This Week In Toledo History Week of 8/9/2021

August 8 -14
Aug. 8
1880 - Toledo’s population reported to be 50,137 people.
1894 - An interurban train now links Toledo and Perrysburg.
1906 - The Lucas County meat inspector Schurtz is at war with the milk and dairymen of the county who he says are allowing diseased and unsanitary milk to be sold. The inspector claims hundreds of babies in the area have died from the contamination. Schurtz recently stopped dairymen from adding harmful preservatives to the milk.
1911 - The 26-foot “F.H. Prince” burns and sinks near Kelleys Island.
1916 - Toledo Health Department officials say they are dealing with the worst mosquito invasion in history in the city.
1918 - The porch of Toledo Beach bath house collapses, injuring 14 people.
1951 - A U.S. Air Force pilot and ground witnesses see strange cigar - shaped object flying in skies near Port Clinton over Lake Erie.
1962 - Stanley “Skip” Jechura, owner of Raceway Park, and another man, are killed in plane crash near Flint, Mich.

Aug. 9
1894 - Electric streetcars make their first run from Toledo to Perrysburg as part of the Toledo, Maumee Valley Streetcar Company.
1905 - Cherry Street Bridge tender is fired after almost failing to get draw spans up in time to allow loaded passenger ship to pass through. With little warning to traffic, a street car nearly plunges into river. Tender said to be in “no condition” to work that night.
1911 - One man is killed and seven others badly injured in an explosion at the Clay Center Quarry.
1929 - Federal and state agents raid illegal 1,000-gallon moonshine still on Matzinger Road and arrest two men.
1930 - Three recent Libbey High School graduates make news by driving to California and back to Toledo in their $20 flivver (car).

Aug. 10
1894 - The first story of the Wood County courthouse is completed.
1905 - The “Pope-Toledo” automobile is selling nationwide for $3,500. It is called the “quiet mile-a-minute car.”
1923 - Businesses in Toledo are closed for the day as Ohioans hold official day of mourning for Ohio native President Warren G. Harding.
1927 - Aviator Charles Lindberg does a fly over of Toledo and drops a message to people waiting at the Toledo Armory. On the same day a newborn baby left on doorstep is named Charles Lindbergh Doe in honor of famous pilot.
1933 - Well-known area racketeer and underworld figure, Jacob “Firetop” Sulkin, indicted for the murder of Toledo area bootlegger Jackie Kennedy in Point Place.
1964 - School lunches in the area are going to increase to 35 cents.

Aug. 11
1853 - Cornerstone laid at Adams and Michigan for what would become Toledo’s first high school building.
1911 - Bishop Joseph Schrembs appointed as first Bishop for Toledo Catholic Diocese.
1923 - Toledo Police Department gets six new “speed” cars; three Cadillacs and three large Studebakers for its fleet. The vehicles can reach speeds of up to 60-miles-per-hour.
1932 - Rookie Toledo Police Patrolman, 28-year-old Edward Keim is shot and killed during a shootout with a robbery suspect at a gas station on Indiana Ave. Responding fellow officers shoot and kill suspect. Keim, a former boxer, had just been on the department about a month.
1966 - B & O passenger train service to Bowling Green and other points south is discontinued.
1986 - Bob Tway wins PGA at Toledo’s Inverness Club with dramatic chip-in on number 18.

Aug. 12
1908 - Toledo courtroom is shocked when police bring in a bandaged and dying woman, Bertha Hood, to testify against a man, Eddie Simpson, who she claims stabbed her repeatedly. She was so weak she couldn’t hold up her hand to take the oath.
1916 - Last horse is retired from Toledo Fire Department which is now completely motorized.
1918 - Overnight garbage collection ordered for downtown Toledo because garbage wagons were too smelly for daytime use.
1921- President Harding’s 76-year-old father, Dr. George Harding, spends his wedding night at Secor Hotel in Toledo after marrying a 52-year-old nurse in Monroe, Michigan.
1949 - Arctic fox escapes from its cage at Toledo Zoo, leading zoo workers on chase through South Toledo streets.
1961 - Count Basie plays for special opening at Hines Farm Blues Club near Swanton.

Aug. 13
1900 - Former South Carolina Governor Robert Kingston Scott dies at his home in Napoleon.
1919 - Walbridge Park pavilion burns to the ground. Two people living at the business are saved by their barking dog.
1922 - Ten-thousand people crowd Toledo Beach to cool off in high heat.
1926 - Toledo Edison workers find old wooden paving blocks eight feet below street level at Superior and Jackson Streets. Wooden blocks had been used for paving in the 1880s.
1938 - Lt. Leonard Guerin of Trilby Fire Department killed while battling a gasoline tanker explosion.

Aug. 14
1919 - The large and historic Hotel Victory at Put-in-Bay burns to the ground in spectacular blaze that can be seen in Toledo.
1927 - Three people drown when squalls hit Lake Erie near Willow Beach Pavilion at Port Clinton.
1945 - Downtown Toledo streets flooded with over 100,000 people in official and rowdy celebration to mark end of World War II.
1998 - Wood County native Chris Hoiles, who hails from Wayne Ohio, hits two grand slam home runs in one game for the Baltimore Orioles against the Cleveland Indians.