This Week In Toledo History

Jan. 29
1878 - Future car racing great Barney Oldfield is born in Wauseon in Fulton County. He later moves to Toledo where he grew to adulthood and became one of the first champion racers of bicycles and cars in the nation.
1879 - Large chunks of ice on the Maumee River take out the main bridge in Napoleon.
1891 - Cedar Point announces a contest for women to guess the number of baby carriages at the “pleasure park” last season. The winner gets a season pass for the new year.
1905 - Classified ad in News Bee offers 70-acre farm, barn and house near Curtice for $4,000.
1924 - Toledo Police Detective William Julert dies while disarming suspect when weapon falls to floor and discharges.
1924 - McKinley School is dedicated.
1970 - Explosions rip through chemical factory in Swanton, spreading to nearby lumberyard.

Jan. 30
1891 - Fire in Cygnet in Wood County destroys several buildings and kills three people.
1902 - Toledo fireman Ralph Westfall killed in blaze at Henry Rosen’s Junk Warehouse.
1914 - The new University of Toledo building opens at 11th and Illinois streets in downtown Toledo.
1926 - First stop signs are being put up in Bloomdale Ohio in Wood County because cars are becoming too numerous.
1928 - The News Bee's “Dial Twister” writer says radio reception should be good for the coming days and radio stations in New York City, Lincoln Nebraska and even Havana Cuba and Los Angeles, have been heard in the area in recent days.
1930 - Ground broken for Lucas County Hospital at Detroit and Arlington.
1935 - A 21-year-old Clarence Brown is arrested on Forsythe Street in East Toledo for masterminding a massive Midwest counterfeit money ring. Brown said he was raising money for medical school.
1945 - Tragic fire at 915 Indiana Ave when a heater exploded in a home and killed five children.

Jan. 31
1914 - The Colonial Theater in Toledo offers triple features for a dime. Today's feature include “God's Warning” and “What Came to Bar-Q”, a western comedy.
1922 - Prohibition triggers wave of alcohol poisoning from people trying to imbibe raw alcohol and spirits. Health department reports 300 poisonings and 20 deaths in previous year.
1929 - The year's most talked-about society event in Toledo takes place as Virginia Secor weds Duane Stranahan at the Unitarian Church on Collingwood.
1932 - Toledo Fire Department ladder truck and a city bus collide on Collingwood Avenue. Two Toledo firemen are killed. Captain Andrew Flynn and Bernard Orzechowsk of Number 16 Hook and Ladder Co.
1935 - Six new trolley cars replace old electric street cars of the Community Traction Company.
1945 - A baby boy, not more than 2 days old, is left abandoned in a cardboard box on front steps of a home on Ontario Street. Police are searching for his parents.

Feb. 1
1899 - Former Genoa and Toledo druggist Alvin Harpster plays key witness role in celebrated drug poisoning murder case in New York City.
1906 - Forest Mitchell, accused and convicted of stealing 15 cents from a barber shop on Summit Street, is given 30 days in jail by the police court.
1907 - Controversy is raised over news that President Roosevelt has suggested that a “colored man” be appointed to a key federal post for Toledo.
1921 - Community Traction begins service with street car operations.
1936 - Toledo first-grader Barbara Lewis Lamont celebrates her sixth birthday, with a bullet in her brain. Shot accidentally 18 months prior, doctors fear surgery might do more harm than good. Girl said to be doing well in school studies.
1953 - Toledo’s Water Commissioner reports that city water use plummets during popular TV shows, then spikes when programs end. “I Love Lucy” ranked number one in this water ratings system.

Feb. 2
1813 - The construction of Fort Meigs begins on the banks of the Maumee River by General Harrison as he prepares for battle with the British in the War of 1812.
1919 - Clark Street Methodist Church catches fire and sustains heavy damage.
1921 - It's reported that a Toledo woman Julianne Charlotte Desmond is now a hermit living in a deserted miner's cabin on Colorado's Pikes Peak. Her companions are a wolfhound and a cat and she sees no visitors. Her cabin is visible by the American flag flying over it.
1929 - The “new” Sandusky Bay Bridge is opened. Homing pigeons are used to send the news back to Toledo’s Mayor William Jackson (It is noted days later by the Toledo News Bee that only one of the birds ever made it back to Toledo.)
1951 - Sigma Chi house in Bowling Green damaged heavily by fire.
1968 - Toledo clergyman Rev. Robert Ziemer killed along with four other missionaries in Vietnam. Ziemer's wife is wounded in the attack.
1981 - Eighty fishermen trapped on ice floes on Lake Erie are rescued by Coast Guardsmen.

Feb. 3
1900 - W.G. Brown, a wagon driver for Tiedtke’s store is severely injured in runaway wagon accident on Saint Clair Street.
1924 - Boxing fans in Toledo area are getting tickets for the big fight planned for the Coliseum between the popular “Jock Malone” and “Young Fisher.” Tickets are $2.
1940 - Toledo industrialist Ben Hazleton jumps to his death from ninth floor of Commodore Perry Hotel.
1940 - Post Office closes operations in the small village of Bairdstown in Wood County.
1950 - Ernest Tiedtke, one of the founding brothers of the famous Toledo department store, dies at the age of 77 in Florida where he was spending the winter.
1975 - Earthquake of magnitude 3.5 felt in Sandusky County.

Feb. 4
1862 - Work is underway on construction of POW camp for confederate soldiers at Johnson’s Island in Sandusky Bay.
1898 - Toledo Mayor Samuel Jones orders crackdown on Sunday laws, decreeing all saloons and stores close, plus a ban on Sunday newspaper delivery, and the arrest of religious concert-goers at Valentine Theater.
1901 - The popular Masonic Temple in downtown Toledo burns in dramatic and stubborn blaze.
1929 - William and Henry Bruns of Woodville are recognized as nation’s oldest twins at 95 years of age.
1931 - A special grand jury in Lucas County is formed to begin investigating corruption among public officials. The jury is told there is no difference between someone robbing your home and someone robbing public funds.
1946 - A near tragedy north of Toledo when 282 students narrowly escape a blaze that roared through a Temperance, Michigan school building.
1951- A DuMont 17-inch television set is being sold for $495 at LaSalle’s.