7-02-2026 7:18pm

Dayton’s Role in the Origins of the Veterans Administration

Beth Callahan Editor

Courtesy of Misti Spillman, Manager, Preservation and Community Outreach Woodland Cemetery & Arboretum. Living here in Warren County, we are fortunate to be between the two larger cities of Dayton and Cincinnati. This allows us to not only share in both of these city's accomplishments, but in their residents. And, believe it or not, one way of learning about these people can often be found in historical cemeteries. Dayton, Ohio's Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, which is one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the United States, is filled with history. And, this February the WarrenCountyPost.com has been given the privilege to publish a piece from Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum about Lewis B. Gunckel.

DAYTON, OH -- It was not long after the Civil War began that the nation’s social movements began to sound the alarm. The official military structure was not equipped to provide sufficient care for wounded or disabled soldiers; aid for widows and orphans of those killed in service to the Union was more aspiration than policy.

A long-time supporter of Abraham Lincoln and stalwart Union man, Lewis B. Gunckel used his position in the state Senate to address these problems. Gunckel’s legislation granted Ohio soldiers in the field the right to vote, supported the effort to send medical aid & other supplies to the front lines, and provided relief to widows and orphans.

After Hiram Strong’s death in 1863, Gunckel focused his efforts on the establishment of a state home for returning soldiers. The next year, when Ohio Governor Brough of Columbus established such a home, Gunckel offered support by serving as one of the home’s trustees.

When Congress created the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in 1865, Dayton was chosen as the location of the central branch & national headquarters largely due to Gunckel’s instrumental role in the program’s creation. In 1867, Gunckel was appointed the Home’s Resident Manager, a role he would hold for the next decade.

The purpose of the Soldiers’ Home was to provide wounded and disabled veterans all the comforts of home— including chapels for religious services, concert & lecture halls, hospitals, libraries, telegraph & postal services—even stores and various workshops.

Veterans’ employment (of all kinds) was encouraged at the Home, which fostered a sense of agency and independence in the residents.

They didn’t feel like they had entered the poorhouse, but were instead aware and proud that their own efforts were merely supplemented by the United States government.

During its first winter, the Soldiers’ Home resident population numbered 750; by the next winter that number reached one thousand.

By 1884, the Dayton Soldiers’ Home was a thriving community of more than 7,000 veterans, making it the largest such veterans’ sanctuary in the world.

Always welcoming and fascinating to visitors, the Home was visited by hundreds of thousands annually, becoming one of the most popular destinations for travelers west of the Alleghenies.

In 1930 the Veterans Administration was established, to consolidate all veterans' programs into a single Federal agency.

Lewis B. Gunckel died at the age of 77 in 1903. He was inducted into the Dayton Walk of Fame in 2006.

The Gunckel family plot is located in section 48, lot 1008 at Woodland Cemetery.