This Week In Toledo History

August 11-17

August 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.
1916 - A tribe of Iroquois present Longfellow's “Hiawatha” at Jermain Park. The cast of 50 players has a “set” made up of tepees, campfires and birch bark canoes along the Ottawa River.
1932 - Rookie Toledo Police Patrolman Edward Keim is shot and killed during shootout with a robbery suspect at a gas station on Indiana Avenue. Keim, 28, had just been on the department about a month.

August 12
1908 - Toledo courtroom is shocked when police bring in a bandaged and dying woman, Bertha Hood, to testify against a man who she claims stabbed her repeatedly. She was so weak she couldn’t hold up her hand to take the oath.
1916 - The 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.
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.

August 13
1919 - Walbridge Park pavilion burns to the ground. Two people living at the business are saved by their barking dog.
1922 -Toledo Patrolman Fritz Bacon killed on duty after he was hit by drunk driver.
1930 - Local farmer on Pickle Road lies in wait and shoots a destitute father and his teenage son to death who were stealing potatoes from his field. The farmer is charged but later acquitted in the killings.
1938 - Lt. Leonard Guerin of Trilby Fire Department killed while battling a gasoline tanker explosion.

August 14
1919 -The newly rebuilt 1,000 room Hotel Victory at Put-in-Bay burns to the ground in spectacular blaze that can be seen in Toledo.
1921 - Six people, including a family of three, are killed in car train crash near Weston at Deweese Crossing.
1945 - World War II comes to a close. V-J Day. Downtown Toledo streets are flooded with people in loud and rowdy overnight celebrations.
1998 - Wayne, Ohio's Chris Hoiles of the Baltimore Orioles hits two grand slam home runs in one game against the Cleveland Indians.

August 15
1834 - The Toledo Herald is published by James Irvine Brown, the first newspaper in Toledo.
1862 - Ottawa County proudly reports that 55 young men have reported for duty as a part of the 100th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Ottawa County claims first place in the state for filling its quota of call-ups.
1925 - Forest Park in Genoa reporting very large crowds attending the Woodville Road amusement Mecca. Over 7,000 people crowded the park on a recent Sunday.
1941 - Exotic snake dancer Zorita arrested by Toledo Police at the Kentucky Club on North Detroit Ave. She is released the next day.
1976 - Toledoan Brenda Morehead, 1976 and 1980 Olympic gold medalist in the sprint relay is honored with parade in downtown Toledo. She later returns to Toledo after her track career to teach and coach for Toledo Public Schools.

August 16
1864 - Toledo City Council gives city marshal the authority to deputize men to serve as night and day policemen.
1915 - John Gunckel, the father of the “Toledo Newsboys,” and the National Newsboys, dies at his Toledo home after long illness. A large pyramid of stones marks his burial place at Woodlawn cemetery.
1934 - An 18-year-old girl’s attempt to swim Lake Erie from the Canadian side to the American side ended when Florence Brushaber of Sandusky, numb and sick, was pulled from the waters of the lake.
1948 - Steel cable barge with 30 passengers near Waterville, sinks into Maumee. Three people drown.

August 17
1852 - Riot and fistfight ensues between competing Toledo Fire companies as they battle a blaze in downtown Toledo, allowing building to burn.
1888 - Libbey Glass workers arrive from Boston by train ready to start work in the new Toledo factory on Buckeye Street. Many, however, would later return to their homes in Boston.
1912 - Waite High School nearing completion in East Toledo. The structure was built in four years at a cost of $900,000. Contrary to urban myth, the building was not built backwards.
1915 - The annual “Baby Festival,” underway in downtown Toledo. Thousands of families attend and buy ice and milk for infants of the city’s poor.
1931 - A very dark day in Toledo history when four major banks fail to open triggering panic among many residents whose deposits and savings are held in those banks. Bank lobbies are jammed with people trying to get deposits released.
1933 - NASA Flight Commander Gene Kranz born in Toledo. Kranz, a Central Catholic graduate would later become the chief mission director for NASA. He directed the Apollo program and was director of the first manned mission to the moon.