I'm happy to announce that I've been able to determine the original architect of the golf courses of the Community Golf Club in Dayton, OH.
Cornish & Whitten show the original course desiged by William V. Hoare with 9 added later by Earl Shock. The confusion may lie in some of the circumstances and ties between Dayton Country Club, NCR Country Club, and what is today known as Community Golf Links. Hoare had been the first professional at Dayton CC in the late 1890s but had moved on well before the land where Community Golf Course exists was developed for golf.
Basically, in 1907 it was determined that Dayton Country Club needed to move to new digs (their existing location) and a professional by the name of Joseph (Joe) S. Nicholl was hired, and he laid out their new course which was played on by the next year.
Just south of that land the founder of National Cash Register Company Joseph H. Patterson had a large estate of several hundred acres. Patterson was bemoaning that more of Dayton's citizens couldn't use the park and a fried suggested perhaps he should try to develop the new game of golf on that land. Evidently (see below) Mr. Nicholl was brought over to lay out a nine hole course on Patterson's estate which opened about 1914.
For a number of years most of the play on the course was from employees of NCR, and it was even referred to at times as NCR Country Club. By 1918 Patterson was getting up in years and he opened his nine-hole course to the city and another nine holes was built, again by Nicholl. The next year Patterson formally gifted much of his estate to the city of Dayton, a gift of several hundred acres.
Nicholl added another nine over time but passed away in August of 1922 at the young age of 40. Within months, a new plan was announced to fit 36 holes ,the Hills course and the Dales course on the property, incorporating the original NCR nine, and the two nines that Nicholl built. The addition of another nine to make it 36 is often credited to Earl Shock who was in charge of the property but that's uncertain.
What is known through another article posted here previously by Sven is that in the fall of 1922, shortly after Nicholl's death, Donald Ross (who was working at Dayton CC) or one of his associates was brought over to the Community Country Club (as the municipal courses were now known) to review the plans that had been put together for some months and offer advice on those plans. It seems likely that Nicholl, who suffered a heart attack and died a week later in August would have known of those plans, as well. It's also possible that Ross may have offered some advice related to some new bunkering, as the city was hoping to host the US Publinks ,which they successfully did in 1924 with Joe Coble of Philadelphia winning.
Some accounts also mention a tie in with Alex Campbell, who came to Dayton around 1925, but who worked in the Cincinnati area since 1919. I've yet to see any documentation in that regard.
In the meantime, meet Mr. Joe Nicholl, who seemed very important to the early development of golf in the Dayton area.