“Then, they invited me to a picnic of the ‘East Side of the River Group.’ I’d never heard of it, but found out they were the black students from Central who lived downtown, across the river from Dayton’s west side, where most blacks lived at the time. A student’s mother started the group after the school closed.”
Dayton’s first free public high school, Central was dedicated in 1857. Located at Fourth and Wilkinson streets, it became an elementary school in 1893 when Steele High School was built at Monument and Main streets. Central closed in 1964 and was razed in 1966.
“When I started teaching there, we had 400-500 students, but we were down to about 100 when it closed,” said Wheeler, a Vandalia resident.
Tony Curington was one of the four “young men” who approached Wheeler the night he received his plaque.
“I went to Central from kindergarten to sixth grade,” said the 64-year-old Curington. “We moved before it closed, because Route 35 came through our neighborhood and wiped it out. Our house had been at Washington and Perry streets.
“We called ourselves the ‘East Side of the River Group’ since we were on the east side of the Miami River. We were a unique black group, living right where RTA and Sinclair are now, but most of us ended up moving to the Westwood area during urban renewal.
“We all remembered Mr. Wheeler. Our ‘gym’ was at the Salvation Army, and he spent a lot of time with us there. We had a lot of good athletes come out of that neighborhood, and we decided to invite him to this year’s picnic.”
Wheeler attended the June 8 gathering at Triangle Park.
“There were about 20-25 of the students, and, with their spouses and families, about 50. During grace, one of the guys said ‘and thank you, God, for Jim Wheeler.’ That was a very emotional experience for me, and brought back many memories.”
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