Our Neighbor, Trotwood, Ohio

Trotwood is where I spent much of the first 17 years of my life, so if there is one suburb of Dayton that I might be qualified to describe it is Trotwood. Immediately after saying that I have to say that in researching information on Trotwood there was a multitude of things I didn't know.

The first thing I didn't know was that Trotwood wasn't the first choice for the name of the new settlement along Wolf Creek. The first choice was Higgin's Station after the areas first successful entrepreneur Amos Higgins. Well, that didn't work out too well because there was already a Higgin's Station in Ohio. So another entrepreneur of the area (Louis Pfoutz) decided to take a name from a character in Dickens' David Copperfield, Aunt Betsy Trotwood. Pfoutz became Trotwood's first Postmaster.

Trotwood is another town west of Dayton that was benefited by the Dayton-Greenville Railroad line. In 1854 the line was finished and a restaurant, tavern, inn and station was erected where now stands a recreation of the old buildings.

Trotwood has several notable sites within the city. One of my favorites is the Iams' homestead (of Iams' Dog Food fame). Built in and added on to from 1830-1835 it is now the home of the Trotwood Historical Society and a museum for the Trotwood Madison community.

Other businesses in the area include the J.W. Devers and Son company who manufacture custom truck and trailer bodies (established in 1895), Sears, Loews, Home Depot, Target, Hara Arena, Arena Dodge and more.

As of the 2000 census Trotwood had a population of just under 30,000.

Jack Gilleland

Home Inspection Services, Clayton

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