About this collection:

➤William Cleveland Bayha was born about 1888 to Henry David and Charlotte Louisa Imhoff. He was a talented pianist and organist, playing the organ at many different churches as a young man. He would also give performances accompanied by his siblings Genelda and Milton B., like at Altenheim one New Year's Eve. He would marry Marie Edith Eisenach. They would live at 50 Bethany Pike after his marriage to Marie Edith in 1946. In a 1932 newspaper article, he is referred to as a prominent carpenter-contractor when he fell and fractured his leg while working.

His son and only child, Charles David Bayha, was born March 23, 1936 in Youngstown, Ohio. He died tragically in a scuba diving incident while serving active duty in Okinawa, Japan. He was a major in the US Air Force and served as a chaplain.

The collection consists of correspondence related to William C. Bayha's musical endeavors and references from 1914-1917, musical programs from 1908-1915, It also has some WWI materials, masonic papers and a deed from 1946. The collection also includes newspaper clippings from Charles D. Bayha's tragic death, photographs of his station in Japan and his ministering to fellow USAF colleagues, and photos and information about the location of his burial in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

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