Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Sept. 21
1904: The first test run of an electric trolley car on the tracks of the Toledo, Port Clinton Lakeside Interurban is carried out. The first car ran the tracks from Toledo, via Clay Center and Genoa all the way to Elmore and then back again for a distance of 18 miles. The new line is expected to start full service by October.
1911: A large bull being led to the slaughter pens in the West Toledo stockyards escapes and goes on a rampage down Phillips Avenue, ripping up fences and lawns, smashing wagons, terrorizing neighbors and children. Police gave chase and cornered the restless beast, which sold the next day for 8 cents a pound.
1921: A huge boatload of grapes arrives at Toledo's riverfront from Kelleys Island. They are sold at $3.25 a bushel. The grape producers, affected by prohibition, are now selling product directly to consumers to use as they might during this time of prohibition.
1934: Waite High School’s new 15,000-seat football stadium is dedicated as the Indians defeat the visiting Mooseheart School for Boys from Illinois, 6-3.
1947: Gale force winds hit the Toledo area, sinking a coal barge in Maumee Bay. Eight crewmen are rescued by the Coast Guard.
1966: A riot occurs at the Toledo House of Corrections, triggered by the capture of an escapee. Other inmates, however, began yelling and complaining of poor food and crowded conditions. They broke windows and light bulbs. Several inmates and officers were injured in the melee.
Sept. 22
1863: A train collision occurs in Perrysburg involving a troop train carrying Union army recruits from the Wood County area. The crash sends two of the boxcars off the track and into splinters. Two recruits are killed and 24 others are injured. Many are taken by a rescue train to the Oliver House Hotel in Toledo for treatment at a makeshift hospital.
1907: Toledo police officers arrest a very large man from Maumee for lying down on the scales at the city market to weigh himself. They claim he was so heavy the scales were unable to register a weight.
1910: It’s reported that the so-called “farm school” in the 3300 block of Cherry Street of Toledo is the only one of its kind in the world. It is located on an old farm and orchard area where 177 children learn about fruits, vegetables and gardening in addition to their regular schoolwork.
1914: It is announced that Milburn Wagon Works in Toledo will now begin producing electric automobiles at the factory. The first Milburn Electric was produced the next year. The company turned out 4,000 electric vehicles before it was sold in 1923.
1924: Seven Toledo area men are being held for staging a nighttime armed raid on several farm homes near Lambertville, looking for a stolen alcohol still. The houses were riddled with bullets and the families escaped, however one of the farmers was wounded.
1930: Four bootleggers are killed in the explosion of their "still" in a building on Champlain Street.
1945: Emergency gasoline rationing is ordered by Mayor Lloyd Roulet of Toledo as a result of a severe shortage.
1950: Thousands attend the opening of Toledo’s new Union Station in South Toledo. Within a few years, though, most passenger train travel operations through Toledo would cease as air and car travel became even more popular.
1990: Six years after it opened, Portside Festival Marketplace in downtown Toledo is shut down. Ironically, Portside was intended to spark the revitalization of downtown Toledo.
Sept. 23
1858: A balloonist from Adrian is accidentally taken aloft in giant balloon in Riga Township, Mich., never to be heard from again.
1919: Toledo motorcycle patrolman George Zapf dies after his motorcycle is hit by a streetcar at Madison and Superior Streets.
1921: Pearl diving is a new pastime on the Maumee River after it was revealed that Adam Rose, keeper of the locks at Defiance, found a 41 grain (10 carat) pearl in a freshwater clam in the river. It sold for $200.
1922: There’s more trouble in Toledo’s “tenderloin” district as underworld figure Jimmy Manion is shot to death at Monte Davenport’s resort on Washington Street. It happened at 4:30 in the morning just as the piano player had stopped playing and more drinks were being served. The shooter was a small-time crook from Denver.
1967: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Bono, Ohio is dedicated.
1968: Toledo Zoo officials report that a full Samurai warrior’s armored suit has been stolen from the zoo’s Museum of Science. Zoo officials place the value at over $5,000.
Sept. 24
1911: Three "foreign" workers from Italy are found dead in the quarry at Kelly's Island. The victims are found to have been murdered. A fellow immigrant is later arrested, found guilty, and executed.
1915: The Toledo water treatment plant begins using natural gas as fuel for generators to eliminate the “tarry” taste of the water.
1930: Toledo police take a Toledo News Bee reporter on an “inspection” tour of four illegal gambling joints in Toledo to see how they hide their activities.
