“This meticulously researched book not only tells the story of the Wright Brothers, but also the history of their family, beginning with the first ancestors to settle in the Ohio territory in the 1780s. Like many of their fellow settlers, the Wright ancestors exhibited grit, determination, and ingenuity. Chmiel’s book shows how the history of a state, a city, and a family helped shape the inventors of the airplane.”

Ohioana Quarterly, Columbus, Ohio

   “Louis Chmiel has created a monument of a book. The painstaking historical detective work of Ohio: Home of the Wright Brothers brings to life the deep historical context of the brothers’ achievements and thereby vastly enriches our understanding not just of the brothers and their extraordinary extended family, but of an entire era in American history. This is a treasure chest for historians of the Midwest, of Ohio, of Aviation, and of the American family.”

James Tobin, Author of

To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight,

Associate professor of journalism,

Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

   “This inspiring book by Louis Chmiel is not only a book about aviation and the Wright brothers, it is a story about a family, from the Revolutionary War into the 1900s. It is not just a book of historical facts, but a well-written and easy-to-follow story, complete with documentation and photographs, illustrations, letters and diary excerpts. This book is well worth the read.”

Ohio Genealogical Society, Bellville, Ohio

   “The qualities of courage, independence of mind, persistence in the face of discouragement, and self-confidence which had enabled earlier generations of the Wright family to survive and prosper on the Ohio frontier were the very characteristics that made it possible for Wilbur and Orville Wright to pioneer a new frontier in the sky.”

 Dr. Tom Crouch, Author of The Bishop’s Boys,

Senior Curator of Aeronautics,

Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

   “This 878 page book is the whole history of Ohio as seen through all the branches of the Wright family, starting with the War of Independence”

Harold Wright,

Professor of Literature and Language,

Ohio State University, Antioch College

   “There is a ‘heartbeat’ to history, and like a tiny infant's quiet rhythm, the early settlers of this nation moved into new territories with a steady, purposeful pulse. In Ohio Home of the Wright Brothers, Louis Chmiel chronicles the flow of generations of Wilbur and Orville Wright's pioneering family ...from riverboats and wagon trains, to the skies; a journey that would forever change the ‘heartbeat’ of history.”

Amanda Wright-Lane,

great-great grandniece of the Wright brothers

    “Once in a generation a work comes along that profoundly increases our understanding of the Wrights and affects every book and article written thereafter. Fred Kelly’s The Wright Brothers, McFarland’s The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, and Tom Crouch’s The Bishop Boys are all such works, must-reads for anyone seriously interested in the birth of aviation. Ohio: Home of the Wright Brothers – Birthplace of Aviation joins those ranks not just because Louis Chmiel is an insightful storyteller, but also because he comes at his subject from a unique and revealing angle, focusing on the relatives and friends that shaped and supported the Wrights.”

Nick Engler, Author,

and Director of

Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company

   “Not since Tom Crouch's biography [of the Wright Brothers] have I read any book with so much new material. The most striking thing about it is the depth and thoroughness of the research.”

Dr. Joe McDaniel,

Engineer Retired,

Wright-Patterson AFB

   “I have a feeling your book will be around for a very long time - like Charlotte Reeve Conover's book of a century ago.”

Mark Martel, Artist and

Author of Dayton's Children
MartelArt.com