Whatever happened to the Industrialist families of Dayton? (Kettering, Oakwood: for sale, school)

[randomparent]

I'm in the mood to do some research this week! Who's up next? I need ideas.

[CarpathianPeasant]

How about doing the U.S. Congressional Representatives?

Seems like at least recent ones didn't come back to Dayton after someone else got elected. Just last week or so I got to thinking, I wonder if Charley Whalen is buried in Dayton? (Yes.)

[SWOH]

Hey randomparent, I didn't want to respond earlier because I have no ideas, but I am looking forward to the research you do, it's always a pleasant surprise and a wonderful read, thank you!

[randomparent]

Originally Posted by CarpathianPeasant

How about doing the U.S. Congressional Representatives?

Seems like at least recent ones didn't come back to Dayton after someone else got elected. Just last week or so I got to thinking, I wonder if Charley Whalen is buried in Dayton? (Yes.)

Briefly, here is the obituary in the NYTimes for Whalen, who had six children with his wife, Barbara Gleason, but further researching their lives would break my rule of not posting about living descendants

[randomparent]

So as I was perusing the Dayton real estate listings, a gorgeous home in Oakwood caught my eye. At $1.8 million and sitting on eleven acres of prime real estate, I knew someone significant to Dayton history must have built it, and as quick as that I knew what I wanted my next Dayton research project to be. With a couple of google searches, I learned that the Tudor estate called High Acres was built by Frederick Holmes Rike. Of course! How could I have forgotten about the Rikes?

If you are of a certain age and grew up in Dayton, chances are that you visited downtown every holiday season to see the incredible animated holiday windows at Rike's department store. When the Rike's building was demolished in 1999 to make way for the Schuster Performing Arts Center, the windows were thankfully preserved. If you have not had the pleasure, make sure you put it on your list of to-dos for this December. They are a treat!

David Lehman Rike came to Dayton from Xenia around 1850 to take up a job with Valentine Winters and within a few years started the business that became a Dayton landmark in cooperation with two other young Daytonians named Prugh & Joyce. (Hmm...note to self, haven't I seen that name Joyce before?) Eventually coming to be known as D.L. Rike Dry Goods, then Rike-Kumler, then Shillito-Rike's, the company, as we all know, turned out to be a great success and was a centerpiece of Dayton's commercial district for many, many years.

David, a devout member of the United Brethren church, married a young woman named Salome Kumler, the daughter of a Brethren bishop from Preble County, and together they had five children during their forty-year marriage: Gideon, Grace, Frederick, Susanne, & David. So now, stay tuned as we learn about what the future had in store for this prominent Dayton family and where its descendants are now...

[randomparent]

The first part of the story is sad. Very sad. It appears that the first two of the Rike's five children, Gideon & Grace, died in 1863. Gideon was just shy of his fifth birthday early in January, and Grace died at birth in December. Happily, Frederick came along in 1867, and it is he who inherited his father's business and built the beautiful home in Oakwood. Susanne came along in 1869, and the youngest, David followed in 1873. Tragically, he also died young at the tender age of nine months.

Susanne married a doctor named Everett Anderson MacDonald in 1897. They settled in Southern California where he specialized in diseases of the eye, nose, and throat. I have found some evidence that Susanne was an author, having penned a memoir called The Backward Look, in 1957. She died in 1961, twenty-one years after her husband, at the age of ninety-two! Susanne & Everett are buried together in Woodland Cemetery (sec 37 lot 1226) in the Rike plot, along with all of the Rike siblings.

Frederick married Ethel Kuhns Long in 1899, just a couple of years after his father's death, and took up the reins of D.L. Rike and Co. in 1908. His other business pursuits included Dayton Savings & Trust and Equitable Building & Loan. Frederick and Ethel had two children, Virginia and David. From here, we'll follow Frederick's children...

[randomparent]

Oops, looks like Frederick and Ethel had five children, two of whom died young. Their first son, Frederick died shortly after birth in July 1900. Virginia arrived in 1902 and David in 1904. Another son born in 1907 died at birth, and finally another daughter, Susanne was born in 1911. The family of four moved into the 18k sq. ft. mansion High Acres in 1923. As an aside, this house was the Dayton Philharmonic Designer Showcase in 2013.

