August

August 20: Professional football takes the field

On this day Ralph E. Hay asked 6 of his friends and associates to meet with him in his Canton Ohio auto dealership where he sold Hupmobiles. The one thing that all of these men had in common was their love of football. Four of the men at the Hay’s dealership that day were already professional football team owners. They were members of the Ohio League which included the Akron Pros, Cleveland Indians, the Dayton Triangles and Hay’s Canton Bulldogs. and they were used to seeing each other during the fall. But this was a little unusual, the teams were still practicing and getting ready for the fall season.

Hay had bought his team called the Canton Bulldogs a couple of years earlier. He thought it would be a good idea to promote his automobile dealership, plus he just loved the game. But today’s meeting would mean a giant leap forward for the game. These men were here to form a new football league that could take their new league to a higher level.

At the meeting they decided to call the new league the American Professional Football Association and the creation of the American Professional Football Conference. They also nominated Ralph Hay’s coach and star player, Jim Thorpe to be the league’s first president.

Jim Thorpe dressed in his Canton Bulldogs uniform

Jim Thorpe who had been getting his Bulldogs ready for the first game, was honored that they would nominate him. But for the owners, it was purely a good business decision. Jim Thorpe was a star athlete and recognized around the world for Olympic accomplishments a few years back. The business men assembled at Hay’s dealership thought having Thorpe as the president of the new football league could only improve their legitimacy and attendance.

One month later, the men met once again and electing Jim Thorpe to be president of the new league, and they changed the league’s name to the American Professional Football Association. Two years later the league’s name would once again be changed to the National Football League – the NFL we all enjoy watching every Sunday.

August 19: Bubs the printer is born

By John Merrill

It was on this day in 1871 that Bubs was born in Dayton, Ohio. He would be the sixth of seven children for Rev. Milton and his wife Susan.

Throughout his life Bubs had an intense desire to learn and discover, yet he never graduated from high school. It wasn’t because he was stupid or didn’t care, he did care, but having already decided on his life’s work, he didn’t feel it necessary to have a simple piece of paper to succeed. He had decided he wanted to be a printer, but not just a printer, he wanted to be a publisher.

Even before his high school days were over, Bubs had started a printing business with Ed Sines, a classmate and friend who already owned a small printing press and enough type to set a full page folio.
While not specifically detailed, I’m sure Bubs got the printing bug when as a young boy he would visit his father’s office was located above a local print shop that had a large steam powered press.

During his summer vacation, Bubs got a job in a local print shop cleaning up the shop and helping wipe down the presses between runs. What he was actually doing was picking up the techniques of the printing trade– learning the jargon, learning the tools of setting justified type and running proofs. These summer months working there were invaluable to him and helped set him on the right course.

By the time Bubs was sixteen, he was ready to expand his joint venture with Ed. Bubs thought a new press was in order along with more type fonts that would greatly expand the print shop’s capabilities, but Ed wasn’t interested in expanding their business. So instead of expanding their venture. Bubs bought out his friend’s interest and then hired him to help.

To do what he wanted to do, Bubs realized he needed more help. He couldn’t do the sales work, write the stories, set the type and run the press. What he could do was convince his older brother Ullam to join him. Bubs told him that he could be the Editor and Bubs would be the Publisher.
When a seasoned printer visited Bubs’ father, Milton, he took a look at the press Bubs had put together in the backyard shed. The printer agreed with Milton that the press works, but he couldn’t see how it worked.

That printing press was made out of odds and ends Bubs had found including a discarded tombstone that was used as the printing press bed. Once all the type was locked in and inked, the press could produce 1,000 sheets an hour.

With his printing equipment all set, the two boys began selling subscriptions and advertising. They generated enough revenue they could afford a small office. This was the beginning of a partnership that would last all their lives.

Several years later they decided to expand their business to include a manufacturing bicycles. They moved into a new building where they could do the printing on the second floor and manufacture and sell bicycles on the first floor.

In 1899 they decided to change directions entirely and they stopped the presses for good and concentrate on the bicycle shop. They also began investigating the world’s accumulated knowledge on what the two brothers would become best known: being the first men to build and fly a heavier that air machine.

Orville “Bubs” Wright and his older brother Wilbur “Ullam” Wright. To their friends they were just Will and Orv, but to their family they were known as Ullam and Bubs, the two brothers from Dayton that changed the world.

Read more about the brothers >>

August 17: Charles F. Kettering is No Crank!

By John Merrill

Anyone that has a driver’s license has probably used a key to start their car. For those that don’t know what happens when they turn that key, in its most basic concept, allows a jolt of electricity to run from the battery to a motor that actually turns or cranks the engine. Sparks are then ignited in the piston chambers that cause a mixture of air and vaporized gasoline to explode. Once all of the cylinders start revolving, the starter motor quickly disengages from the engine and it continues on its own.

