Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
April 6
1877: A newspaper feature story on Genoa, formerly Stony Ridge Station, says the town now has some 1,500 residents and its top industry is the production of the “celebrated Genoa White Lime.” The town also has a grist mill, a saw mill, a wooden bowl maker, two barrel hoop makers, an ashery plus many stores and numerous saloons.
1906: Construction begins on Camp Perry near Port Clinton in Ottawa County.
1941: Lake Erie commercial fishermen complain that too much raw sewage is being pumped into the lake and is killing the fish.
1990: Champion Spark Plug of Toledo announces the closing of its Toledo plant after 80 years of operation.
April 7
1905: The Toledo Fire Department accepts only nine men out of 82 applicants. Rejections are for varicose veins, bad noses, bad teeth, bow legs, flat feet and a husky voice.
1920: Noted by some newspapers in the Toledo area is that dandelions are no longer a pest but a precious plant as it makes a “fine wine” during these early days of prohibition.
1929: Three young and popular Fremont men drown in Sandusky Bay when their boat capsizes in a sudden storm.
1983: Babcock Dairy announces it is closing. Founded by Roy Babcock in 1919, it was once the largest independent dairy in the nation.
April 8
1835: The Michigan militia storms home of Toledo’s Benjamin Stickney, signaling the start of the “Toledo War” over the rights to a narrow strip of land which includes the city of Toledo.
1915: A massive blaze threatens the town of Hessville in Sandusky County, but firemen hold damage to loss of a saloon and a house.
1957: A surprise snowstorm hits Toledo, dumping nearly 10 inches, the biggest April snowfall in the city’s history.
1966: WCWA, “Seaway”radio now advertises that it has a helicopter to give traffic reports to drivers.
April 9
1905: Sewer diggers in Toledo say they will “never” go back to a nine- hour workday and threaten to tie up sewer work in the city if they are forced.
1908: The Elmore Tribune reports that the town council is outlawing the loathsome practice of spitting on sidewalks. Violators in the village will be fined $10.
1961: Demolition now underway on 150 houses in South Toledo to make way for new South End bridge.
2002: The first baseball game is played at the newly built Fifth Third Field in downtown Toledo. The Toledo Mud Hens win the game as they defeat Norfolk 7-4.
April 10
1915: Three iron workers are killed when the new steelwork at the Willys Overland plant falls during construction.
1923: Toledo railway commissioner W.E. McCann writes that buses have been tried on Toledo streets and "leave much to be desired.”
1949: The General Electric store in downtown Toledo is selling 10-inch model televisions for $239.
1958: The 710-foot John Sherwin is launched at Toledo Shipyards, the largest ship ever built there at a cost of $7 million.
1978: Toledo Public school teachers walk out on strike. The dispute evolves into a rancorous 22- day labor action against the school system.
April 11
1889: A Mr. W. Gordon of Oak Harbor fells 8,000 trees near Pemberville and sends them downstream on the Portage River to his sawmill, but lack of water leaves hundreds of logs stranded along the way.
1906: Toledo’s probation officer, Mary Corrigan, says the problem with children today is idleness. They have "nothing to do" and aren't forced to work around the house and just “run out to play.”
1924” Twenty men have died in the past 10 days in Toledo from an orgy of "canned heat” poisoning, which is an alcohol that is deadly. It became a lethal substitute for liquor during prohibition.
1927: Two Toledo men are captured on Lake Erie after their cabin cruiser, laden with Canadian liquor, was seized and riddled by bullets from the machine gun of a Coast Guard boat. Hundreds of cases of whiskey and barrels of beer were taken.
1965: The Point Place and Shoreland areas of Washington Township are hit by F-4 tornadoes on Palm Sunday. The damage is massive and widespread. At least 16 people are killed in Toledo, and many more fatalities occur across Southeast Michigan.
April 12
1918: Toledo policeman C.C. Dersch is treated for wounds after a gun battle in East Toledo in which he killed a suspected auto bandit. Officer Dersch was hit three times in his neck, stomach and shoulder.
1927: Over 2, 000 people converge at the Toledo Coliseum for a Ku Klux Klan Rally and afterwards hundreds marched through the streets.
1942: The farm labor shortage in Northwest Ohio prompts local sugar beet farmers to import hundreds of migrant families over a seven-county area. Eight hundred arrive in Fremont from southern Texas by train.
1952: A state wildlife investigation begins at Put-in-Bay after many song birds, squirrels and pheasants are killed by a chemical extermination program of rats on the island.
