This Week In Toledo History

March 10-16

March 10
1894 - The business district of oil boom town Cygnet is leveled by flames from a runaway fire.
1913 - In Toledo, William Knox rolls the first 300 game ever recorded at a national bowling tournament.
1918 - A half-mile wide tornado rips through the Paulding and Van Wert areas of Northwest Ohio, destroying homes, farms, and killing nine people.
1919 - A Bowling Green to Toledo Interurban slams into a Cloverleaf train near River Road at Maumee, 48 people are injured. Many are badly burned.
1936 - Grand jury panel is hearing evidence in morals case against two night clubs in Toledo near Dixie Highway that feature cross-dressing exotic dancers.

March 11
1906 - A head-on locomotive crash on B&O tracks near Bloomdale in southern Wood County kills two people and injures 14 others.
1933 - News Bee reports that 40-year-old Gretchen McCullough has been hiccoughing for 56 days straight and doctors at St.Vincent are “employing every known remedy” to end her misery.
1961 - Toledoan and Cuban revolutionary Captain William Morgan is executed by Fidel Castro in Cuba. Morgan had gone to Cuba in 1958 to help overthrow the Batista regime, but later became disillusioned by Fidel Castro’s communism.
2002 - A large and potentially dangerous hole is discovered in the reactor head of Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Ottawa County. The lakefront plant is shut down over a year for repair.

March 12
1872-The first Lakeshore and Michigan Southern Railway train makes a run from Cleveland to Toledo, passing through Sandusky, Port Clinton, Oak Harbor and Clay Center.
1886 -The House of Corrections on Broadway for young boys burns to the ground.
1928 -Citing a lack of formal charges, a Toledo judge releases 219 people from custody. They had been rounded up at the Graystone, an illegal speakeasy or cabaret.
1937 -City of Toledo ends use of Toledo Police paddy wagons to take people to hospitals after a 10-year-old boy dies in a patrol wagon.
1981 -Toledo’s live entertainment options on this date include “Arsenic and Old Lace” at Westgate Dinner Theater, the “trumpet stylings” of Jimmy Cook at the Billyle Supper Club or the “Exotic Dance Revue” at the Jolly Trolly.

March 13
1905- Genoa Banking Company on Main Street is robbed by safe-crackers who use dynamite to blow open the bank safe to get $3,000 in cash. The safe door was blown off and landed across the street. The bandits escaped in a stolen horse and buggy
1951- St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in East Toledo at 4th and Euclid Streets is gutted by flames.
1957 - Scores of theater patrons are rescued by aerial ladders from upper floors of Paramount Building after smoky fire breaks out at the Hardy Shoe company building next door.
1977 - A lost pilot, low on fuel, lands his single engine plane on the Ohio Turnpike near the Bryan exit. No injuries and no accidents, but traffic was backed up for a while.

March 14
1886 - Linseed Oil Company mills in Toledo are destroyed by fire.
1911 - It is estimated that Toledo has about 160,000 shade trees along city streets and half of them are elm trees.
1933 - Heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey and city officials visit a welfare house in Toledo. Dempsey tells jobless men “not to give up hope,” and that “the sun will shine sooner or later.”
1966 Southeast Michigan residents near Toledo begin seeing strange lights and reports of UFOs are made from Ann Arbor to Monroe.
1975 -The end of an era for east suburban residents as the Buckeye Stages bus company closes down and halts runs from Port Clinton to Toledo.

March 15
1918 - Native Germans in Toledo are being told to surrender all weapons to federal marshals as U.S. involvement in World War I increases.
1925 - News Bee announces schedule for the much awaited annual Marbles or “mibs” tournament at the Valentine Theater.
1943 - Assistant Trilby Fire Chief Ralph Pelton rescues two children from a burning home on Glenn Street. His bravery is later honored with the Carnegie Hero Medal.
1964 - Beatles appear on closed-circuit TV at Rivoli Theater downtown, thousands of screaming fans pack the venue.
1974 - The “streaking” fad continues in the area as three students are arrested and fined $100 for streaking naked across campus at BGSU.

March 16
1910 - Auto racing pioneer Barney Oldfield of Toledo sets world speed record of 131.7 miles-per-hour at Daytona in Florida.
1920 - Local companies are advertising for “boys” to come work in their factories. Opportunities for teenage boys in Toledo include box cutting, mattress factory labor, telegram delivery, glove making, and coil winding jobs.
1925 - Point Place officials move to change scores of street names to a numbered system of identification.
1936 -Another 400 young men are hired by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to perform public works jobs in Toledo at wages of $19 to $25 a month.
1949 - The Toledo Blade reports that with the use of Geiger counters some hopeful Toledoans are using them to look for uranium and gold.

Lou's Notes: Many thanks to all those who have reached out to me with more memories and stories from Forest Park. Mimi Watt Fintel says her family used to frequent the amusement park in the mid-30's, and she sent along some pics of her grandparents, Stephen and Peg Huntzinger, and her mother, Peggy Huntzinger Watt, as they took photos atop some of the old Dentzel Carousel animals. Also, thanks to Cyndi Pauwels for sending along a pic of her great aunt Beulah(Skiles) Scott and hubby Ellsworth Scott, who were rumored to have been married on the dance floor at Forest Park. And stay tuned for an update on the missing Lincoln statue (bust) that used to be on Woodville Road.