Sure, everyone knows that you say. But if you ever see any of those old movies where the guy has to stand in front of the car and turn a crank to get the engine started can appreciate what it was link before the self-starter was invented.

On this day 39 year old Charles F. Kettering, a man born in Loudonville, Ohio in 1876, got his patent for his electric starter. Kettering’s electric starter had been first installed on the 1912 Cadillac. By the early 1920s Kettering’s self-starting motor would be installed on just about every car made. That refinement in automobile ownership made the automobile more attractive, especially women. It was the beginning of the automobile culture that continues to this day.

Kettering and his company, DELCO (Dayton ELectronics COrporation), went on to create a number of improvements to the automobile including shock absorbers, the automatic transmission, quick-drying automotive paint, and safety glass.

Although he was most famous for his contributions to the auto industry, Charles Kettering also known for developing several medical innovations such as an incubator for premature infants, venereal disease treatments and a number of magnetic diagnostic devices. During his time at DELCO and later at General Motors (GM), Mr. Kettering accumulated a great fortune. In 1945 he and Alfred Sloan, another GM vice president, established the Sloan-Kettering Institute for cancer research.

In 1958 at the age of 82, Charles Kettering died of a stroke at his home in Kettering, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, named for the inventor.

August 15: A legend is born and another one dies

By John Merrill

It wasn’t far from Bethel, NY where an event occurred that became the defining moment of a new generation. The year was 1969 when almost a half million people descended on that rural community and Max Yasgur’s 600 acre dairy farm.

The festival was scheduled for just 3 days, but it would last in the hearts and minds of a generation for the rest of their lives. The festival was originally planned to be held in another small town southwest of Bethel, but when towns folk learned about the event, they promptly said “NO WAY!” Event organizers and their lawyers were forced to find another venue.

The townspeople of Bethel tried to get the festival banned, but eventually permits were issued for the festival which was expected to draw no more than 50,000.

Today, for anyone over 65, if asked about the Bethel Festival in ’69, they probably won’t have a clue. But if you ask them if they remember Woodstock, all will remember that event and probably 10,000 million of those people will swear they were there or were stuck in traffic trying to get there.

On this day in 1969 a new generation came of age at the Woodstock Music Festival, or as most would remember it as just Woodstock, just not Woodstock, NY, but not far from Bethel.

In Ohio history, a man that played a pivotal role in the settlement of the state and the treatment of Native Americans was killed when he was trying to free a group of Miami Native Americans being held hostage.

Williaim Wells is the central figure in this painting detail of the Treaty of Greenville by Howard Chandler Christy. Little Turtle, Wells' father-in-law, is the Native American standing on the left. — Williaim Wells is the central figure in this painting detail of the Treaty of Greenville by Howard Chandler Christy. Little Turtle, Wells’ father-in-law, is the Native American standing on the left.

Long before this day, William Wells was captured by a group of Miami and grew up with them and to survive, he became part of their culture and eventually a prominent Miami member. He fought with the Miami against a St. Clair in western Ohio and helped turn that federal expedition into one of the most devastating defeats in American military history. Several years later he would assist General Mad Anthony Wayne against a united group of Native Americans in northwest Ohio that became known as the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

So one-sided was this defeat that the following year the majority of Native Americans in Ohio, requested a peace treaty between the Nations and the United States. That treaty became known as the Treaty of Greeneville. William Wells was the prime interpreter between the Nations and the American army. A year later, Wells and Chief Little Turtle went to Philadelphia to meet with President Washington. It wouldn’t be the last time these two men would meet with the President of the United States.

On this day in in 1812, at the onset of the War of 1812, William Wells was leading a military force to Fort Dearborn to secure the release of hostages being held, but before they arrived, a group of Potawatomi Indians ambushed the group and Wells was killed.

August 14: A Star is Born

By John Merrill

On this day Judith Ann Berry gave birth to a beautiful daughter she named Ann. Ann’s father was a hospital attendant and her mother a psychiatric nurse in Cleveland. Little did they know that their beautiful little girl would go on to become one of the world’s most stunning actresses.

While attending Bedford High School, Ann becomes an editor on the school newspaper. With this experience she decides that maybe a career in journalism would be good. But then, she becomes captain of the cheer leading squad, and then in her senior year she is elected class president and homecoming queen.

When Ann turned 17 she represented Ohio in the Miss Teen All-American Pageant. The next year she again represented Ohio in the Miss USA Pageant and later that year she would be a finalist in the Miss World competition. She attended Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Community College. In 2001 she would become the first African American to win an Academy Award. On this day in 1966, her parents gave her a name we all know today: Halle Ann Berry. Happy B-Day Halle!

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