A Visit to the Wright Brothers at Woodland Cemetery

After we gave Lukey and Kenzie a relatively short campus tour at the University of Dayton, we drove the few blocks over to Woodland Cemetery.  Kenzie was a bit perplexed that we (or anyone, for that matter) would be visiting a cemetery but I knew this was a place I wanted to visit.  Sheila and I missed a visit to this cemetery the last two times we were in Dayton so I wanted to get here this time.  It is right next to the UD campus so it would have been silly for us to skip this visit since we were staying at UD.  

I have always held a very deep interest in the Wright brothers since elementary school.  In fact, one of my first research essays in elementary school was about these two brothers.  I've done larger research papers on them in high school and college.  My father had purchased a few small books about the Wright brothers at my request (we regularly were given books that we chose).  By the time I was assigned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in my 20s, I knew plenty about the history of these two brothers.  

When I lived in Dayton, I often was part of ceremonies for Wilbur and Orville Wright.  At these ceremonies, I was fortunate enough to meet the living ancestors of Wilbur and Orville.  These ceremonies were in various locations over the years but the two locations I was at most often were at the family burial site at Woodland Cemetery and the Wright Memorial overlooking the Huffman Prairie (more on that in another blog entry). 

This is a beautiful cemetery with many noteworthy burial sites....  of course, the Wright family plot...  but also the writer Erma Bombeck, the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, inventor Charles Kettering (NCR, DELCO, GM Research Labs), the actress Agnes Morehead (Bewitched), David Sinclair (YMCA) and industrialist John Henry Patterson (NCR) to name just a few.  

Here is a photo of the Wright family plot during our visit...

Katharine was the sister of Wilbur and Orville...

As we were leaving this beautiful cemetery, I remembered another gravesite that was worth pointing out since it is right near the entrance to the cemetery.  This noteworthy grave is the "boy and dog burial site".  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of this very unique carved gravestone but I have inserted a photo by Jim Wise. 

During our visit, I couldn't remember the details of this story so I had Kenzie look it up on her phone.  She read the story to us...

In 1860, five year old Johnny Morehouse fell into the Miami & Erie Canal while playing.  His dog jumped in after him in an attempt to rescue him but Johnny drowned.  The dog stayed by his grave, refusing to leave, and is said to have died of sadness and starvation.  Visitors continue the tradition of leaving toys, trinkets and candy at the grave.