Paul Dayton—the Sportsman I never knew

This post is the first of a multipart series of posts on Dayton family sports interests. 

When you think of the activities the Dayton family are involved in, sports hardly ever comes to mind. The words Dayton and sports used in the same sentence is an oxymoron. We Daytons are more into books, learning, religion, the fine arts and nature.  Seemingly, the Dayton family is not known for sports at all. We seem to have a distaste for them.  Other than hunting, the Dayton boys seemed quite devoid of sports.  At least that’s what I thought until I started doing research for this story.  Now I’m finding sports stories popping up all over the place.  Hail Dayton Sports!   Viva Dayton sports!

I have several ideas which will turn this topic into a multi-post series.  I’ll cover Paul Dayton first.  By doing so, you will get an idea of types of sports information I’d like to report.  You can help by sending me sports stories or information or leave comments on posts which you’ve read.  Any person affiliated with the Dayton clan is fair game… your patriarchs, father, mother, son, daughter, etc. This post about Paul may give you ideas for subsequent posts.

Paul Dayton–The Sportsman I Never Knew

His Toy

I love sports of all types, especially baseball, and college basketball, but I got that from my Carter side of my family.  The Dayton boys loved hunting.  I’m not sure where they developed their skills because Grandpa (Wilber Dayton Sr) never hunted.  Perhaps their interest came from the White family.  Hunting was certainly in Chop’s DNA, and I think the other boys just followed in their big brother’s footsteps.  I’ve written about deer hunting and probably will again in the future. But can you think of any other sport they liked?

Softball

Softball—As I was recently searching though old newspapers, much to my delight, I ran across the article at the left.  Paul Dayton had hit a home run in an organized, town  softball league.  I didn’t even know he played.  The EMBA was a very respectable town league made up of former high school and college ball players.  I don’t know anything more about his softball endeavors than this article.  I do know that he had another baseball glove dating from the 50’s.  It was also in the garage, buried under more imporyant stuff like firewood. I imagine that glove was the one he used in the EMBA league games. I kept that one, had it framed, side by side with my first glove, and gifted them to my grandson Luke.

Baseball

Baseball—Each year, dad took our family to New York City to see either a Yankees or Mets baseball double header. They did it for me.  Dad was frugal, and two games for the price of one was a deal he couldn’t pass up.  In those days, you could take a picnic basket of goodies into the stadium, so mom packed enough to feed setion 207. The year Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s home run record we sat in the outfield stands so close to Maris that we could have hit him with a baseball or a bottle when he went to the fence to catch a ball.

In 1964, dad thought it would be a good father-son bonding experience to take me to a Mets-Phillies game at Shea Stadium in New York.  It was a twi-night doubleheader, game time 6:00 p.m.  We travelled by Greyhound bus, leaving about noon and returning about 5 a.m. the next morning.  It was a long day and one I will never forget.  Thanks, dad.

Stock Car Racing

Pete Corey Fonda Speedway 1950’s

Stock Car Racing—Paul was a fan of auto racing.  Most Thursdays we went to the track in Menands, NY, then on Fridays we often went to Saratoga Speedway.  His favorite track was Fonda Speedway where we enjoyed a Saturday evening filled with entertainment.

Corinth Wesleyan Methodist Church held a weekly Prayer Meeting service on Thursday evening until the mid-1950’s.  That conflicted with the Stockcar races, so Paul petitioned the church to change Prayer Meeting to Wednesday evening.  I don’t know the circumstances or motivation for the other board members’ votes, but dad’s reason was clear to everyone.  And they did change to Wednesday evenings.

Swimming

Swimming—Paul always enjoyed swimming.  He was a good swimmer, and he had to be.  He was in the Navy.  Not one of his five kids nor his wife knew how to swim a single stroke.  One summer he was determined to change that.  He thought it best if we were at the beach at 7 A.M. every Saturday morning.  Probably it had something to do with both modesty and timidity.  We returned home around 9 to the greatest breakfast a mom could make (bacon, ham and eggs with all the trimmings).  However, dad’s mission was a failure.  We never learned to swim, and we kids protested so much he ended the experiment after a month.

Logging Competition

Logging Competition—Although dad never competed, we went to a logging competition in Tupper Lake, NY every summer.  The logging show was an outdoor extravaganza with all the latest in logging and sawmill gear.  Kids loved it.  They received vendor samples, watched a big parade of logging machinery, and viewed competitions of chain saw log cutting, axe log cutting, tree climbing and log rolling.  Dad was positively sure that he and Red Allen would be undefeated in the log rolling race, but they never tried.  Any combination of Chip, Paul and Roger would probably have won too.  Dad and I would have come in last.  I was pathetic.