Virginia Rike married Anthony Haswell. Their attorney son, Anthony, is a passionate passenger rail advocate, and as far as I know is still living. The Haswells also had a daughter named Fredericka, known as Dricka, who died in 2012 and is survived by four children and ten grandchildren. Fredericka's husband was a California real estate developer named Derk Hunter. Like Dorothy Patterson, Virginia and Anthony Haswell left a collection to the Dayton Art Institute, including Edward Hopper's High Noon and Edgar Degas' After the Bath.

David Long Rike married Margaret Craighead Shaw, daughter of George Guilford Shaw, who was president of the Dayton Paper Novelty Company. George's mother was Mary Perrine, and you might recognize the Perrine name from a street in the South Park neighborhood. After graduating from Harvard and serving in WWII, David became president of Rike's department store. David died in 1982, leaving behind three daughters: Helen Noble (CT), Susanne Bowers (TX), and one more who married a Peck but whose first name I've yet to confirm, possibly Virginia.

Susanne Rike married Ralf C Kircher. I'm still a bit fuzzy on Kircher, but I believe he was involved in advertising. Still looking...

[randomparent]

A little more about Susanne Rike's husband, Ralf Kircher, and their family. Ralf was in advertising as a partner with Kircher, Helton, & Collett. He also wrote a humor column for the Oakwood Register called Fiddlesticks under the pseudonym Fagin Fogg. (Scroll down a bit after clicking the link for a nice little article about Kircher.) Their son Dudley -- not sure if there were siblings -- was Director of Corporate Communications for Mead Corporation. Dudley and his wife Carole (Jacobs), had three children. Dudley and Carole are both deceased, Carole having passed away in 2014, and were buried in Woodland Cemetery.

[randomparent]

Another tidbit about the Kircher branch...

Dudley Kircher made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives against Tony Hall in 1978. Hall won with 54% of the vote, his closest race in twenty-plus years of Congressional service. Hall wrote flatteringly about Kircher in his memoir, Changing the Face of Hunger.

That congressional race was the only time I can honestly say I really enjoyed a campaign. The Republicans nominated a classy, smart, strong candidate -- Dudley Kircher, President of the Dayton Area Chamber of Congress. He ran as a classic urban Republican, and I was pretty much a textbook urban Midwestern Democrat. We held numerous debates, and we focused on our campaigns for the most part on real issues.

On another note, have you noticed that, like the Pattersons, the Rikes also tended to stick closely to just a few names? My eyes started to cross with the multiples of Frederick, David, Virginia, and Susanne!

And finally, a caution for others who use Ancestry for genealogical research. There are a handful of family trees on-line that include the Rikes but are full of obvious mistakes. I will not presume to suggest that my research is fool-proof (you can see for yourself in the number of times in this thread I've made corrections), but Rike family trees seem to be particularly bad. Beware, and triple-check your sources. Also, I know there is yet another local Rike descendant referenced in articles I've found in the DDN archives, but I haven't figured out the connection. Just know that I'm aware that there are some pieces missing. When (If?) I figure it out, I'll come back and add that line in.

[randomparent]

I'm a little shaky on this one, but maybe someone out there can confirm. It looks as though Susanne Rike may have also been married to a James McConnaughey in additon to Ralf Kircher. The McConnaugheys started the Kettering-Oakwood Times, and they had a son named Fred. Another Fred! So many Freds! The dates are weird, though, because Susanne's son Dudley Kircher was born in 1934 and Fred Rike McConnaughey was born in 1942. So was she married to Ralf Kircher and then James McConnaughey and then Ralf Kircher again? I'm very confused.

Update: I think I've figured it out! Dudley was Susanne's step-son. Susanne first married James Porter McConnaughey with whom she had son Frederick Rike McConnaughey in 1942. At some point, the McConnaugheys divorced, and she then married Ralf C. Kircher, whose son Dudley became her step-son. Fred McConnaughey was the name I kept seeing associated with the family but could not place. Fred McConnaughey is the Rike descendant, not Dudley Kircher, who joined the extended family when his father Ralf married Susan Rike.