Barn Gang

During the early 1900s, Colonel Edward Deeds established the Barn Gang in Dayton, Ohio. Interested parties, including Charles F. Kettering, met on Deeds's property to discuss scientific and technological issues. Most of the Barn Gang's members were engineers employed by Dayton's various industries

With the increasing number of engineers in Dayton, in 1914, Deeds and Kettering decided to replace the Barn Gang with the Engineers Club of Dayton. This organization was a private club for Dayton's engineers. The city's various industries and the Miami Conservancy District employed many engineers. Kettering and Deeds hoped that the Engineers Club would provide its members with social and educational opportunities.

The Engineers Club grew quickly, having sixty members by the end of 1914. Among its members were Kettering and Deeds, as well as John H. Patterson, president of the National Cash Register Company. Due to the Engineers Club's popularity, the organization built a meeting hall in Dayton in 1918. The building continues to serve as the organization's headquarters in the twenty-first century. By 1919, more than four hundred engineers belonged to the Engineers Club. During the Great Depression, membership declined, but following this economic downturn, membership soared to more than seven hundred members.

In 1992, two members of the Engineers Club, Thomas Sheetz and Chuck Dempsey, recreated the Barn Gang as a committee of the Engineers Club. As of this writing, the Barn Gang holds meetings every Tuesday, where interested parties, including the general public, can come and discuss a wide arrange of topics.