Other Sports

Other sports—A few years before he died, I asked dad if he was interested in any particular sport besides hunting and he said, “oh, I don’t care as long as it isn’t football,” and he reached over and teasingly and lovingly slapped my arm.  I had been the MVP running back on our high school football team.  My mom and dad attended every game, and much later in life they told me they went to the games to make sure I didn’t get hurt.  I’m not sure of the logic of that statement, but I appreciated it.  He went on to mention that he ran cross country for Corinth High school.  The coach begged him to play soccer, but it conflicted with his paper route.  In the winter he liked to play hockey with neighborhood kids.

Although he didn’t like sports all that much, he knew I did so he always read the sports page and was prepared to talk about what happened the day before.  I can remember discussions about Cassius Clay (AKA Mohamad Ali) knocking out Sonny Liston, Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a basketball game, and Warren Spahn pitching his 300^th baseball game win. He knew they were my favorite players.

My mom was involved with sports too…she was constantly yelling at me to stop bouncing the basketball in the house.

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Dayton Brothers Sawmill-“Green” Long Before Its Time

DFH Volume 1 Issue 22

Dayton Brothers’ Lumber Company was an “environmentally green” company as early as the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.  This was 30 years before we began to hear about “green” on a national scale.  Besides their obvious cash crop of lumber, the brothers sold every scrap product of the log, letting nothing go to waste. 

Most obvious was the sawdust pile.  Sawdust was sold to farmers for spreading over the floor of the barn’s cow stalls to make cleanup more sanitary. One day a farmer drove his truck into the lumber yard expecting to pick up a load of sawdust.  The truck had a Budweiser sign on it.  Dad refused to service him because of the sign.  Dad was opposed to alcohol of any kind.  The farmer came back later with a milk sign on the truck and dad sold him his load of sawdust. 

If we did a lot of sawing, then the sawdust pile grew to mountainous heights (25-30 feet).  Kids loved to play in it.  I remember one time it was covered with newly fallen snow and Roger skied down it.  Under pressure and decay from both high concentrations of moisture and lack of sunlight, the sawdust would generate lots of heat.  In fact, sawdust piles have been known to spontaneously combust into flame. Kids would dig deep into the pile just far enough  to feel its heat.   Sawdust serves as an excellent insulator.    Around the periphery of the pile where internal temperatures remained normal, you were guaranteed to find snow if you dug down about a foot to two feet…in July and August.  I can remember Roger and I throwing snowballs at each other on a hot July day when the air temperature was probably 85°. 

When the lumber had been airdried in the yard, it was taken to the planing mill where it was “”smoothed’ on all four sides.  The dry shavings were sold to butchers to spread over the flooring of their butcher shops.  There was an old, deaf, Afro-American man who used to buy shavings by the large-truckload and resell them to butcher shops.  He had exclusive rights (preferential treatment) to Dayton Brothers shavings.  Dad called him “the darky.”  This was before desegregation and dad meant no disrespect.  Dad knew his name, but we didn’t.  We knew him only as the darky.  When dad had a load of shavings ready, he would call the old white-haired man and tell him that a load was ready for him.  Humm…something is suspicious. How could dad call him if he was deaf?  Must be his wife answered.  He always arrived with a cup of coffee and a doughnut for each of us. Dad would send me to the shaving pile to help the old man fill his truck.  He would put the shavings into potato sacks (burlap bags) each weighing probably 20-30 pounds when full.  It was my job to pack them into his truck as tightly as I could. I was only a pre-teen, so it was hard work.  I remember that one day on a Saturday evening dad and I drove to the sawmill to do a security check and discovered that the old man had left a bird house kit for me in the planing mill.  The world would be a far better place if we only had more great men like the darky.  He was like a grandpa to me. Even though we couldn’t communicate with speech, we communicated in many other ways like the exchange of genuine, loving grins at each other.

The first cuts of the log are called slabs which are sold as firewood for heating homes and for campfires.  Dad would load the “slab truck” and, when it was full, then we would head out across town to deliver it to the person who had ordered it. The slab dump truck was very old and beat up and was an embarrassment every time I rode in it.  I hoped I would not be seen by anyone I knew.   But it did the job and helped to keep the community green (except for the smoke that was emitted as it was consumed by fire).

Conveyer for cutoff saw

The lumber was sold by length, width and thickness (board feet).  The lumber’s length was always an even numbered size between 4’ and 14’.  So the cutoff saw cut the length to conform to these dimensions.  This was perfect for campers.  Dayton Brothers had already cut the lumber into a length that could be tossed into the fireplace or firepit.  As I recall, the price was $5.00 per pickup truck load.  This “dirt cheap” slab wood, kept the slab pile empty or small, which was Dad’s objective. Too large a pile of “cutoff” slabs was a nuisance.

