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In
1900 the family, with all their belongings, moved to Dayton, Ohio.
Frank and Rosa's daughter Rose, just thirteen months older than Joseph,
said that they came by canal boat on the Miami & Erie Canal. She
remembered walking along the towpath, behind the mules that pulled
the boat. That part of the old canal that passed through downtown
Dayton is now under Patterson Boulevard, one of the city's main north/south
thoroughfares. |
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The
booklet
"CSO
Fall Tour 1994",
Dayton
Collection, 386.46
C212c states:
Although
the canal, of course, eventually
lost most of its passenger traffic,
lighter loads and perishable
items to the railroads, the
Miami & Erie continued to
carry significant tonnages of
bulk items even into the Twentieth
Century.
As
late as 1906, large amounts
of paper and other merchandise
continued to be shipped from
Dayton. Revenues from the Miami
& Erie covered expenses
each year virtually to the end
of navigation following the
1913 flood.
Author
Bea Cornelius, writing in
"The
Canal Era in Ohio, Especially
The Miami-Erie Canal Between
Dayton and Cincinnati",
Dayton Collection 386.4 C814c,
June 1984 states:
The
section of the Miami Erie between
Dayton and Cincinnati continued
to produce revenues beyond the
rest of the canal system, but
it, too, eventually gave way
to progress.
Although
little traffic used the canal
after 1905 and it was abandoned
at Middletown in 1909, it was
not officially drained and closed
there until 1929. The closing
was done with appropriate ceremony,
at the exact spot where the
first spadeful of earth was
dug by DeWitt Clinton and Jeremiah
Morrow in 1825.
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The
Lorenz family lived at several residences
on the west side of Dayton, across
the Great Miami River from what is
now Sinclair Community College .The
Dayton City Directories for 1901-02
show that Frank was a cooper and the
residence was 851 West Germantown.
In
1901 a second daughter Luella Bertha
was born. Luella's written memoirs
state that she went to St. John's
Catholic School for the first grade
and then went to Emmanuel Catholic
School.
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A
boyhood friend and Joseph.
Circa
1905 |
The
Certificate of First Holy Communion
for Joseph records:
In Remembrance
of First Communion ECCE PANIS ANGELORUM Joseph Lorenz received
his First Communion in St. John Church on the 30
day of May 1909. Signed Rev. J. Geo. Franz, Dayton,
Ohio.
After
Luella's birth another baby
was born but died at birth.
Daughter Rose remembered coming
home from school to find the
doctor there. Her mother, Rosa,
told her what had happened.
Rose said she did not know that
her mother was pregnant, so
the baby, who was unnamed, was
possibly premature.The doctor
took the baby with him and told
the parents that they should
not worry about funeral costs,
as he could slip the baby's
body into the casket of another
dead person.
Between
1902 and 1907, in the city directory,
Joseph's father Frank was listed
as a laborer and as a machinist,
and the family had moved four
times, all within an area of
several blocks
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The
Lorenz family: father Frank,
baby Josephine,
daughter Luella, Mother Rosa,
and son Joseph.
Miami Chapel Road. Circa Spring
1912 |
In
1910 the Thirteenth Census of
the United States was taken.
This record, for the State of
Ohio, Montgomery County, Dayton
Township show the Lorenz family
consisting of Frank, head of
family, age 45; Rosa, wife,
age 40; Anthony, son, age 16;
Rosa (Rose), daughter, age 15;
Joseph, son, age 14; and Luella,
daughter, age 8.
In
1912 the last child, Josephine
Ann, was born. In the directories
for 1911-12, 1912-13, and 1913-14
the father Frank was still a
machinist, the family was still
on Miami Chapel Road, but in
the last directory there was
now a house address of 1344.
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On
March 25, 26, and 27, 1913 the waters
of the Great Miami, the Mad, and the
Stillwater Rivers flooded their banks
and wrought devastation to the city.
It was referred to as the Great
Flood of 1913.
Daughter
Rose remembered the circumstances
that surrounded those days. She said
the water came up to the back steps
of their house on Miami Chapel Road.
Her brother Joseph was away at the
time. When the waters receded and
Joseph did not come home, the family
thought he had drowned. Rose said
she and their father walked to the
other side of the city every day to
search for him among the dead. After
several days they met him coming home.He
had been trapped downtown for several
days on the top floor of the Union
Train Station, and was eventually
taken across the river to Dayton View,
which was on higher ground. He could
not come home until the river went
down.
In
his book A Time of Terror author Allen
Eckert remarks that "upwards
of four hundred people were trapped
in the Union Train Station tower for
as long as sixty hours." It is
noted in For the Love of Dayton, Life
in the Miami Valley 1796-1996, published
by the Dayton Daily News, "At
Union Station, 300 stranded passengers
subsisted on a single box of chocolates."
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Around
this time, perhaps the summer
of 1913, Joseph was working
at Kuhn Brothers Foundry. He
was seventeen years old. A photo
of foundry employees show Joseph
in the front row. At that time
the address for Kuhn Brothers
was "south side of Eaton
Avenue near Euclid." By
1927 the name of Eaton had changed
to McCall and the address was
1400. The houses on West Gale
and on Miami Chapel were both
within a mile of the foundry.
We
know from a card to Joseph from
his brother Anthony, who was
in the United States Army at
the time, that father Frank's
health was declining and he
was unable to continue factory
work. They bought a farm in
a rural area north of Dayton.
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