This Week In Toledo History

By: 
Staff Writer

Nov. 27- Dec.3

Nov. 27
1837 - Charles McLean becomes Toledo’s first fire chief.
1868 - Clara Harrington Blinn of Perrysburg and Elmore, and her two year old son Willie are killed during a raid by General Custer on the Cheyenne Camp at Washita River in the Oklahoma Territory. She and her son had been captured from their wagon train months before in Colorado.
1901- Wreck of the Wabash Cannonball train near Adrian, Michigan. Twenty-three confirmed dead, perhaps upwards of 150 may have died, according to some accounts.
1909 - Toledo Probate Court reports that in Polish and Hungarian wards of the city the birth rate is more than twice the other wards combined.
1941 - Toledo police report a rash of break-ins at doctor's offices and the thefts of several valuable microscopes.
1942 - Thousands of Toledo women are now employed in Toledo industries and factories as the war effort to build munitions and ships increases. At the Toledo Shipyards, women are hired for the first time and the era of "Rosie the Riveter" is born.
1956 - First Hungarian refugee families arrive in Toledo to make new homes after fleeing Soviet takeover of Hungary.

Nov. 28
1891 - The deadliest train accident occurs in Toledo history. Two trains collided in the tunnel beneath the Miami and Erie Canal in Toledo. At least seven people are killed and another 20 people were seriously injured.
1893 - Ground is broken for the new Wood County Courthouse. It would be completed three years later.
1907 - A crowd of 20,000 people jam downtown Toledo along Jefferson Avenue to see a fast moving run of the city's 42 fire vehicles as they are filmed by a motion picture crew.
1941 - First inductees from the area arrive at Camp Perry prior to World War II to begin processing.

Nov. 29
1900 - Craig Shipbuilding Company gives 10 pound turkeys to all 400 of its employees for Thanksgiving gifts.
1910 - A Toledo patrolman shoots to death a "mystery man" who was setting fire to the Temple Theater on Monroe Street in the Auburndale neighborhood. The would-be arsonist turns out to be a paroled safe cracker who feigned being "blind" to get released from prison.
1918 - Toledoans are talking about local spiritualist Ada Besinette who claims to be able to talk to the dead. She is so credible; writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle comes to Toledo to attend her seances.
1921 - Bishop Samuel Stritch appointed as second Bishop of Toledo Catholic Diocese.

Nov. 30
1905 -Toledo Police Chief Knapp says he thinks many young boys are led into a life of crime by attending "blood and thunder" melodramas that glamorize murder and criminal behavior.
1932- Rival bootleggers make an attempt on the life of Toledo bootlegger and night club owner Jack Kennedy in downtown Toledo. He survives the attack, but his girlfriend, Louise Bell, is killed in the hail of bullets.
1936 - The very first Willys auto to be built in Toledo after the Overland Company emerges from bankruptcy rolls off assembly line. The new “Willys 77” is purchased by Henry Page, the president of Page Dairy.

Dec.1
1886 - Oil is struck in Henry Township near North Baltimore on the farm of David Fulton, unleashing a 600-barrel-a-day well.
1915 - Small community of Hamler is terrorized by bandits who blew up bank safe and shot at every citizen on the street.
1916 - Allen County Sheriff Ely nearly hanged by enraged mob for protecting a“negro” rape suspect from lynch mob. The Sheriff’s six-year-old daughter, however, dies from shock after the rioters storm the sheriff’s residence at the jailhouse.
1918 - Toledo's four breweries cease all beer production as a result of new federal prohibition on manufacturing of booze.
1926 - Humorist Will Rogers appears at the Toledo Coliseum
1928 - Fifteen-year-old Toledo girl arrested for bootlegging after she confessed she was helping her family get money.
1983 - Donna Owens sworn in as the first woman mayor of Toledo.

Dec. 2
1900 - Charges are filed against the owners of the Jockey Saloon in 800 block of Summit Street, where a 14-year-old girl from Bowling Green was found on premises. Her mother alleged she had been enticed there to meet men.
1923 - A riot breaks out during Sunday services at Greek Orthodox Church in Toledo at Walnut and Superior Streets when 50 people crash the service and try to drag the newly installed pastor from the altar. More than 20 policemen were called to break up the fist fights and shoving matches between members.
1942 - The oil tanker, “Cleveco,” and the tug boat, “Admiral,” sink in Lake Erie on a trip from Toledo to Cleveland. All 31 crewmen are lost from the two boats. The oil aboard the Cleveco is not pumped out and recovered until 50 years later.
1943 - Toledo police crime lab gets national recognition when its new “lie detector” was able to get a murder suspect to confess a triple murder of a family in Fayette County.
1974 - Toledo digs out from a massive snow storm. Thousands of people are stranded on highways and interstates.
1976 - Toledo Public Schools close for lack of money and don’t reopen until after New Year.

Dec. 3
1930 - Special honors are awarded Elmore potato farmer O.G. Stieffert, who has reported a yield of 410 bushels per acre, allowing him to gain membership in Ohio’s 400 bushel club.
1931 - Two suspected rum-runners are shot and wounded by Toledo Coast Guardsmen on Lake Erie.
1936 - For the first time in its history, Toledo Police Department orders mandatory intelligence testing for all officers. Both current and new officers are given the “adaptability exams.”
1956 - Downtown theaters are busy with Elvis Presley in “Love Me Tender,” at the Paramount. “Giant,” with James Dean and Liz Taylor, and the Pantheon has “Task Force” with Gary Cooper.

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