Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Oct. 5
1813: Famous and powerful Native American leader, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, is killed in the Battle of the Thames in Ontario Canada by American troops.
1941: The city of Toledo dedicates a new $10 million Lake Erie water intake system.
1951: Carl Winzeler, a World War II hero from Toledo who lost both of his legs and one arm in the war, dies of a heart attack at his new Talmadge Road home which had been built by grateful citizens of Toledo for his service to the country.
1959: Raceway Park opens as a horse racing track after being a stock car venue for 10 years.
1966: A partial meltdown of the Fermi One Nuclear Plant in Monroe, Mich. occurs. It is one of the first major nuclear mishaps in the United States.
Oct. 6
1873: The last volunteer fire company in Toledo shuts down operations.
1897: J.C. Meacham, a rail station agent from Elmore, is missing after he is believed to have stolen thousands of dollars in railroad funds and alleged to have run away with a French actress.
1903: Toledo city council passes an anti-flirting ordinance.
1927: The Toledo Mud Hens win the International League Championship by defeating the Buffalo Bisons at Toledo’s Swayne Field in the “junior” world series. Casey Stengel is the Hens manager.
1930: Toledo gambling figures, Abe “The Punk” Lubitsky and Norman Blatt, are shot dead on Franklin Avenue and Woodruff in a continuing mob war. Toledo-based mobster Thomas “Yonnie” Licavoli is later convicted and implicated in ordering the hit.
1975: The BGSU Homecoming game celebration includes a “snake dance” with over 3,300 dancers, setting a world record for longest snake dance.
Oct. 7
1845: The Bank of Toledo opens for business.
1856: Moses Fleetwood Walker is born. He later becomes the first black man ever to play in professional baseball, playing first for the Toledo Blue Stockings team for the 1884 season.
1892: Cal McCool, an oil field worker at Mermill in Wood County, is mangled and killed when he gets caught up in the “fly wheel” of the oil well he was working around.
1915: Robert Finch, a one-time mayor of Toledo, is found dead in Detroit after mysteriously going missing for many years. Finch served as mayor after the death of Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones in 1905. He was soundly defeated in the next election and then suddenly vanished from Toledo.
1919: King Albert of Belgium makes a visit to Toledo with Brand Whitlock, the ambassador to Belgium and former mayor of Toledo.
1933: The Civic Auditorium is jammed with 4,500 people, mostly women, who are there to attend a Toledo News Bee Cooking School.
1935: The Detroit Tigers win the World Series against the Chicago Cubs in six games. The victory is a boost to the residents of a depression-weary area.
Oct. 8
1890: Toledo is shocked by news that well-known ship captain, Captain Mike Enright, murdered his wife while she was in the company of a younger man. Police said Enright returned home from a voyage and found his petite wife with another man near some “disreputable” saloons on Canton Avenue and proceeded to shoot her three times.
1897: A wind-swept fire destroys 20 homes and business buildings in downtown Gibsonburg. The origin of the fire is believed to be arson as two men were seen coming from the barn where the fire started, just before the blaze. A special fire train was summoned from Toledo, but by the time it arrived, it was too late.
1900: Accused child molester, E. Bushong, is rushed to jail in Bowling Green after a lynch mob was formed in North Baltimore to hang the suspect.
1909: A genuine German Mauser .43-caliber rifle is on sale at W.L. Milner Department Store for just $5.75.
1925: A mystery trunk is found at Toledo’s Union Station. It was first thought to contain a body because of a strong foul odor, but police discover the trunk contained a dozen heads of stinking cabbage.
1942: The Blade reports that three young children escaped tragedy by jumping from a tree house on Eastmoreland Drive when it caught fire.
Oct. 9
1837: The Toledo City Council passes an ordinance prohibiting gambling, billiards, and roulette tables.
1899: An odd, sad story is reported from Oak Harbor, where the Reverend W. L. Woodward of the Disciple Church finished a prayer meeting in his home, greeted all the parishioners afterwards as they exited, and then moments later, walked back into his house where he put a pistol to his heart and pulled the trigger.
1903: Oil wells around Bryan, Ohio are reported to be big producers of oil — with one yielding 200 barrels a day.
1947: A shooting erupts in a Findlay church when an Ohio State patrolman shoots and wounds a gunman holding an Episcopal rector hostage.
1968: Toledo Mayor William Ensign orders more police patrols at city high school football games after recent flare-up of violence.
Oct. 10
1889: The Elmore newspaper reports that Dr. Bigelow of Toledo, otherwise known as the windbag dentist, was in Elmore for the day. He extracted 84 teeth and delivered four sets of false teeth all in one day.
1894: The Citizen Federation is formed to combat and uncover corruption at Toledo City Hall.
1904: It’s reported in the Toledo News Bee that a group of Toledo fishermen caught a giant goldfish, weighing three-quarters of a pound near Odeon Island in Maumee Bay.
1933: Lucas County Sheriff’s Deputy Leo Flanagan was shot and killed by friendly fire as police had surrounded murder suspect, Floyd "Sailor" Baldwin, on Wamba Drive in South Toledo. Baldwin had been wanted in the killing of a golfer at Sylvania Country Club.
1945: The “Mary Jane” Interurban makes its last freight run on the Ohio Public Service tracks through Port Clinton, Oak Harbor, and Genoa.
1968: The Detroit Tigers capture the 1968 World Series in game seven in St. Louis against the Cardinals.
1977: TARTA bus drivers go on strike.
Oct. 11
1881: Wood County farmer Charles Bach brutally kills his wife Mary with a corn knife in their farm home near Bowling Green. He walks into sheriff’s office that morning and confesses. He is hanged almost one year to the day after his conviction, becoming the last execution held in Wood County.
1904: Judge Morris in Toledo denies several applications for divorce from women who say their husbands are grouchy and ill-tempered. Judge Morris tells women those are not justifiable grounds for divorce.
1915: Toledo workhouse matron Hattie DeMuth is sent to Piqua, Ohio to chase down an escaped inmate because the male deputies were busy harvesting crops. DeMuth collars the inmate and returns him to Toledo, saying it was the most exciting thing she's ever done.
1916: Allen County Sheriff Sherman Eley, who safeguarded a black suspect from an angry mob in Lima, is given a silver cup award from the NAACP. Eley's young daughter died that night from stress when the lynch mob stormed his residence and Eley, himself, was nearly lynched by the angry jeering mob.
1945: The New York Central Railroad approves a $3.5 million grant to Toledo for a new Union Station facility in South Toledo.
1948: The Cleveland Indians win the World Series in game six against the Boston Braves.
1954: The Toledo Police Morals squad begins a probe into reports that local gamblers are now betting on local high school games.
1976: The Old West End Academy School is dedicated.
