Cashel Family History

Florence Smallwood's daughter, Mary Emmaline Smallwood, married State Senator John (Jack) Cashel in 1907. Jack practiced law, possibly authoring the first state law allowing mother's custody of a child of divorce. He was also president of the Citizen's National Bank for several years, and served two terms in the senate. Mary and Jack Cashel took ownership of the house in the 1920s. However, Mary died in 1931, after a surgery, at the young age of 43.

In 1932 Jack met a much younger Ruth Gertz, who was seeking legal assistance to obtain custody of her son after a divorce. The two fell in love and were married in 1933. Jack and Ruth lived at the house, beginning a new family. Jack Cashel died not long after, in 1938, from a heart attack. Ruth was left with four children to raise and an immense house to care for, so in order to make ends meet, she converted the home into a boarding house/nursing home (circa 1940), and operated it for more than 50 years. The Dayton home underwent many structural changes during this period to accommodate such a facility. The Cashel family remained prominent in the community for many years.