Woodland Cemetery

I spent the night in Dayton and got up the next morning to check out some more of the Wright Brothers. I started out at Woodland Cemetery where they are buried. Paul Laurence Dunbar, a classmate and friend of the Wrights and noted poet is buried there as well. Since I took the Mt. Hope Cemetery tour a few months back, I viewed this cemetery with completely new eyes and identified a lot of the symbolism on the graves. After consulting the map, I drove around the cemetery seeking out some other graves of note.

I stopped at the grave of Erma Bombeck who was a popular humorist. It’s actually just a 29,000-pound rock. The massive rock was brought by flat-bed truck from near her former home in Arizona. Her husband, Bill Bombeck, said he wanted a “piece of Phoenix” at Erma’s grave to commemorate the 25 years they spent together in Arizona.

One of the most touching gravestones is for Johnny Morehouse. Here is his story: In the 1860s Johnny was a five-year-old boy playing near his home by the edge of the canal. He accidentally fell into the canal water and his dog, playing by him, jumped into the water and tried to save him. He pulled the boy out, but not in time to save his life. The boy drowned and was buried in Woodland Cemetery. Legend has it that, several days after the burial, the dog appeared next to the boy’s grave staying by it morning, noon, and night. Visitors to the cemetery saw him and began to worry about his health. Some began leaving him bits of food. Passersby still bring small toys and other trinkets to decorate the grave marker to express their spontaneous outpourings of sympathy. Despite being covered by weather beaten toys, the statue is so beautiful. I love how protective the dog is.This gravestone apparently used to always frighten the guards. I’ve never seen a life size monument of a person in a cemetery before.

The cemetery has a very nice pavilion... which overlooks downtown Dayton.

Leaving the cemetery, I stopped at the Patterson Homestead. It was the home of Revolutionary War veteran Colonel Robert Patterson and his wife, Elizabeth Lindsay Patterson. Alas, it wasn't open when I was there but the Christmas decorations were very pretty.I drove through the Carillon Historic Park but I was there before it opened so I just took a picture of the carillon. It is the largest carillon in Ohio.