DAYTON 



1716 



DEACONESS 



cultivated. Limestone and marble quarries 

 produce large supplies of excellent building 

 material. Dayton's manufacturing industries 

 are numerous, varied and extensive ; many 

 factories employ from 500 to 2,500 people. The 

 National Cash Register Company and the 

 railroad car factories lead in extent of manu- 

 facture. Agricultural implements, architectural 

 iron work, sewing machines, foundry products, 

 automobiles, computing scales, paper, cotton 

 and woolen goods and linseed oil are other 

 important products. 



Homes, Parks and Boulevards. Dayton is 

 an attractive city that suggests the home- 

 lover. There are a dozen or more building 

 associations, its interest in these institutions 

 being greater than that of any other city of 

 its size. A large number of $20,000 homes have 

 been built by this method. Its streets are 

 broad, some being 180 feet wide; Miami and 

 Robert boulevards and the park boulevard 

 along the river are especially attractive. Day- 

 ton's park system covers an area of about 700 

 acres and includes Cooper, Van Cleve, Mc- 

 Kinley and McCabe parks and White City. 

 There is also access to the grounds (640 acres) 

 of the National Military Home, which accom- 

 modates about 6,000 war veterans. A hand- 

 some soldiers' monument is one of the attrac- 

 tions of the city. 



Buildings and Institutions. The most* 

 notable buildings are the Federal building, 

 erected in 1913 at a cost of $1,000,000, the 

 Union Station, opened to the public in 1900, 

 the old courthouse, modeled after the Parthe- 

 non, with a large annex, and Memorial Hall. 

 Dayton State Hospital, the insane asylum, 

 Miami Valley Hospital and Saint Elizabeth's 

 Hospital are among the benevolent institutions. 

 The Y. M. C. A. building cost $600,000. There 

 are about 100 churches, many of them of un- 

 usual architectural beauty, and some fine ho- 

 tels, bank and office buildings. 



Education. Besides its public school system 

 the city has Notre Dame Academy, Saint 

 Mary's College, Bonebroke Theological Sem- 

 inary, Central Theological Seminary, a manual 

 training school, twelve parochial schools for 

 Roman Catholics and Lutherans and four busi- 

 ness colleges, one of which was established in 

 1860. The first library incorporated in the 

 state was established at Dayton in 1805. The 

 public library and museum, in Cooper's Park, 

 contains 100 ,000. volumes and is supplemented 

 by two branch libraries. 

 History. In November, 1796, the present 



city of Dayton was laid out by General Israel 

 Ludlow and a party of Revolutionary soldiers. 

 It was incorporated in 1805 and named for 

 General Jonathan Dayton, one of the first set- 

 tlers. The city charter was granted in 1841. 

 An epidemic of cholera visited Dayton in 1849, 

 and it has been damaged by floods several 

 times; the most serious disaster from this 

 source occurred in March, 1913, when the city 

 sustained a loss of $128,000,000. Within two 

 weeks a fund of $2,000,000 was raised by public- 

 spirited citizens for flood prevention. A plan 

 is under way to obviate even lesser dangers 

 throughout the Miami Valley by a system of 

 dry reservoirs, the construction of which will 

 cost about $20,000,000. Dayton adopted the 

 commission form of government in 1913. Five 

 elective officers appoint a city manager, who 

 is personally responsible for the administration 

 of the government (see CITY MANAGER). W.G.L. 



DEACONESS, de'k'ness, a member of a 

 religious Order connected with several of the 

 Protestant churches. The Order is composed 

 of women who devote their lives to serving the 

 people under the direction of the Church, in 

 special fields in which pastors cannot work. 

 They have definite centers of work called 

 deaconess homes, where they live as communi- 

 ties and where those who need their services 

 are always able to find them. Their chief 

 duties consist in nursing the sick who cannot 

 pay for such assistance and in ministering to 

 the spiritual and material necessities of the 

 distressed and needy. The members usually 

 wear a distinguishing costume, though it is 

 inconspicuous, but they do not take any vows 

 as to time of service. They are required to 

 take a two-years' course of study in special 

 training schools to prepare them for their 

 work and are inducted into the Order by the 

 authorities of the Church to which they belong. 



The deaconess movement was inaugurated 

 in modern times in the first half of the last 

 century by Pastor Fliedner of the United 

 Evangelical Church of Prussia. The first 

 deaconess home in America was established by 

 the Lutheran Church in New York in 1852. 

 The next was founded by Saint Andrew's Epis- 

 copal Church in Baltimore in 1855. In 1888 

 the General Conference of the Methodist Epis- 

 copal Church authorized the establishment of 

 the Order, and the first Methodist deaconess 

 home was founded in Chicago. The Order 

 was given a warm welcome by this Church, 

 which now is far in the lead of all other de- 

 nominations in deaconess work. 



