This Week In Toledo History

June 4
1888 - The Portage River near Oak Harbor catches fire from the upstream oil contamination in the Wood County oil fields.
1909 - As a result of a summer rabies outbreak, Toledo enacts a “war on dogs,” assigning shooters to kill all dogs running loose in the city.
1904 - More than 6,000 Toledoans show up at rail station to get a glimpse of the Liberty Bell as the famous icon tours across the United States.
1910 - Monroe, Michigan pays tribute to General George Custer as Custer’s widow unveils the new statue of him in downtown Monroe, where he spent much of his youth. President Taft and many notables are in attendance with a crowd of 10,000.
1933 - Upton Weirick, 85, “The Corn Cob Pipe King of the West,” dies in Tiffin, after a colorful life in the Old West.
1976 - Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, former governor of Georgia, comes to Toledo for rally at Woodward High School.

June 5
1859 - Surprise drop in temperature to 24 degrees kills many crops in Northwest Ohio.
1929 - Three firemen injured in spectacular blaze in East Toledo at Kasco Mills along riverfront.
1935 - A strike by Toledo Edison workers shuts down most of the city’s power grid, idling factories and darkening businesses. Public transit is crippled and some radio stations knocked off the air.
1948 - Maumee River is crowded with hundreds of anglers of all ages as the annual white bass run starts to pick up.

June 6
1906 - In the wake of novelist Upton Sinclair’s scandalous revelations in “The Jungle” about Chicago meat packing houses, Toledo Mayor Brand Whitlock orders immediate inspections of all Toledo meat facilities.
1908 - Toledoans learn that the new bride of Chicago's mayor, Fred Busse is a Toledo girl. She is 28- year-old Josephine Lee who was born in Toledo but has been living in Chicago for several years.
1921 - Trial gets underway in Toledo Federal Court for the Joe Urbaytis gang, accused in the Toledo Post Office robbery in February of 1921. Hundreds of curious Toledoans jam the courthouse for the start of the trial.
1937 - News Bee reports that over 100,000 people jammed the Toledo Municipal Airport in Lake Township for a major air show featuring a “bat wing” skydiver and other aerobatic stunt pilots and planes.
1962 - Fremont Judge John Bronson makes national news for paddling young boys in his courtroom.

June 7
1913 - An “ice famine” is feared as the city ice handlers go on strike because employers refuse to sign a bargaining agreement. Citizens forced to pick up their own blocks of ice from ice companies.
1926 - Neighbors in the 100 block of Dartmouth Drive in Toledo awaken to gunshots to find a cross burning in someone's yard. They put out the fire and go back to bed.
1947 - Two workers near Millbury report that small fish fell from the sky during a sudden downpour along Woodville Road. The bed of their pick-up truck was filled with them.
1983 - Last Toledo City Council meeting held in the Safety Building before city offices are moved to the new city-state and county government building across Erie Street.

June 8
1876 - The village of Pemberville is officially formed.
1903 - The Toledo Bee and the Toledo News merge to become the Toledo News Bee with a combined circulation of 44,000.
1915 - A downtown Toledo drug store at Erie Street is raided by police and the owner arrested after reports that the druggist had been making and selling illegal heroin tablets from his pharmacy.
1929 - It’s reported by News Bee that future plans to build a new super- highway on the route of the old Erie Canal (Anthony Wayne Trail) will mean future development in upriver areas of South Toledo.
1933 - Heat wave continues in Northwest Ohio. Mercury reaches 100 degrees in Bowling Green.
1953 - Deadly tornadoes hit the Toledo area killing 13 people and injuring hundreds. Four people are killed in a twister near Temperance, Michigan, while eight people are killed in rural Wood and Henry counties.

June 9
1904 - A crackdown begins on houses of ill-repute in Toledo’s “tenderloin” district after two 14-year-old girls are found working in the house of Lottie Barker on Lafayette Street.
1921 - Two veteran Toledo policemen officers, Harold Mossburger and Harry Dowell, are killed in a shootout with a barricaded gunman at 611 Walnut St. Police squads later arrive and kill the suspect.
1933 - In the mountains near Los Angeles, 20-year-old Toledo-born movie actress Vera Williams, (screen name-Claudette Ford), is killed in a plane crash along with actor Harry Sweet. They were said to be scouting movie locations.

June 10
1930 - Toledo’s decrepit Union Station is leveled by flames to the cheers of thousands. Toledo officials officially begin a campaign to force New York Central to build a new station in Toledo.
1936 - Two Toledo police officers, Tom Prosser and Ray Turner, take it upon themselves to bring food to a starving family on Airline Avenue. The $20 monthly pension check had not arrived for the bedridden woman and her blind stepson. The officers took up a collection and got merchants to help provide for the family until their check arrives.
1961 - A very dark day in Toledo history as a gasoline tanker truck on the Anthony Wayne Trail at Collingwood Avenue explodes and burns. The fire and blast kills four Toledo firemen and injures over 60 others.
1978 - Railroad flare factory in Fostoria explodes into flames. Twenty-four people are injured. Fires spread through city area.