From One Generation To The Next

Settle in. Grab a drink. Curl up and prepare to read a short story.

What makes this story worth reading?

American history. American military service and sacrifice.

The involvement and care of schoolchildren decades ago who got involved, raised many pennies along with the contributions of other North Dayton community members, which decades later kicked off a chain of events in the here and now, and the solving of an old mystery.

In 1944, the community of North Dayton, Ohio was seeking funding for a memorial to honor their fallen of World War I and the names of the fallen they were receiving word of as WWII continued.

By mid-May, the local Dayton Daily News reported over 4,000 schoolchildren were involved in raising pennies towards the funding of the memorial to honor those who had lost their lives.

By the end of May, Daytonians were already putting up plaques and monuments where this memorial was to exist before it even existed. The design was set and the ground was officially broken for the build of this Memorial.

Weeks later in mid-July, mothers from the Navy, Army, or Air Force who had lost their sons gathered to pay tributes. The Memorial at this point appeared to be wreaths, flowers, tributes, and a flagpole.

By September, the building of the future globe and eagle was wrapping up and excavation was starting. What would happen next would cause the mystery which popped up decades later and then took decades longer to resolve.

Another local paper, The Dayton Herald, reported in early November the upcoming scheduled memorial cornerstone would be laid in an official ceremony.

Images captured from the ceremony were printed in the local papers and the opening shown in the image on the left portrays an opening; what was referred to as the cornerstone. The schoolchildren who raised the monies and participated in this event are also seen.

May of 1945 was the official unveiling of the North Dayton Patriot Memorial, assumedly the adding of the globe and eagle, and Purple Heart recipient William P. Donovan as well as William G. Pickrel, both Marines, taking part in the ceremony.

Be patient if you are trying to find the connection to Tony Stein. It is coming soon.

In late October of 1945, it was a big deal when four-star General Kenney traveled to Dayton. A downtown parade took place, and the General visited the Memorial after being invited.

Skipping back to May of 1945, the Memorial Day services involved turning on the lights at the Memorial for the first time.

The Memorial Day program events of 1947 took place and by this time, Corporal Tony Stein's mother, Mrs. Rose (Stein) Parks, had known of her son's death at Iwo Jima for some time. It was in 1946 she had been notified of his posthumous awards of the Congressional Medal of Honor and Purple Heart. However, Tony Stein's body was not in the States yet. The only place his mother had to go and grieve the loss of her only son was the North Dayton Memorial.

In December of 1948, Tony Stein's body came home. Part of the services planned and publicly communicated involved the North Dayton Memorial.

A week before Christmas Eve 1948 Tony Stein's casket was set on the base of the Memorial while services were performed.

On Christmas Eve 1948, Corporal Tony Stein's mother's letter to the Journal editor was published expressing her gratitude to the individuals and organizations whom were part of the services for her only son.

Events continued off and on at the North Dayton Memorial after 1948 came and went. It was not for decades more before a mystery was brought up. What happened to the cornerstone-laying event the children participated in?

OVER FIFTY-THREE YEARS LATER...

A North Daytonian native and alumni of Our Lady of the Rosary, Joann Reichert, wrote to Dale Huffman in late July of 2001. He published this article in the Dayton Daily News asking readers if anyone else shared Joann's memory of being part of what she called ceremonies at the Tony Stein Memorial as a child.

Only a couple of weeks later, Joann Reichert had answers. Jim Miller contacted Dale Huffman in response to his article and directed readers to Curt Dalton's book: Home Sweet Home Front: Dayton During WWII. Due to her class picnic being scheduled for September 15th, only days following 9//11, it's unlikely it ever took place.

Imagine the Spongebob meme is here saying 24 years later. :)

I'm too lazy to add it.

In 2025, as one of Tony's distant cousins (my maternal grandmother was his first cousin) I had told myself off and on years earlier (during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown when everyone had too much time on their hands) someone should have written a book honoring Tony's life and service to the United States Marine Corps. Many Congressional Medal of Honor recipients had books written of their lives. Why didn't he?

This research toward a goal of finally writing his book led to discovering these 2001 articles, then searching decade by decade. Trying to determine if this cornerstone had ever been opened and what had been inside.

I came up with nothing.

I reached out to the City of Dayton and attached the two articles.

They probably thought I was crazy.

I ordered Curt Dalton's book off eBay.

When it arrived, I stared at this picture of the boy peering down into what seemed like a gaping hole. The same image from the article from 1944.

I added the copy of the book page excerpt with photo to my City of Dayton request.

What had caused confusion was Joann Reichert referring to it as the "Tony Stein Memorial" when in fact it was the North Dayton Memorial.

What seems most likely to have occurred is she corresponded this Nov 1944 event with the news which soon followed thereafter the following year: news of Corporal Tony Stein's death on Iwo Jima.

So, was the time capsule still there?

The City of Dayton put me in touch with various members of the Kiser Alumni of which Tony was one, as well as members of the McCook Field Neighborhood Association. As it turned out, they had recently raised funds to update the Memorial in specific areas where it needed restoration.

They had engaged The Modern Monument to do this work, and it was this company who took a crane, lifted off the top of the incredibly heavy cornerstone.

Below is the image they captured of what could be glimpsed underneath.

Follow the rest of this story in the next post.