So the Dayton brothers were “Green” long before it was a politically correct treatment of our environment.  It didn’t make them rich…it made them responsible community citizens.

1998 Dayton Family Reunion-Chester Dayton Family

DFH Volume 1 Issue 12

During the 1998 reunion, we photographed the offspring of each of the children of Wilber and Jessie Belle Dayton who attended the reunion.  The following is the Chester “Chip”  Dayton family.

Chester “Chip” Dayton was the third child of Wilber and Jessie Belle Dayton.  He was born in 1910, during the presidency of William Taft.  Ford’s Model T had been invented only 2 years earlier, so there were very few roads and mainly dirt with ruts, as were all streets in towns and cities.  The preferred transportation was still horse and buggy.  Chip was raised in a home with Christian training and did well in school.  He was one of three graduates to speak at his high school commencement ceremony. He enrolled at Houghton College after high school where he met and fell in love with Clara Stanton from Long Lake, New York.  They married in 1929 when Chip was just 19 years old.  Tragically, just three months after marriage, Clara died of tuberculosis.  After a time of seclusion, Chip rebounded and married Elizabeth “Lib” Duell in 1931. Out of this union, Chip and Lib had Mary Lou, Betty, Nanette and Roger.  Tragedy struck Chip and Lib in 1936, when their 4-year-old daughter, Mary Lou was struck and killed as she ran into the street after getting a piece of ice from the ice truck.

Chip worked at International Paper Company until about 1946, when he decided to launch into a business venture which would fulfill a lifelong dream.  He asked his kid brother Paul, who was also working at International Paper Company, to become an equal partner with him in the Dayton Brothers Lumber Company.  It was a lifelong partnership of best friends.  As far as I know, they never had a major confrontation or disagreement.  Most remarkable!  They were partners for 35 years.  Lib, his wife of 50 years, died in 1981.  He remarried to Marjean Chapman in 1982.  Chip died in 2005, at the age of 95. 

He and Paul loved deer hunting.  They both had a natural harmony with the forest and mountains.  Chip loved being in the outdoors and enjoyed woodworking of any kind.  He was a gentleman and a gentle man.  His strength was his generosity.  He was devoted to the Christian faith in a very active and profound fashion, he was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Corinth, New York. He held nearly all officer positions of the church at various times, even serving as a local pastor to provide assistance in the absence of the senior pastor. His favorite charity was the Gideons, an organization which spreads the gospel and places Bibles in the hands of personnel in the armed forces, hotel patrons and students at educational facilities.  He was unusually generous with both his money and his abilities, not only for the local church, but with family and friends who needed a helping hand.  He was so humble that it was sometimes difficult to recognize what a tremendous contribution he was making.  He was indeed the role model that we all need in our lives.

Children of Chester:

Mary Lou was tragically killed when running into the street and being struck by a car when she was only four years old.

Betty–I’m quite sure that Betty got her degree from Houghton and was an R.N.  She and husband Ramon (Ray) Orton had children David, Dennis, Duane, Pamela and Robin.  Betty passed away in 2011.  Ray enjoyed a prestigious career in Engineering at IBM. After a period living on his boat in Virginia, he now lives with his daughter, Pam Pichette in Michigan.

Nanette-Nan first attended Marion College (Indiana Wesleyan University) and then Kentucky Mountain Bible College.   She married Rev. Leonard Humbert and was married for 51 years before Len passed away in 2012. In recent years she went back to Roberts Wesleyan College to receive the necessary education for her ordination.  She has since been ordained in the Free Methodist Church.    Nan is still very active in church and community affairs [81 years old].   She lives in Rose, NY near her son, Mark.   She and Len had children Mark, Maribeth, Paul, and Heidi.

Roger-Roger spent the early part of his career working at Dayton Brothers Lumber company.  After he left the sawmill, he worked in construction for a short time.  He then established Dayton Pest Control which he owned and operated for many years.  Roger and his wife Dale have a blended family of Tamara, Lydia, Katie, Amanda, Stacy. [Roger had carrot top red hair -the envy of many of us in the Dayton family]

What or Where is this? [answer]

