Maudie and Maunie Reed

Dayton, 1922.  The war was over, jobs were plentiful, and the city successfully recovered from the flood nine years prior. Thanks to the Miami Conservancy District, the city would not see another one like it.  Residents strolled along Main Street, stopping by stores like Oelman’s and The Fashion to observe fall’s latest trends.  Wednesday, September 13 made for a great evening in town, with stock theatre preforming at the Victory and a flapper dance contest at Lakeside Dancing. 

Osborn, 1922.  Front Street awnings hung and flood debris could still be found.  While the city of Dayton remained a priority to the Conservancy District, it determined the town of Osborn must be sacrificed.  The Huffman Dam forced any new flood waters northeast, making this area in Bath Township a dangerous flood plain.  Residents of the town carried the act to the Supreme Court for review of its constitutionality, but to no avail.  The Osborn Removal Company, incorporated in 1920 and run by big-wigs like banker and Treasurer O. B. Kauffman, now called the shots around town. 

Osborn residents, like Maudie and Maunie Reed, fought long and hard with the company to secure a place of residence in the decaying town.  They struggled to benefit from the prosperous years after WWI.  The twin sisters served their community as teachers at the old school on the corner of Pearl and Johnston, but still could not make ends meet.  As a result of their financial misfortune, the company bought out their family home on lot 10 and 11 on Linden Street, selling it to the Burrows who would control the property until its relocation.  The family paid their rent that summer of 1922, yet on September 13 they remained outside waiting.  Not waiting in line for a show at the local theatre or on an attendant at a clothing store downtown, but for a tiny key that meant they had a home again.  But they would not wait in silence, as Maudie made sure the company heard them loud and clear.
 

They could hardly believe it.  The middle of September and they were still sitting on their porch without their keys.  The Osborn Removal Company had gone too far, and they were determined to get their property back.  The Osborn Removal Company was also determined.  Determined to keep Maude and Maunie, and their family, out of Osborn.  The Company had been after the sisters since January, demanding money even for the months they had paid rent.  They sat on the porch steps looking out on Linden Street, imagining what would become of their beloved town.  With pen and paper in hand and Maunie by her side, Maudie wrote a letter she hoped men like Mr.  Kauffman could not ignore.

“If you men ever intend to let Maunie and I get back into our home, you had better act at once and not ‘play’ with me any longer,” wrote Maudie. “I am willing to pay for my home,” as the women had been trying to make clear for months.  “Return those keys to us at once, not by either the ‘constable’ or any of the ‘Burrows’…It is time for an understanding.  Don’t let anybody step in our home, not even a set of workmen without Maunie’s supervision as you know she has always attended to those things about the home.”  Maudie ended with, “Other people have carried our keys too long already, and you know how we have wanted it.” All the sisters desired was a permanent place to call home.  They did not travel all the way from Missouri for this.

            Sadly, the Reeds never received their key.  They may have lost their home, but never gave in to the company that locked them out.  Instead of moving with the heard to New Osborn, Maudie and Maunie flocked up the tracks in true railroad town fashion.  They followed the line that brought Osborn to Bathe Township in 1851 northward, claiming Springfield as their new home.  Maudie and Maunie became homemakers, spending their remaining years working from the one place they sought for years in Old Osborn. 

Sources:

Box 8, File 22, MS-77, Records of the Osborn Removal Company, Special Collections and Archives, University, Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

Dayton Daily News. 1922. September 13.

Poole, Mary Parker. 1957. The Fairborn Story. Fairborn: Miami Valey Publishing Co.

Routt, Allan. 2010. Early Views of Fairfield & Osborn, Ohio.