This Week In Toledo History

Sept. 25
1895 - Much of downtown Haskins in Wood County is destroyed by flames.
1911 - Toledo Police Patrolman Harry Smith dies from injuries sustained while trying to arrest two men six weeks earlier.
1917 - Silent film “The Birth of a Nation” plays at Auditorium Theater in Toledo and is given rave reviews by Toledo News Bee.
1921 - Waite High School is dealing with severe overcrowding as student population reaches 1,875, which is 600 more pupils than what it was designed for.
1926 - City of Toledo starts construction on new system of electric traffic signals. The first one scheduled for completion is at Bancroft and Upton.
1934 - City health officials report the 10th death in Toledo from “sleeping sickness,” which has been a problem for about 60 days.
1936 - Toledo's "gas bomb terrorists" strike again. This time they toss gas grenade into an ice creams social being held at the "South Side Workers Alliance" hall at Page and Knapp Street. 75 men, women and children are left gasping and choking in the fumes of the gas.

Sept. 26
1918 - George Smith, the editor of a Leipsic, Ohio newspaper in Wood County faces federal charges for printing stories deemed to be hurting America's war effort in World War I.
1927 -Toledo Mud Hens win the American League pennant defeating Indianapolis in two games, and would go on to win the "Junior World Series" the next month against Buffalo.
1942 - The oil tanker “Transoil” and two other boats including a tugboat, catch fire in Toledo on the Maumee River. The blaze injures twelve men who were trapped on the docks. Two of the crew members later die from their injuries.
1984 - President Ronald Reagan speaks to campaign rally crowd at Wood County Courthouse.

Sept. 27
1904 -Toledo police catch two boys trying to use grasshoppers to steal mail by dropping them into a mailbox with a string and letting the insects grab pieces of mail with their legs. The boys would then pull the grasshoppers out of the slot with the mail attached.
1918 - A gun battle in West Toledo between two Michigan Central Railroad Detectives and a gang of bootleggers leaves one bootlegger dead and a railroad detective severely wounded.
1925 - Toledo News Bee reports that some women in Toledo are now wearing notes on their garters as a warning to men, that "if they read the note, they are too close."
1937 - First home game for UT Football team is played at WPA-built "Rocket" Stadium which would be renamed the "Glass Bowl" in 1946.
1943 - The Fiske Brothers Oil Refinery on Oakdale in East Toledo catches fires and sends thick black smoke skyward visible for miles. The refinery manufactures engine grease.
1944 - News is revealed that a group of Toledo hunters find an alligator along the banks of the Maumee River near the town of Florida. They shoot and kill the four and half foot long reptile and tack it to a tree. Many motorists are stopping to get a better look at it.
1948 - Polio is claiming more lives in Toledo area. Scores of children are stricken and special isolation wards are set up at area hospitals.

Sept.28
1892 - An accident near Elmore on the Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Interurban results in death of train engineer.
1911 - The City of Toledo Health Department announces that it will use university students to test various foods from Toledo groceries to develop a “white list” of foods that are safe to consume.
1931 - The Colored Protective Union is formed in Toledo. A group organized to protect the rights of “blacks” in the city and to pass legislation that would be “in the interest of the colored race,” says group President Charles Carson.
1933 - A bank robber is killed in Luckey, Ohio during a shoot-out with village Marshal Ben Stone. Stone is wounded in the attack but survives to become local legend.

Sept. 29
1817 - The Treaty of Maumee Rapids is signed with several major Indian tribes, opening up most contested lands south of Maumee River to White settlement.
1922 - Toledo City Health Department warns residents living in “shed” homes near Girard and White Streets in East Toledo that they may be forced out of those rental properties because they have no sewer or water and are unsanitary.
1917 - First football game played at Waite Bowl in East Toledo.
1923 - University of Toledo football team earns its nickname the "Rockets" when a sports writer says one of the UT players runs like a "rocket" and the name stuck.
1956 - The new LaSalle’s sign is being raised at Adams and Huron Street. It is the largest sign in the city, weighing 4,000 pounds.

Sept. 30
1900 - Ottawa Park continues to show a huge increase in popularity as it’s noted in the local paper that thousands of people are turning out on the weekends to spend time in the park and the golf course is also very busy.
1903 - Amelia Combowski of East Toledo is arrested and taken to jail for picking up pieces of coal from the rail line along Yondota Street.
1932 - Crowds line up on Jackson Street at News Bee building to watch the World Series with the new “Play-O-Graph” system of mechanical graphics that allows audience to watch the series as it unfolds.
1935 - The Fassett Street Bridge over the Maumee collapses under stress of high wind. It is rebuilt only to be wrecked by a freighter in 1957.
1942 - Lucas County American Legion groups begin training programs at YMCA and various high schools for boys 15 to 16 to prepare for military service in the war effort.

Oct. 1
1903 - Toledo News Bee reports that a four-month-old baby boy was badly bitten by a baboon that was housed at an animal museum on Summit Street.
1908 - Train collision between Toledo and Bowling Green kills four people on their way home from the Wood County Fair.
1912 - Ground broken for Perry’s Monument on South Bass Island.
1922 - The Toledo Maroons NFL team plays its first game against Evansville Crimson Giants at Armory Park in Toledo, winning 15-0.
1929 - Construction begins on long-awaited High Level suspension bridge over Maumee River. It would later be named the Anthony Wayne Bridge.
1931 - The Toledo Railway and Light Company officially changes its name to Toledo Edison.
1940 - Most Holy Rosary Cathedral on Collingwood is dedicated as mother church for Toledo Diocese.
1955 - A new era of transportation begins in Ohio as the entire length of the Ohio Turnpike is officially opened to traffic.