Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Nov. 23
1898: Folks in Elmore are still talking about the lecture given at the opera house by Belle Boyd, the famous “rebel spy” for the confederates. Known as the Confederate Mata Hari, Boyd gave the talk about her experience, including how at 17 in 1861, she shot a Union Army soldier, who she claimed assaulted her mother.
1904: Frank Marshall is wounded by a turkey farmer in West Toledo when he tries to steal a bird for the Thanksgiving dinner table. He is taken to city jail where he is served turkey for Thanksgiving.
1917: The Toledo Red Cross is asking for as many as 5,000 volunteer knitters. They say that the soldiers being sent overseas for the war need warm clothes and other items as they prepare for a cold winter in the trenches of France.
1923: Lonsway Chevrolet opens for business in East Toledo.
1925: Toledo turns into an "armed camp" as more than 500 heavily armed police patrol the streets in an all-out effort to capture the deadly "Toledo Clubber" that the paper reports has "thrown terror into the hearts of Toledo womanhood" with his numerous attacks.
Nov. 24
1855: The first patient is admitted to the newly opened St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toledo.
1913: The Ottawa County Liquor Commission closes down 20 of the county's 58 saloons. Those remaining open will be under the supervision and control of the Ohio Rifle Association at Camp Perry. Most towns, including Genoa, Elmore, Graytown, Clay Center, Rocky Ridge, and Martin will only be allowed one operating saloon.
1916: The Maumee Riverfront area, now the Glass City Metro Park in East Toledo, is undergoing development as the new "Acme" electric power generating station in Toledo is constructed.
1934: In the midst of the Great Depression, 17 federally funded sewing centers will be set up in Toledo to help struggling families meet clothing needs. More than 27,000 yards of material will be available.
1957: Two Genoa teenagers are featured in a Toledo newspaper story about how they spent four days camping in a wooded area between Genoa and Elmore, with only a tent, some matches, two blankets, their shotguns, and a hunting dog to prove they could live like pioneers. Robert Travis and Roger Miller say they managed to shoot and eat two pheasants and a rabbit, and the hardest part was staying warm at night in the cold weather.
1962: It's estimated that the average Toledo family makes about $7,000 a year, is paid on Fridays, and owns a home. The study also says over 75 percent have lived in Toledo more than 20 years and have lived in the same home for over 10 years.
Nov. 25
1898: Telephone service begins for residents of Grand Rapids and Weston.
1911: Saloon keepers and gambling hall owners in Toledo file legal action to stop the Toledo police and mayor Brand Whitlock from raiding their downtown businesses and destroying equipment.
1931: Genoa's high school football team hosts Gibsonburg on Thanksgiving Day in a game to raise money for the unemployed of both towns.
1932: Thanksgiving Day turned tragic for a rural Sandusky woman cooking dinner in her kitchen. Police say a rifle fell onto the floor and discharged, hitting a gas fuel tank over the stove. Flames from the stove ignited the fuel and blew up the kitchen, ultimately killing the 55-year-old woman.
1942: Toledo's Paramount Theater plays host to Bob Hope and Roy Rogers as part of a 17-day war chest fundraising drive that netted over $1 million.
1948: Toledo’s first and only elected “socialist” mayor, Solon Klotz, dies.
1980: University of Toledo scientists report that recent discoveries of skeletal remains in the Maumee Valley lead them to believe that cannibalism was widely practiced by some native area tribes during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Nov. 26
1827: The town of Port Clinton is founded on the shores of Lake Erie.
1906: The city of Toledo’s board of health begins the "new" practice of inspecting restaurant kitchens to look for health code violations.
1918: Toledo City Council authorizes the selling off of its flock of sheep at Ottawa Park. The four-legged lawn mowers number 150, and there are no facilities to take care of them.
1925: Frank Robel, a 37-year-old marshal of Marblehead in Ottawa County, is shot to death after his car is forced off the road. As he exited the patrol car, he was shot through the heart, and Lester Wenner of Lakeside is charged.
1940: The first rounds of World War II draftees depart Toledo's Union Station for boot camp. A farewell speech is given by Mayor Ollie Czelusta while accordion music plays.
1953: The city of Toledo removes the parking meters from downtown streets as the busy Christmas shopping season gets underway.
1956: A Toledo man is sentenced to the workhouse for trying to pick a fight with Elvis Presley during his visit in Toledo. He claims it was a staged fake-fight.
Nov. 27
1837: Charles McLean becomes Toledo’s first fire chief.
1868: Clara Harrington Blinn, an Elmore native, is killed along with her two-year-old son, Willie, during a raid by General Custer on the Cheyenne Camp of Black Kettle at Washita River in the Oklahoma Territory. The two had been captured from their wagon train months before.
1901: A deadly, head-on wreck on the Wabash rail line occurs near Adrian, Mich., killing more than 100 immigrants from Europe en-route to Colorado for mining jobs. The burial site for the victims, Oakwood Cemetery in Adrian, was a mystery until 2016.
1909: The Toledo Probate Court reports that in Polish and Hungarian wards of the city, the birth rate is more than twice the other wards combined.
1920: Dixie Highway north of Toledo is closed for repairs after motorists complained of bumpy clay and mud road detours from Toledo to Detroit.
1942: Thousands of women are now employed in Toledo industries and factories as the war effort to build munitions and ships increases. At the Toledo Shipyards, women are hired for the first time to work on the Coast Cutter Mackinaw, and the era of "Rosie the Riveter" is born.
1956: The first Hungarian refugee families arrive in Toledo to make new homes after fleeing Soviet takeover of Hungary.
1964: Heavy crowds jam sidewalks of downtown Toledo to begin the annual holiday shopping rush.
Nov. 28
1891: Two trains collide in the tunnel beneath the Miami and Erie Canal, resulting in the deadliest train collision in Toledo history, as at least seven people are killed and another 20 are seriously injured.
1893: The groundbreaking for the Wood County Courthouse is held.
1907: A crowd of 20,000 people line the sidewalks of downtown Toledo along Jefferson Avenue to see a fast-moving run of the city's 42 fire vehicles. The event is being filmed by a motion picture crew for a promotional stunt.
1918: Skipper Smith, an 80-pound champion card player from Toledo, was drafted and then sent back to Toledo because he was too light for military duty.
1941: The first inductees from the area arrive at Camp Perry prior to World War II to begin processing.
Nov. 29
1902: A scandal is unfolding in Wood County where a wealthy oil man and farmer, Ephriam Shanabarger, continues legal action against his wife and other members of his family. He claims they are spending the family fortune in Texas where they have founded a town called “Heaven” to await a heavenly rapture event. Ephriam says the only thing vanishing is all of his wealth.
1910: Toledo patrolman, Carl Kruse, shoots to death a "mystery man" who was setting fire to the Temple Theater on Monroe Street in the Auburndale neighborhood. The would-be arsonist turns out to be Joseph Dunn, a former safecracker who feigned being "blind" to get released from prison.
1921: Bishop Samuel Stritch is appointed as second Bishop of the Toledo Catholic Diocese.
1957: Bowling Green dedicates their so-called “white way” when the new fluorescent streetlights are installed downtown.
