Dayton

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a city and county-seat of Montgomery co., O.; on the Great Miami river at its confluence with the Mad and Stillwater rivers; served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis, the Erie, the Pennsylvania and other railroads. It is 60 miles N. E. of Cincinnati. The industries of Dayton are diversified. Its chief manufactured products are airplanes, automobile parts, cash registers, bicycles, sewing machines, foundry and machine shop products, lighting plants, shoe lasts, cigars, toys and paper-box goods. Dayton was the first large city in the United States to adopt government by a city manager and legislative commission. Five commissioners, elected by the people, choose a city manager. All six are subject to recall. The initiative and referendum are included in the charter. The divisions of the municipal government are the Service, Safety, Finance, Law and Welfare Departments. There is a large government aviation experimental station within a mile of the center of the city. An intermediate supply depot for aviation equipment is maintained by the government eig eight miles from the city, on the ground where the Wright Brothers made some of their initial flights in the first really successful airplane. An engineering project for the prevention of another flood disaster like that of 1913 is well under way. Dayton has a National Military Home Hospital for veterans of the Civil, Cuban and World Wars and many public and private hospitals. Dayton was settled in 1796; incorporated in 1805; and chartered as a city in 1841. A new charter providing for the commission-manager form of government was adopted in 1913. Pop. (1910) 116,577; (1920) 152,559.