This Week In Toledo History

December 22-28

December 22

1822 - Birth of Frederick Prentice is noted. He is first white child born in what was to become Toledo. He lived to be 93 years old and became a very wealthy businessman.

1901 - A large group of men, while ice yachting on Maumee Bay, see a mirage of a city over a frozen Lake Erie. They report seeing houses and church steeples and at one point one of the buildings catches fire and smoke pours from the building. Later determined to be a reflection of Cleveland off of the frozen lake waters.

1921 - Toledo Police Patrolman Charles McGuire is shot and killed by unknown assailant while on patrol at Indiana Avenue and Division Street.

1927 - Plans are announced to build a new Toledo airport in Wood County in Lake Township. It would be Toledo's main airport for many years until Toledo Express opened in the 1950s.

1967 - Toledo residents experience record rainfall with more than 3 inches falling in 19 hours. Streets and homes in north and west Toledo are flooded.

December 23

1908 - The high profile murder case of 17-year old Harvey Hazel ends as jury finds the boy guilty of murdering his mother with a hammer.

1954 - Leonard Gladieux and family of Oregon impress ice skaters as they try out a new motor-driven “ice-mobile” on pond at Pearson Park.

1963 - Citizens of Clay Center are outraged over a proposal to turn their stone quarry into a dump site for Toledo refuse. One local resident says it's time to “oil up our shotguns.”

1974 - Explosion and fire at Interlake Steel kills two workers and injures many others on Front Street.

1996 -Major fire erupts in downtown Wayne, Ohio in Wood County. Several historic buildings are lost, including the town post office.

December 24

1901 - Fire truck and streetcar collide at Collingwood and Dorr. Fire Captain John Ward is killed.

1908 - The Kahlo family of Toledo gets an unexpected Christmas gift as they receive a letter from long lost, and believed dead son, Harry Kahlo, who says he is very much alive after vanishing 15 years before.

1928 - Charles Tiedtke dies. He and his brother operated the famous department store in downtown Toledo.

1949 - Heavy holiday shopping crowds reported in downtown Toledo as thousands jam sidewalks and stores for last minute holiday bargains.

1958 - Anderson’s Boat Company plant in Oak Harbor is destroyed by flames.

December 25

1895 - George Ketcham's new Valentine Theater opens in Toledo for its grand debut. Theater is named for Ketcham's father, Valentine Ketcham.

1913 - “East Auditorium,” the first movie theater in East Toledo, opens.

1927 - The Toledo Zoo opens its new Carnivora House as a home for the big cats and lions.

1933 - District Fire Chief Vanner Wendt dies from injuries while fighting a blaze on Suder Avenue.

1936 - Christmas observances take place in the shantytown along the Maumee River in East Toledo known as a "Hooverville". Over 50 shanties house hundreds of jobless men.

1941 - Toledo City Councilman Addison Thacher holds his annual “no questions asked" Christmas dinner for 5,000 needy people in Toledo.

December 26

1916 - Wilson Brown, one of the famous Andrews’ Raiders of the Civil War, dies at his home in East Toledo. The Medal of Honor recipient is buried in cemetery north of Bowling Green.

1919 - Four men raid the Lucas County Jail, shoot one guard and lock up three deputies, freeing a convicted killer and two safe-breakers.

1954 - Ohio Bell says 375 operators were needed to handle over 16,000 holiday greeting calls from around the world.

1961 - Nickles' Bread Company advertises "Butter-Nut" bread. They were Toledo's last bread company with "home delivery".

December 27

1887 - Town of Put-in-Bay is established amid fanfare of great rowdy celebration.

1897 - More than 1,786 new oil wells were drilled in Wood County during the year. Two-hundred of them were dry.

1905 - Entertainer Cliff Arquette, known as "Charlie Weaver" was born in Toledo. Arquette became the patriarch of the famous Arquette family and grandfather of actors, Rosanna, Patricia, Alexis and David Arquette.

1923 - Michael Owens, the man who helped make Toledo the “Glass Capital” with his innovative bottle making machines, takes his last breath at 65. Owens was at work in his Toledo office when he suffered a sudden heart attack.

1953 - Car plunges off Cherry Street Bridge into Maumee River. Five young Toledoans drown.

December 28

1905 - Perrysburg Marshal Frank Thornton is mortally wounded in a shoot- out on the train platform in downtown Perrysburg with safecrackers who robbed the Central interurban car barn in Toledo. He dies several weeks later.

1915 - Toledo Mayor Carl Keller indicted for bribery by a Lucas County grand jury, accused of accepting kickbacks for contracts.

1921 - Toledo Police Patrolman William Reed, 31 years of age, shot to death while questioning suspect. Reed leaves behind his widow and six children.

1959 - WOHO 1470 Radio features "Hitch with Mitch" (Fred Mitchell) and the "Lucky 13- The potential hits of Tomorrow."

1978 - Coast Guard crew from Marblehead rescues 21 rabbit hunters who run aground near Pelee Island.