DFH Volume 1 Issue 9

This is the Corinth, New York Wesleyan church, completed in 1968, to replace the old church which was shown in last week’s newsletter.  Most of you are familiar with it because we held our 1998 Dayton Reunion there.  Chester Dayton and Paul Dayton were the two men primarily responsible for financially backing the building project, and physically constructing the church.  If it were a hospital wing, it would have been named Dayton Brothers Memorial Wesleyan Church.  About 2012, the church was closed and put on the real estate market.  It sat idle for about two years with no offers.  The price was dropped quite a bit, and our Dayton cousin, Sarah (and Chad) Jerome bought it.  Sarah is the daughter of my brother John Dayton.  The church meant a lot to Sarah, so Chad and she bought it, converting it into their home.  They made major modifications, including converting the sanctuary into a soccer field for her young kids.  They leased out the parsonage.  She and Chad have since divorced, and she moved to Saratoga.  Chad now has possession of the property.  Tragically, the local district administration of the Wesleyan denomination just irresponsibly walked away from the property without removing and claiming anything which was in the building.  Left behind were the ledgers, records of the churche’s business meetings, and the registry of births, deaths and marriages of members going back to the founding of the church in the early 1900’s.  I have tried unsuccessfully, a number of times, to salvage the books on behalf of the Corinth museum.  The museum curator tried to procure them too with no success.  I cannot understand why Sarah wouldn’t release them.

Mark sent the following message regarding the 1968 church: “And speaking of the Corinth Wesleyan church…..I have all of the scale models grampa made of the original and proposed new buildings when the church was deciding how to build the “new” church.  

They were hand made using sanded scraps from the Dayton sawmill and painted white.  He used to let me play with them when I was a kid in the late 60s and early 1970’s.  I inherited them when gramma Dayton passed away in 1981.”

Jim Dayton recalls:  “I don’t have many memories of this church.  I only attended there for a few months before I moved away from Corinth.

• Judy and I were married in this church.  Our’s was the very first marriage in it.
• The Church youth group was quite large and very active.  We had a high school boys softball team which played against other churches in the area.  We also had a basketball team coached by Roger Dayton (son of Chester).”

I was quite surprised that none of you wrote to me about the Dayton Family Reunion there in 1998.   It was one of the most memorable and satisfying events of my life.

Here are a few of my remembrances of that weekend:

• The cemetery tour and the trek into the woods to hear dad tell about the discovery and maintenance of  Henry Dayton and his wife Christie’s graves.  A few years after the 1998 reunion, a housing development encroached upon that little cemetery, and so Paul Dayton (with the tedious behind the scenes administrative work from Ray Orton) oversaw the interment of the graves and stones in the Dean cemetery (about 5 miles towards Stony Creek, and one of the cemeteries which we reunion attenders’ also visited as a part of the Dayton ancestors tour).
• Jenn’s (my daughter) wedding shower was there during the reunion.
• The last sawmill tour ever given by Paul Dayton was during the reunion.
• Singing George Washington Bridge which was led by quick witted Keith.  Remember how he said, “Ok, now everyone who ever worked at the sawmill sing”, and  “Ok, everyone named Priscilla stand up and sing.”  Keith (the late husband of my sister, Priscilla, had the funniest sense of humor.  He was one of many associate pastors at a very large church in Milton, Pa.  One day in their staff meeting, all of those present were going around the table telling what their favorite hymn was.  When they got to Keith, he said, “my favorite hymn is Lead on O Kinky Turtle.  I hope I didn’t just offend anyone.  It was not my intent. It’s just that he was just a down to earth, loveable teddy bear.
• Chester Dayton’s rendition of the Guido Giuseppe story (complete with English as a second language accent by an Italian immigrant).
• The Kazoo orchestra.
• The coffee mugs (write to me if you still have yours in the cupboard with your other mugs…we do, and Judy uses her’s every day).
• Dr. Wilber Dayton’s Invocation.

Hard Working Dayton Women

DFH Volume 1 Issue 4

by Jim Dayton

The March 3 newsletter, titled No Showmanship Here-Just Toil and Labor, By Camilla Luckey, mentioned that Uncle Chop “admired a lady who was up on the barn roof helping her husband.”  I’ve got a story that I think can top that one.  I wish I had told uncle Chop.  In 1973 at our home in Ephratah, New York, , Judy [Potter] Dayton was  on the roof of our house, with me, putting up a television antenna. She was 7 months pregnant., at the time.   During that same pregnancy, and a month before the antenna incident, she was under the car, with me, putting on a new muffler.  She doesn’t have a man’s strength, but she’s strong in guts and determination.

Sawmiill Brides

Ruth Dyton 1980

After Uncle Chip and Roger ended their employment at Dayton Brothers Sawmill, it woud have been logical for Paul to retire too.  But he loved the work, and so he kept the sawmill going.  By that time, the operation wasn’t thriving enough to hire an employee, so my dad used “slave labor”..…his wives.  My mom, Ruth [Carter] Dayton, worked there until she was diagnosed with cancer;  then his second wife, Carolyn Ruth [Spinner] [Brabon] Dayton, worked there.  Although the burden was lighter, it was still hard work, especially for women in their 50’s and 60’s.  By that time, dad was selling wood for palettes, so the boards were of narrower size and only 4 foot long.  The women didn’t work every day; they only worked when dad needed to fill an order.