Osborn, Ohio
Encyclopedia
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Greene and Montgomery counties in the state of Ohio. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. Patterson Field is located approximately...
in what is now the flood-prone basin of the Huffman Dam in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
.
Osborn was named after the superintendent of the railroad named E.F. Osborn. The previously unnamed town allowed the railroad to be built through it after the nearby town of Fairfield refused the plan of the railway to go through there. Nearly the entire town of Osborn, along with the railroad, were relocated two miles away during construction of the Huffman dam to a site east of and adjacent to Fairfield, Ohio
Fairborn, Ohio
Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States, near Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The population was 32,352 at the 2010 census...
in 1921. This was necessary because of the Miami Valley Flood Control Project and the Miami Conservancy District
Miami Conservancy District
The Miami Conservancy District is a river management agency operating in Southwest Ohio to control flooding of the Great Miami River and its tributaries. It was organized in 1914 following the catastrophic Great Dayton Flood of the Great Miami River in March 1913, which hit Dayton, Ohio...
that was begun after the Great Dayton Flood
Great Dayton Flood
The Great Dayton Flood of 1913 flooded Dayton, Ohio, and the surrounding area with water from the Great Miami River, causing the greatest natural disaster in Ohio history...
(Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
) of March, 1913.
Many of the original houses of old Osborn still stand in Fairborn, Ohio
Fairborn, Ohio
Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States, near Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The population was 32,352 at the 2010 census...
in the "Osborn Historic District". On January 1, 1950, Osborn and the neighboring town of Fairfield were merged together as Fairborn. The first business to depict the name of the new city was the large vertical sign of the Fairborn theater.
The old Osborn cemetery lies within the boundary of Wright-Patterson, near the north end of the main flight line, which used to be part of the town. During the building of the longer runway to accommodate the large B-36 Bombers in the 1940s, the old streets of Osborn were still visible on the ground near the airstrip.
Further reading
- Poole, Mary Parker; The Fairborn Story; Miami Valley Publishing Co., 1957
- Broadstone, M. A., editor; History of Greene County, Ohio It's People, Industries and Institutions; B. F. Bowen & Co.; Indianapolis, IN; 1918