This Week In Toledo History 10/11/2021

Oct. 10-16

Oct. 10
1894 - A special Citizen Federation is formed to combat and uncover corruption at city hall.
1904 - It’s reported in the Toledo News Bee that a group of Toledo fishermen caught a giant goldfish, weighing three-quarters of a pound near Odeon Island in Maumee Bay.
1933 - Lucas County Sheriff’s Deputy Leo Flanagan shot and killed in Toledo on Wamba Drive while hunting for murder suspect Floyd “Sailor” Baldwin. It was later determined that Deputy Flanagan was hit by a bullet from another deputy's gun.
1950 - Two Toledo area businessmen, Frederick Seidel and Clarence Farris, are killed in plane crash near Pittsburgh.
1977 - TARTA bus drivers go on strike.

Oct. 11
1881 - Wood County farmer Charles Bach brutally kills his wife Mary with a corn knife in their home near Bowling Green. He walks into sheriff’s office that morning and confesses.
1904 - Judge Morris in Toledo denies several applications for divorce from women who say their husbands are grouchy and ill-tempered. Judge Morris tells women those are not justifiable grounds for divorce.
1915 -Toledo workhouse matron is sent to Piqua, Ohio to chase down an escaped inmate. Because male deputies were busy harvesting crops, Hattie DeMuth tracked and found the wandering inmate and brought him back to Toledo. Says it was the most exciting thing she's ever done.
1916 -Allen County Sheriff Sherman Eley, who saved a “negro” prisoner from an angry mob in Lima, is given a silver cup from the NAACP.
1929 - Retired Toledo policeman Peter O'brien killed in a hit and run car accident on Collingwood. He was Toledo's oldest policeman when he retired at age 77.
1945 - New York Central Railroad to give Toledo $3.5 million for a new Union Station facility in South Toledo.
1954 -Toledo Police Morals squad begins probe into reports that local gamblers are now betting on local high school games.

Oct. 12
1883 - Charles Bach hanged for murder of his wife Mary in Bowling Green. National Guard troops are called to keep the peace at Wood County courthouse where he is executed. He is the last convicted killer to be hanged in Wood County.
1900 - Toledo champion racehorse Cresceus arrives home after successful season on the tracks of America. Thousands turn out at train station and form a parade through streets of downtown Toledo to pay tribute to the champion trotter.
1913 - Toledo Probate Judge O’Donnel says the many chronic drug users lodged at the county jail need therapy and he wants them sent to the state hospital at Lima where they can get better care.
1933 - Infamous bank robber John Dillinger escapes from Allen County Jail in Lima. Allen County Sheriff Sarver is shot dead by Dillinger gang members during the daring jail break.
1945 - The famous “Toledo Tomorrow” exhibit, a scale model of a futuristic urban planning design of Toledo, is closed at the Toledo Zoo.
1959 - First cargo of VWs unloads in Toledo, which would eventually become a major unloading port for these German cars that were imported into the U.S by the tens of thousands.

Oct. 13
1885 - Crowds gather in East Toledo to watch as small deposit of natural gas is drilled.
1909 - Art Tatum born in Toledo. Nearly blind in early childhood, Tatum learned to play the piano and would become a virtuoso, playing at lightning-fast speeds with precise accuracy. Considered by many to be the greatest jazz pianist that ever touched the keys.
1927 - “The Success,” an Australian “convict ship,” is on display in Toledo, docked on Maumee River at foot of Madison Avenue.
1931 - Toledo police and dry agents raid a major distillery operation run by the Licavoli gang at Cherry and Spielbusch.
1938 - Toledo new police academy graduates its first class of officers.

Oct. 14
1844 -Thousands of acres of land at Upper Sandusky that once belonged to Wyandot Indians before their removal to Kansas, is being sold at $2.50 an acre.
1875 - Presbyterian Church in Perrysburg burns to the ground.
1922 - Large steamer, “the Argo,” which is 168-feet long and which can carry 800 passengers, burns in harbor at Put-in-Bay.
1925 - The Walbridge Park Zoo is given a moose named Barney weighing 1,100 pounds. He was trapped near New Brunswick, Canada and presented to the zoo by the local Moose Lodge.
1969 - One of first female jockeys in the nation, Toledo's Mary Bacon is abducted after dawn at Pocono Downs racetrack in New York. She is later released unharmed.
1981 - Toledo native Evan Galbraith nominated by President Reagan as Ambassador to France.

Oct. 15
1880 - Ship collision near Marblehead. Both ships sink, one person killed.
1906 - A Toledo police officer, Emanual Deaunee was severely beaten by a gang of 15-20 men in Charlie Textor’s saloon on Fassett Street on the Eastside after he brought a suspect into the bar to have him identified by patrons.
1918 - Waite High School closed for one month because of Spanish flu outbreak. Flu is starting to spread quickly through Toledo and the state.
1927 - Massive blaze strikes the 400 block of Superior in downtown Toledo, destroying several stores.
1947 - Toledo city officials propose putting fluorine in water supply to help prevent tooth decay in children.
2005 - A planned Neo-Nazi rally in Wilson Park near Polish Village of Toledo erupts into chaos and riots as counter protesters clash with police. Several news media cars are damaged by irate mobs, some buildings are torched and a police car is overturned. Numerous injuries and arrests are reported.

Oct. 16
1901 - Bowling Green City Council is in heated debate over whether to remove hitching rail posts for horses.
1918 - Spanish flu epidemic getting worse in the area. Many businesses shut their doors and St. Vincent Hospital is closed to all visitors.
1927 - Farmers near Kenton in Hardin County report seeing a night time rainbow following a bright harvest moon and a brief rain shower. They say the perfect arc is a “moonbow” that stretched from horizon to horizon and was glowing white against the western night sky.
1930 - A grain dust explosion destroys a downtown Fostoria grain elevator, causing some $75,000 in damages as nearby buildings downtown are threatened by the blaze.
1940 - The possibility of war with Germany and Japan looms large. In Toledo some 34,000 young Toledo men have now registered for the draft.
1941- The Colony Theater opens on Central Avenue.