U. S. detonating fuses and the quantity reduced to 750,000 because of the reduction of ordnance requirements for this type of ammunition.
(page 125) Another contract from the United States Ordnance department was dated February 22, 1918, and called for 1,585,000 Mark 11 detonating fuses, of which 1,750,000 had been completed up to the time the armistice was signed and nearly all the parts necessary to complete the contract were in process of manufacture. The Dayton Metal Products company, due to its close association with the Dayton-Wright Airplane company and the dominant position that Dayton has always held in matters of aviation, especially during the war, started to manufacture parts for airplanes in the latter part of the year 1917. In this work they specialized on turnbuckles, tie rods, clevises, clevis pins, bolts and thimbles and up to the time of the signing of the armistice had produced the startling quantity of 2,000,000 turnbuckles, 600,000 tie rods complete with clevises and 2,250,000 thimbles. The romance behind such gigantic production can only be imagined by those on the inside of war work.
Other Dayton Concerns Making War Products.-The Dayton Malleable Iron works was doing ninety-eight per cent of government war work when the armistice was declared. It consisted of several thousand tons of malleable castings used in the assembling of fighting tanks both in this country and in England; fuse caps for trench mortar shells; wire rope clips for the Navy department, used in laying mines; locomotive and freight car castings for the United States Railroad administration, and a number of other orders used in miscellaneous war work.
The Automatic Machine company furnished for the Curtiss Airplane & Motor corporation seventeen orders for forming dies, progressive dies, piercing dies, assembly fixtures, stamping dies, cutters and holders. Work was nearly completed at time armistice was signed. Balance was canceled. For the Dayton Stamping & Tool company, tools, jigs and fixtures. Work covered six or seven months and was entirely completed. For the Dayton-Wright Airplane company, special parts used in construction of airplanes ; orders extending over a period of eight or nine months. All completed. For the Dayton-Ohio Production company, die pot bushings, adapters, centering rings. All completed. For the Dayton Wire Wheel company, drill holders, thread gauges, plug gauges, ring gauges, all for use for cartridge containers, and other government work. All completed. Work extending over about lour months for Interstate Motor company of Muncie, Ind., consisting of drill jigs and special fixtures. Work all completed. During the entire year had work on hand for the Maxwell Motor company, on which were employed from twenty to thirty-five men full time and sometimes four or five nights a week. All government work and all completed. For the Platt Iron works for seven or eight months, all government work and all completed. Several large orders for gun mounts for the Recording Devices company, all completed and all delivered. Several smaller orders for the Dayton Manufacturing company, the C. J. Weinmann company and the Ohmer Fare Register company. The Green & Green Cracker Company.-While the great manufacturing plants of Dayton were sidetracked from their original products to make munitions during the war, Green & Green speeded (page 126) up on their own to make war material of a different sort. Six million five hundred thousand pounds of hard bread was their record in the great struggle to conquer militarism.
The story of a big bakery taking its enormous facilities for production into the war, conquering all the problems of making, packing and shipping the huge quantities of bread needed by the American army, makes a thrilling story. At the breaking of relations with Germany the government called upon the Green & Green Cracker company for the manufacture of hard bread for the soldiers abroad. One word was sufficient to stop the production of a commodity to which they had given years of study, to undertake an entirely new product and the response was immediate and whole-souled. The problem was to deliver to the men in the trenches a hard bread in perfect condition, clean, pure and sweet. To this end air and gas tight containers must be used-tin containers so tightly soldered that the contents would be perfectly protected when opened in the mud of the trenches and in any kind of weather ; and the containers as well as the bread must be made in the factory. To this end special machinery was designed and installed. Two eight-hour shifts of the six hundred employees were arranged. Four hundred people were fed every day at the factory. An average day's run of f lour was four hundred and fifty-eight barrels, which, if superimposed one upon the other, would make a stack higher than the Eiffel tower. Fifty-three carloads of tin plate were used in making hard bread containers. A day's shipment averaged a hundred and twenty thousand pounds of packages, and the whole output, the final protest against German "Kultur," was six and a half million pounds of hard bread.
The eight months of war work being over, the Green & Green company resumed the manufacture of the cracker for which they have become famous, but the memory of their contribution to the great struggle will remain a substantial satisfaction.
For a whole lifetime in the manufacturing annals of Dayton, one of the standard products was "Wolf's cracker," a crisp, salty, toothsome dainty. No housekeeper was ever without them in her larder. it was an institution in itself. ii November, 1896, this industry was taken over by the Greens John W. and Weston Green who continued to manufacture a cracker just as satisfactory as the Wolf cracker, the same formula, but carefully made by modern machinery and under strictly sanitary conditions. There were no stockholders at the time and the business was carried on entirely by the father and son in the Music Hall building on North Main street. The company was incorporated June 28, 1916. Before that a new factory had been constructed on the corer of Cincinnati and Concord streets, into which they moved in December, 1907. The Green & Green company ascribe their success and constant progress to several factors ; the satisfying of public taste not only by producing a healthful and appetizing food at a nominal price but to the care with which it is treated in the factory. Other factors in the business are the advertising of their. product over a limited territory and marketing the same through a well organized sales force. The territory covered is within a radius of about one (page 127) hundred and fifty miles from Dayton with sales branches at Columbus, Springfield and Lima.
The company has had a steady growth since its organization and additions are being made each year to the office and sales force.
The Recording. Devices Company and the Synchronizers.-While the volume of war work done by this company was small in comparison to some, the nature of the devices manufactured was most important in that the safety of the aviator depended upon the absolute mechanical correctness of the devices in the operation of the airplane.
Among the many appliances with which every battle plane was equipped was the synchronizing generator. This was a device attached to the Liberty motor which synchronized with the revolutions of the propeller, so that the gunner who sat immediately behind and in line with the propeller could fire as fast as he desired without the missiles striking the revolving blades. It can be easily seen that the slightest defect in the mechanism of this device placed the lives of the occupants in jeopardy. Of the ten thousand or more which were manufactured by this company and attached to the battle planes, the device was so perfect in its mechanism that in no case was there found an instance where it did not perform the work for which it was intended. The Recording Devices company was one of the two companies selected by the government to manufacture this device. Other devices manufactured by the Recording Devices company were the following: Double and single gun yokes, duplex triggers, gun sight equipment, wing tip fare holders, bomb release mechanism and operating, safety and control handles, all most important for the complete equipment of the battle plane. It must be understood that when the government came to the Recording Devices company requesting them to get into production on these devices all of them were in more or less an experimental stage and that none had been fully developed. Great credit should be given the officers and employees of the company for the manner in which they put aside their regular peace production and at once launched into war work. Material was hard to get and labor was scarce. Great assistance was given this company by the selection of many enlisted men of the different cantonments throughout the United States, whose records showed that they were expert mechanics, and upon the request of the company these men were furloughed and detailed to work in the plant of the company, and to them should be given as much credit as though they had gone overseas.
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