A day in the life of Toledo

As I spend many hours (too many says my spouse) scouring old newspapers in search of items to fill the weekly column on “This Week in Toledo’s Past,” I’ll occasionally discover a particular news day in history that seems to offer a bounty of interesting local stories and slices of life that tell a broader narrative of another era and reality.  
 

It’s my way of time traveling and I’d like to take you back with me to this week, a century ago, on Feb. 18, 1920.
 

For pretty Ellyn Bowman of Toledo, the day would be memorable. She was treated to a rare ride on an U.S. Army tank in downtown Toledo. The iron tank, on a Toledo recruiting drive, was driven by Sergeant Fred Kenoyer, who invited Ellyn on a date in the giant tank.

After picking her up, she climbed inside and he drove to Secor Hotel where they attended a dance. Then the good Sergeant used the “war chariot” to take her back home on Parkwood.  Ellyn was said to be the first Toledo woman ever to ride in a tank.   
 

There were other people being given a ride in Toledo as well – a ride to jail.      
 

A couple of “con-men” had been arrested trying to scam the unsuspecting out of their money. In one case, Frank McCallum tried to defraud a man out of $100 at Union Station giving his victim a bogus check to hold as collateral.  He was caught on Tuesday and by Wednesday the 18th, he was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in the workhouse.

The wheels of justice worked fast in those days. 

Also working fast were the butter bandits, who on this day, got into the Clover Leaf Diary truck at Adams and Huron and made off with 41 pounds of newly churned butter. Their crime was largely unnoticed given the distraction down the street, as an electric main wire exploded at the Water Street Power plant.

The sudden loss of electricity darkened downtown buildings and elevators stopped working. In short order it was repaired and local office workers were spared from walking many flights of stairs.

Weather on this Wednesday was starting to warm up a bit as the mercury reached the mid 30’s, so folks on the street are talking baseball and prognosticating on what manager Roger Bresnahan is going to do with the Mud Hens this season.

Bresnahan promises some big changes at Swayne Field so the Hens don’t end up in last place like last year. But as winter fades slowly, winter’s curse of flu and pneumonia is still stubbornly lurking, and still deadly. 

Several deaths from winter’s cold grasp were reported, including a sad story of Toledo policeman Lyman Dear and how he and his wife and son had contracted it. Edith and the son, Joe, both died and Lyman remains critical, so sick he can’t make it to their funerals.

A lot of drinking folks in Toledo are facing the reality of prohibition these days. Toledo Police have been keeping busy raiding homes and any place that might be hiding some outlaw bottles of booze or a still. 

In one arrest, two Hungarian fellows from Monroe are reported to have been found with a couple of gallon jugs of corn whiskey, and police report that the jugs are now being kept in the property room, but they keep filling with whiskey all by themselves. Go figure. They call it “magic whiskey.”

They have to pull the corks to let the whiskey escape or the bottles will explode. The police are trying to get the special formula that the imprisoned brewers from Michigan are keeping to themselves.

Toledo families may be filling up on a fresh meal of rabbit this week as meat prices are soaring. Mayor Schreiber got a deal on 17,000 fresh rabbits that will be delivered to the fire stations where residents can stop by and get one, dressed and ready for cooking, which is a big help for lots of families who need it.

The News Bee editorial says phone service is “rotten” in Toledo. Bell can’t pay enough for operators. Women operators won’t work for 18 dollars a week anymore. Many have left Bell’s switchboards and are taking factory jobs that pay more.

They don’t have to look far. The classified ads are filled with job offers.  Gendron Wheel Company is looking for lumber handlers and Acklin Stamping is seeking to hire punch press operators and women and girls are being hired as food packers at the Berdan Company.

Bowling alley pinsetter Robert Brown is looking for a new job. He left his job at Gazzolo’s Bowling Alley on St. Clair Street after he says a pin flew back and hit his leg so hard it had to be amputated. He is suing them now for $645 in damages. Not much money for a leg.

On the News Bee front page on Feb. 18 was the news of a passing era. One of Toledo’s old style traveling professors of the piano, Richard Wyley, had struck his last chord at the age of 92. Wyley, it is written, was from another time. He was a Civil War Vet and a quiet humble man who came to Toledo as an itinerant musician and teacher who gave lessons to many children in the city for no more than 50 cents, and maybe a meal. 

Known by many and loved by all who knew him, he was a Toledo treasure who was honest and always filled with optimism. His passing marked the end of an era. Ironic that, even then, we loved to look back nostalgically on an earlier time.

Another day in the life of Toledo….