His latest two books include the self-published “Made Do or Did Without: How Daytonians Coped with the Great Depression,” and the photographic exploration of local landmarks, “Dayton Through Time,” published by Arcadia Publishing by arrangement with Fonthill Media LLC.
Dalton, 56, has no college degree or professional training in either history or writing. For someone so steeped in history, he claims no great command of names or dates. What the Dayton resident has is curiosity, an eye for a great story and the desire to tell that story.
And he shares the story, through his books and a pair of web sites, DaytonHistoryBooks.com and the companion Facebook page, which has 18,000 "likes."
We sat down with Dalton at Carillon Historical Park, where he works as Dayton History’s visual resources manager. What follows is edited and condensed.
Q: How did you get interested in history in general? And why did you start writing about it?
Dalton: "As I've said before to a lot of people, if my history teacher from high school knew what I was doing now, he'd be rolling in his grave. I hated history. I have a very bad memory for dates and names. That's just the way it is.
“But then I met my wife, Carol, and her maiden name was Wessalosky — I’ll spell that for you sometime — and I started doing research into her family, which has been here since 1867. … They got into banking, and they owned their own businesses. They owned a bar, just over the years. And while researching them I saw just how fantastic the history itself of Dayton was. I always said they were actually the kind of people who built this city — not just the Pattersons and the Ketterings. …
“Seeing all that, I thought, well, I’ll go look for some books on the history of Dayton. Well, there were a couple they did in the 1970s, sort of. But really, there was nothing that had been done since the 1930s. And I couldn’t understand that.
So I started out with one (a book) on the breweries (“Breweries of Dayton: A Toast to Brewers from the Gem City: 1810-1961”). And I thought, boy, I hope this sells. And 3,000 copies later. And then it slowly went downhill from there. (Laughs.) Because beer is really what built Dayton. “
Q: So the books led to the websites. What kind of reception did the sites get?
Dalton: "Quite a bit. But nothing like the Facebook page, of course. I think I started out with like 25 books and articles. And I'd get a few people, because it was word of mouth. Then a couple of genealogy sites put it up. And the (Dayton Metro) Library put it up on their site as a resource. … More teachers started going about, and I was getting a thousand hits a day … probably by 2008.
“It (the Facebook page) gets — it varies of course — but each week I get between, a bad week is about 40,000 (visits) and last week I think was over 80,000. Each week.
“I’ve made of fun of that. This is why I’ve slowly done fewer and fewer books. I’m actually reaching more people in one week (on the web) than all of my books I ever wrote.
Q: That sounds ominous for those who prefer the books. Will you keep writing?
Dalton: "I keep on saying I'm not going to write because it costs me money. It really does. I just don't sell as many as I used to. But then I sit at home, and I'm thinking, my gosh, I'm pretty bored out of my skull. I need to get into something.
“So I think what it will go to, and I’m not sure: If I do put out a book, it will probably be quite a while. I do two articles a week for the Dayton Daily News called ‘Gem City Jewels.’ If I get another 80 of those gathered up, I might put out another one of those (an articles compilation). At least those break even.
“But actually going after a subject — I don’t know.”
Know someone who can handle Three Questions? We're looking for behind-the-scenes-but-still fascinating Miami Valley residents with something to say. Send your suggestions to tom.gnau@coxinc.com.
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