NCR leaves behind 125 year legacy

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Deeds Barn sits at Carillon Historical Park, in the shadows of NCR's world headquarters.

The tiny building helped launch a sprawling campus of nearly 20,000 employees at its peak. The "barn gang" were inventors at NCR whose vision led to revolutionary ideas for that company and others. Now the headquarters themselves are about to be history.

"It's a core group of people who built this country up and it started here and its a sad thing to see it go away," Ted Christian said.
 

Christian's great-grandfather William Chryst was the head of NCR's invention team which included John Patterson, Charles Kettering and Colonel Edward Deeds. The company produced its first electric cash register in 1906. Chryst and others went on to design careers with Delco, IBM, and Frigidaire.

Patterson's company NCR continued in retail service solutions and adapted to the times, creating the first commercialized bar code scanner in 1974. AT and T acquired NCR in 1991 but returned in name in 1996.

125 years after the humble beginning they are leaving town. An editorial cartoon from the era shows how NCR's creators helped "Make the Miami Valley mighty." Now Christian wonders if there's anyone left in town to try to follow up on their legacy?

"Those men gave back to this community and that's what this community is losing, they are losing that talent, they are losing that vision, because they are going somewhere else."

NCR will keep some presence in Dayton. In 2007 they created the spinoff company Teradata.