About His Life

        Dalton was the second of four children born to Willison and Mary (Wagner) McLaughlin. He was born in Ava, Ohio on December 28, 1915. Ava is a small town located in Northwestern Noble County. In the early 1900's, Ava and the general area was booming with coal mines that dotted the country side. It seems, from stories I have heard that almost every other farm had a coal mine located on it. This part of Ohio is quite hilly and there are many caves scattered throughout the area.
        At maturity, Dalton stood 5'- 6 1/2" tall, weighed 135-140 pounds. He had blue eyes and brown hair. He was born at home and as a child had all of the normal childhood diseases and survived a case of the dreaded "Diphtheria". He was baptized at the Free Methodist Church. One of his earliest memories was when the Armistice was signed ending World War I. This was the eleventh day of the eleventh month on the eleventh hour of 1918. Everyone celebrated by ringing church bells, firing guns and shooting off fireworks.
        In 1918 His father, Willison, got a job working in the Banner Coal mine in Fairview, and they moved to Pleasant City, Guernsey County, Ohio. They later moved first to Margaretsville where they bought a house and then back to Pleasant City to a house on Buffalo Road. This house was bought from Sam Sheppler. As the mining industry began to wane in Guernsey County in the 1920's, they moved to Duncans Falls, Muskingum County, in 1924, where Willison got a job firing the boilers as a stationary engineer at the Ohio Power electric generating plant. They lived in Duncans Falls from 1924 through 1927. In August of 1927 they bought a 7 acre farm on Stovers Town Road in Muskingum County.
        Willison worked at various coal mines as well as, the Standard Tile Company in South Zanesville. In December of 1928 they moved to 83 Pembrook Avenue in Zanesville. They leased out the farm, but eventually lost it for failure to keep up payments. In late 1928 they again moved, this time to 20 South Shawnee Avenue in South Zanesville where Willison got a job firing the boiler at the B & O Railroad roundhouse. He also worked at Rittburger's Slaughter House and Packing Company. He later transfered to the stores department at the B & O and worked there until 1932 when he transferred to Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, where he again fired the boiler at the B & O Railroad roundhouse. He worked there until July of 1935 when they moved back to Zanesville where Willison worked in the stores department for the B & O. During the summer he would sometimes be furloughed. At this time he would paint, wallpaper and pick and sell fruit from several abandoned orchards.
        When Dalton was about ten or eleven years old many stores throughout the area had nickel slots machines. Each time someone would put a nickel in the machine they would get as a bonus a roll of Lifesavers. Many people were not interested in the Lifesavers and would leave them in the machine. Dalton being the entrepreneur that he was would wait for someone to play the machines and the gather up the discarded rolls of Lifesavers which he would sell for 2 cents a roll or 5 for a dime. As a way of hastening his collection of Lifesavers, he would would cast slugs, made out of lead, and play the slots himself. While living in Painesville he worked at shinning shoes for a man by the name of Harold Slabaugh who owned a hat cleaning a shoeshine business. When he was about eighteen, he would send to Chicago and buy condoms for $1.50 per gross and then sell them for 3 for 25 cents. In 1935 Dalton acquired a hernia and was operated on at Bethesda Hospital by Dr. C.M. Ramba. In 1936, with the "Great Depression" still tightly gripping the economy, Dalton signed on with the Civilian Conservation Corps and was sent to Pinedale, Wyoming, in April. He was there for only thirty days when he had had enough. During this time his older brother Floyd had got a job in the News Room at WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. Floyd got a job lined up for Dalton working at WLW, but Dalton couldn't get to the train on time and was 2 days late getting to Cincinnati and therefore he didn't get the job and he returned to Zanesville.
        On September 25, 1936, Dalton was hired by the B & O Railroad to work in the Signal Department. Through his cousin, Sarah Bayley, he had met Elizabeth Gerberich, who was in nurses training with Sarah. On March 20, 1937 they were married and moved into a home at 754 Hull Avenue, Zanesville, Ohio. He was laid off from the B & O, on August 31, 1937 and they went to Wooster, Ohio to stay with Elizabeth's parents and Dalton got a job working in the apple orchards for 25 cents an hour. In November of 1937 they returned to Zanesville where he got a job selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners door-to-door. In early 1938 he got a job working with the Works Progress Administration painting steel girder bridges for ninety and one-half cents an hours or hauled dirt for fifty cents an hour. He was allowed to work 105 hours per month. In November 1938 he went to work in the W.P.A.'s Toy Shop where he worked all winter into the next fall. Here he made cradles and other wood toys.
        With all of the moving Dalton's family had done, it had been hard for him to keep up with his schooling and he had quit high school before graduating. In September of 1939, Dalton began night-school classes at Zanesville and completed his high school education earning him a diploma.
        In November 1939, he went to work for Line Material Corp., building electric transformers. He worked here through May of 1940. On June 23, 1940 Dalton was hired back with the B & O Railroad working as a brakeman, switch tender and flagman out of the Columbus, Ohio yard. Dalton and his family moved to Newark, Ohio in 1940 and continued to work for the B & O and associated lines until December 31, 1975 when he retired from the Railroad with 39 years, 5 months and 5 days of service. During this time he held the following positions, including those mentioned above; conductor, yard foreman and yard master. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Railraod Trainmen (BRT) and United Trainmen Union (UTU). He was the Legistrative Representative for BRT #169 and UTU #404 for 25 years.
           His hobbies have been hunting, trapping, fishing, fly tieing, coin and stamp collecting and gardening. He raised much of his own fishing bait in the form red worms, meal worms and wax worms. He enjoys tinkering in his workshop making little things from wood, be it a childs stool or a picture frame. He was always a good provider for his family. Even during the toughest of times there was always a roof over their head, clothes on their back and food on the table.
          Pop was greatly loved by his family and will be soulfully missed by family and friends.