This Week In Toledo History 11/1/2021

By: 
Lou Hebert

Oct. 31 to Nov. 6

Oct. 31
1900 - Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan speaks to crowd of ten thousand at Armory Park ball field in Toledo. His speech and that of Mayor Samuel Jones, however were interrupted by noisy demonstrations of high school students opposed to Bryan.
1911 - Toledoans are startled by the loud and continual sound of thousands of wild geese flocking over the city in the middle of the night. Bird experts theorize the geese might have become disoriented by heavy fog and the lights of the city.
1928 - The new Woodward High School in North Toledo is dedicated.
1952 - A riot breaks out at the Ohio State Penitentiary when inmates begin protesting the quality of the food. The “Halloween Riot” was put down three days later by armed troops who killed one inmate and wounded several others.
1954 -Toledo Express airport dedication draws more than 35,000 people to the newly built facility that was constructed with local money and without any Federal funding.
1977 - Toledo Public schools close because of a lack of funds.

Nov.1
1869 - Much of the Henry County town of Napoleon, including the schoolhouse, is destroyed by fire.
1903 - Ten-thousand people jam Calvary Cemetery in Toledo for All Saints Day services.
1917 - The 400-ton coal steamer “Miami” sinks in the Maumee River after colliding with a pier of the Ash-Consaul Street Bridge.
1926 - Toledo City Council OKs purchase of 10 new police cars as the search for the "Toledo Slugger" intensifies after murder of school teacher Lily Croy.
1928 - The Toledo streetcars to Point Place are replaced by buses.
1935 - Powerful East Coast earthquake shakes buildings in Toledo. Many residents in area of River Road report windows rattling and pictures shaken from walls.
1948 - Two ships collide in heavy fog on Lake Erie near Toledo. One killed.

Nov. 2
1906 -At Miller Brothers Grocery at Summit and Walnut, oranges are 30 cents a dozen, dressed chickens are 12 cents a pound.
1926 - Three men hold up State Savings Bank in Maumee and escape with $6,000 in cash.
1935 - Lakeshore Interurban crash with a car, four miles east of Toledo along Woodville Road injures 43 people, six of them seriously.
1937 - Marijuana farm is raided in Adrian, Michigan. Thirty bushels of marijuana seized by police and two men arrested.
1941 - Christian Temple Church in Toledo burns a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf on the altar as congregation sings old hymns and the National Anthem.
1942 - Fremont's “Million Miler” pilot Jack Zimmerman killed in Army Air Corps plane crash in St. Lawrence River at Quebec Canada. Zimmerman's remains and those of other crew members were not recovered until 2010.
1952 - Fire Chief Karl Scheidler dies after suffering a heart attack during a marsh fire in North Toledo.
1968 - Toledo's theater district is dying. The Rivoli and the Palace theaters on Saint Clair Street in downtown Toledo turn off the projectors for the last time as they go out of business.

Nov. 3
1904 - Toledo city officials begin talks about building a new bridge over Maumee River at Jefferson Avenue.
1909 - Toledo Police Court hears “startling” testimony that a local cocaine ring being run by the “Jefferson Street Gang” has been targeting teenage boys as well as adults, and that some of those young people have become “slaves” to the habit.
1917 - Phone company in Toledo announces that telephone operators will no longer give out election results to callers.
1923- Federal agents seize a large brewery at Fassett and Oak streets. It was licensed to make near-beer, but the brewery sold the beer before the alcohol was steamed off.
1925 - Large searchlight on Toledo Trust building in downtown Toledo is set up to signal the results of the election by flashing various patterns of lights for results of votes. The key to those signals is published in the Toledo News Bee.
1930 - Toledo Police patrolman Sam Vole wounded by buckshot during a running gun battle with safe crackers inside Brown Pharmacy on Bancroft Street.
1957 - Oregon officially becomes a city.

Nov. 4
1887 - One man is killed and 10 others are thrown into Maumee River in bridge collapse at Grand Rapids.
1913 - Furniture dealer Chris Finkbeiner elected Mayor of Perrysburg.
1944 - The U.S. War Department seizes control of seven factories in Toledo after strikes at those plants stop flow of ammo and guns.
1958 - Michael V. Disalle of Toledo is elected Governor of Ohio.
1960 - U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy visits Toledo for campaign rally. Twenty-five-thousand people gather at Lucas County Courthouse to hear Kennedy speak.
1971 - The popular Smith’s Cafeteria, operated by Grace Smith, on Erie Street closes down after decades in business.
1978 - The Esquire Theater, the last remaining movie house in downtown Toledo, closes its doors. In its final years it was only showing only adult movies.

Nov. 5
1830 - Wood County executes convicted killer George Porter by hanging. He is first man to be executed in the county after being convicted of shooting to death Isaac Richardson for non-payment of his labor.
1920 - First edition of the Sun in East Toledo is published.
1921 - Monroe Street Pawn Shop robbed of $20,000 cash in daring daylight robbery.
1946 - Convicted postal robber and notorious gangster Joe Urbaytis is gunned down and killed at his Bon-Aire Supper Club on Woodville Road.
1952 - First of 600 Ohio State prison inmates arrive at Camp Perry's POW camp to be housed temporarily after the State Penitentiary in Columbus was gutted by a major riot and fire.
1956 - World-renowned jazz pianist and Toledo native Art Tatum dies at age of 46 in Los Angeles. Tatum was considered one the greatest jazz pianists of all time.
1960 - Edward Hagedorn elected as first mayor of Oregon.

Nov. 6
1908 - Toledo school board proposes that Toledo schools begin serving hot breakfasts to growing number of students who come to school hungry.
1923 - Toledo is in grip of fear from a “mad bomber” who has detonated six bombs in the city since September. In the latest bombing at Grand and Forrest, a mailbox was destroyed and windows were shattered.
1927 - The Beach House shelter for women reports its busiest month ever in October, providing emergency shelter to 90 women. The Beach House in North Toledo was started in 1921 for women in urgent need of housing.
1941 - A stone marker is dedicated on Miami Street to note the presence of an ancient Indian fort. Early pioneers had found the remnants of the long abandoned earthworks at a location near the present day grain elevators. It remains there to this day.
1945 - J.B. Simmons becomes first African-American elected to Toledo City Council.
2003 - The wind turbines at Bowling Green begin providing electricity, becoming the first large scale wind project of its kind in Northwest Ohio.

Category:

The Press

The Press
1550 Woodville Road
Millbury, OH 43447

(419) 836-2221

Email Us

Facebook Twitter

Ohio News Media Association