1936: Teamster union leader Jimmy Hoffa drives down from Detroit and gets married in Bowling Green because there is no waiting time for weddings in Wood County.
1937: A 12-year-old Toledo boy, Robert Snyder, shoots and wounds the principal at Arlington School in Toledo, June Mapes, and then flees the school grounds and shoots himself. Both of them recover. Police say the young boy had violent delusions of radio gangsters and movie bandits that haunted his mind. The boy says he just wanted his principal to take him out for ice cream.
1967: An advertisement for McDonald’s in Toledo says they can feed a family of five for $2.55.
Sept. 25
1895: Much of downtown Haskins in Wood County is destroyed by flames.
1910: In Curtice, James Ecker’s blacksmith shop burns to the ground in an overnight blaze. Ecker was asleep in the back room and barely made it out alive. All the tools and the building were lost and there is no insurance.
1921: Waite High School is dealing with severe overcrowding as the student population reaches 1,875, which is 600 more than what it was designed for. Many classes are being held in the auditorium.
1926: The city of Toledo starts construction on a new system of electric traffic signals. The first one scheduled for completion is at Bancroft and Upton.
1934: City health officials report the 10th death in Toledo from “sleeping sickness,” which has been a problem for about 60 days. It is very contagious and city health officials are hoping it ends by October.
1936: Toledo's "gas bomb terrorists" strike again, tossing a gas grenade into an ice cream social being held at the South Side Workers Alliance Hall at Page and Knapp Street, where 75 men, women, and children are left gasping and choking in the fumes of the gas. It is the fifth such attack and comes after the city promises to track them down and arrest them.
Sept. 26
1904: German is said to be the most popular foreign language being studied by students at Toledo High School. The interest in German far exceeds French or other tongues as more than 500 students are enrolled in its study. A new German conversational club is being formed.
1918: George Smith, the editor of a Leipsic, Ohio newspaper in Wood County, faces federal charges for printing stories deemed to be hurting America's war effort in World War I. Smith also claims he has been beaten up by area men questioning his loyalty to the nation.
1927: The Toledo Mud Hens, managed by Casey Stengel, finish 101-67 and win the pennant by defeating Indianapolis in two games. They would go on to win the "Junior World Series" the next month against Buffalo.
1942: The oil tanker “Transoil” and two other boats, including a tugboat, catch fire in Toledo on the Maumee River. The massive crude oil blaze injures 12 men who were trapped on the Hocking Valley docks. Two of the crew members later died from their injuries.
1954: Genoa residents are in a hot debate on whether to sell their village owned “light plant” to Toledo Edison or continue owning and operating their own. A special rally is held by dozens of Genoa citizens at Rice’s Pool Hall on Main Street to promote the saving of the light plant.
1984: President Ronald Reagan speaks to a campaign rally crowd at the Wood County Courthouse.
Sept. 27
1904: Toledo police catch two boys trying to use grasshoppers to steal mail by dropping them into a mailbox with a string and letting the insects grab pieces of mail with their legs. The boys would then pull the grasshoppers out of the slot with the mail attached.
1918: A gun battle in West Toledo between two Michigan Central Railroad detectives and a gang of bootleggers leaves one bootlegger dead and a railroad detective severely wounded.
1925: The Toledo News Bee reports that some women in Toledo are now wearing notes on their garters as a warning to men, that "if they read the note, they are too close."
1926: The Toledo News Bee sends cabs to Miami Children’s Home to take children to Valentine Theater for a party and a Mary Pickford movie.
1936: The very special Rexall Drug exhibition train is making stops in Port Clinton and Toledo. It is traveling across the nation, holding conventions aboard the train and giving the public a chance to explore four special exhibit cars.
1937: The first home game for the University of Toledo’s football team is played at WPA-built "Rocket" Stadium which would be renamed the "Glass Bowl" in 1946.
1943: The Fiske Brothers Oil Refinery at 1500 Oakdale in East Toledo catches fires and sends thick black smoke skyward and visible for miles. The refinery manufactures engine grease.
1944: News is revealed that a group of Toledo hunters found an alligator along the banks of the Maumee River near the town of Florida. They shoot and kill the four and half foot long reptile and tack it to a tree. Many motorists are stopping to get a better look at it. No one seems to know how an alligator of that size would end up in the Maumee River.
1948: Polio is claiming more lives in Toledo area as scores of children are stricken and special isolation wards are set up at area hospitals.
1949: The new Perma Glass factory building in Genoa at Fourth and Washington is nearing completion. It is expected to employ as many as 35 people when completed.
