The Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio

The two young men who were to be the first to fly were born in the midwest shortly after the Civil War. Wilbur Wright was born on a farm near Millville, 8 miles east of New Castle, Ind., April 16, 1867. Four years younger, Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio, August 19, 1871. They were the sons of Rev. Milton Wright, 2 a minister, and later bishop, of the United Brethren Church, and Susan Koerner Wright. Both parents had been teachers. When his sons were small, Bishop Wright was editor of the church’s publications. Mrs. Wright had “a streak of her father’s mechanical ability,” and she had a reputation in the family for being able “to mend anything.” Bishop and Mrs. Wright also had two older sons, Reuchlin and Lorin, and a younger daughter, Katharine.

In the Wright home, children were encouraged to pursue intellectual interests and to investigate whatever aroused their curiosity. Wilbur and Orville displayed mechanical aptitude, the gift of original thinking, and a pioneering urge. Sharing a common interest in mechanical devices, the boys made kites and toy helicopters, built a lathe and a printing press that worked. Wilbur wrote of their close associations:

From the time we were little children my brother Orville and myself lived together, played together, worked together and, in fact, thought together. We usually owned all our toys in common, talked over our thoughts and aspirations so that nearly everything that was done in our lives has been the result of conversations, suggestions and discussions between us.

Mrs. Wright died in 1889. It was that year that the brothers assembled their printing press from old parts found in junk yards and barns and began to publish a successful neighborhood weekly newspaper. Although each brother attended high school the full time required for a diploma, neither of them formally graduated from high school or attended college. Their two older brothers married and established homes of their own, but Wilbur and Orville remained bachelors. After completing their schooling they continued to live with their father and schoolteacher sister in a modest framehouse in Dayton.

The Wright home, 7 Hawthorne Street, Dayton, about 1897, three years before the first Kitty Hawk experiments. The house where Orville was born in 1871, and where Wilbur died in 1912.

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This successful neighborhood weekly was published by Orville Wright on a printing press assembled from old parts found in junkyards and barns. Wilbur Wright was editor. Courtesy, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

West Side News.

Vol. 1 DAYTON, OHIO, MAY 25, 1889 No. 12

West Side News.

PUBLISHED WEEKLY.

Wilbur Wright Editor Orville Wright Publisher

TERMS—Quarter of year, twenty cents Ten weeks, ten cents.

1910 WEST THIRD STREET. DAYTON, OHIO.

Ancient Warriors.

Before the invention of gunpowder a battle was little better than a group of hand-to-hand conflicts. Stout sinews and muscles were then valued, and the strong man was especially esteemed. William Wallace was the Scottish chief, not only for his patriotism but also because he had a giant’s strength. Once when attacked by five men, he killed three and put ...

Parrot Chorus.

The traditional “fish story” has many varieties, to which it seems only fair to add the following, even though the fish in this case was a parrot. Doubtless its narrator, an American artist, designed it to be “taken for what it is worth.”

He was very fond of knocking about in out-of-the-way quarters of the world, and once left ship with a ship of comrades, in order to explore a Central American wilderness. During the cruise of several months, the entire ship’s company had devoted their leisure hours to singing to a parrot. The sailor had also lost no opportunity of teaching the bird all the nautical phrases they know.

When the artist and his comrades had bidden the bird and the sailors good-by, they plunged into the heart of the tropical forest, and after great exertion in accomplish- ...

forsaking all others, cleave only unto her, so long as you both shall live!”

The minister paused for the response. The groom hung down his head, and was silent, but the bride, in a staccato tone, exclaimed, “Yes, sir. I’ll see to it that he does all that.”

It was evident who would rule in that household. But a Scotch clergyman once married a groom who insisted upon promising to obey his wife. The clergyman, while traveling through a village, was requested to officiate at a marriage, in the absence of the parish minister. Just as he had told the bridegroom to love and honor his wife, the man interjected the words, “and obey.” The clergyman, surprised to find a husband willing to take a promise usually made by the wife alone, did not heed the proposed amendment.

He was going on with the service ...

The best, the cheapest and the Safest place to buy a PIANO or ORGAN is at Martin Bros. & Fritch, W Fourth St, Kehns Block

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Remember that APPLETON will make your Photographs as cheap as any body, whether you have a ticket or not.

THE WEST SIDE Building ...