 Famously vituperative attacks came from journalist H. L. Mencken, whose syndicated columns from Dayton for "The Baltimore Sun" drew vivid caricatures of the "backward" local populace, referring to the people of Rhea County as "Babbits", "morons", "peasants", "hill-billies", "yaps", and "yokels".He chastised the "degraded nonsense which country preachers are ramming and hammering into yokel skulls".However, Mencken did enjoy certain aspects of Dayton, writing,
The town, I confess, greatly surprised me.