This Week In Toledo History Week Of 9/27/2021

Sept. 26 to Oct. 2

Sept. 26
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 One. Smith also claims he has been victim of physical assault by area men questioning his loyalty to the nation.
1927 - Toledo Mud Hens win the American League pennant defeating Indianapolis in two games, and they go on to win the "Junior World Series" the next month against Buffalo. The team is under the management of Casey Stengel.
1942 - The oil tanker “Transoil” and two other boats including a tugboat, catch fire in Toledo on the Maumee River. It is a massive crude oil blaze that injures twelve men who were trapped on the Hocking Valley docks. Two of the crew members later die from their injuries.
1951 - LaSalle’s Department Store selling 19-inch console televisions for $199.
1984 - President Ronald Reagan speaks to campaign rally crowd at 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, Lenise McCracken, severely wounded.
1926 - Toledo News Bee sends cabs and vans to Miami Childrens' Home to take them to Valentine Theater for a party and a Mary Pickford movie.
1937 - First home game for UT 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 that is visible for miles. The refinery manufactures grease for engines. Damage is estimated at $150,000.
1944 - News is revealed that a group of Toledo hunters find 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 where it came from or how an alligator of that size would end up in the Maumee River.
1948 - Polio is claiming more lives in Toledo area. Scores of children are stricken and special isolation wards are set up at area hospitals.

Sept. 28
1892 - Accident near Elmore on the Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railroad results in death of train engineer.
1911 - The City of Toledo Health Department announces that it will use university students to test various foods from Toledo groceries to develop a “white list” of foods that are safe to consume.
1931 - The Colored Protective Union is formed at 701 Division St. in Toledo. A group organized to protect the rights of “blacks” in the city and to pass legislation that would be “in the interest of the colored race,” says group President Charles Carson. 1933 - A bank robber is shot dead on the streets of Luckey, O. during a shoot-out with village marshal Ben Stone. Stone is wounded in the attack but survives to become a local legend. Stone later becomes pen pals with the mother of the bandit he killed.

Sept. 29
1817 - The Treaty of Maumee Rapids is signed with several major native tribes, opening up most contested lands south of Maumee River to white settlement.
1896 - The Wood County Courthouse construction is completed. Total cost $310,000.
1915 - A fire drill at Scott High School shows that 1,600 pupils can be evacuated from the building within three minutes.
1922 -Toledo City Health Department warns residents living in “shed” homes near Girard and White streets in East Toledo that they will be forced out of those rental properties because they have no sewer or water and are deemed "unsanitary.”
1923 - University of Toledo football team earns its nickname the "Rockets" in a game with Carnegie Institute of Technology when a sports writer says one of the UT players runs like a "rocket” and the name stuck.
1925 -Toledo Police have running gun battle with suspected rum runner who jumps from his car onto a passing freight train at Hageman Rd., then climbs to the roof of a boxcar and begins firing again at officers. Officers lose the fleeing suspect but recover his car loaded with 40 gallons of whiskey.
1956 - The new LaSalle’s sign is being raised at Adams and Huron Street. It is said to be the largest sign in the city, weighing 4,000 pounds.
1974 - A 3.0 magnitude earthquake shakes Wood County residents.

Sept.30
1903 - Amelia Combowski of East Toledo is arrested and taken to jail for picking up pieces of coal from the rail line along Yondota Street.
1930 -Toledo, Fostoria and Findlay Interurban line is abandoned.
1932 - Crowds line up on Jackson Street at News Bee building to watch the World Series with the new “Play-O-Graph” system of mechanical graphics that allows audience to watch the series “virtually" as it is played.
1935 -The Fassett Street Bridge over the Maumee collapses under stress of high wind. It is rebuilt only to be wrecked by a freighter in 1957.
1942 - Lucas County American Legion groups begin training programs at YMCA and various high schools for boys 15 to 16 to prepare for military service in the war effort.
1957 - Toledo area is very dry and fire danger is high, ban on fires put into place in Lucas and Fulton counties.

Oct. 1
1903 - Toledo News Bee reports that a four-month-old baby boy was badly bitten by a baboon that was housed at an animal museum on Summit Street.
1908 -Train collision between Toledo and Bowling Green kills four people on their way home from the Wood County Fair.
1912 - Ground is broken for the construction of Perry’s Monument on South Bass Island.
1929 - Construction begins on long-awaited High Level suspension bridge over the Maumee River. It would later be named the Anthony Wayne Bridge.
1922 - Toledo Maroons NFL team wins 15-0 in their first game against the Evansville-Crimson Giants at Armory Park in Toledo.
1931 - The Toledo Railway and Light Company officially changes its name to Toledo Edison.
1940 - Most Holy Rosary Cathedral on Collingwood Blvd. is dedicated as mother church for Toledo Diocese.
1955 - Entire length of the Ohio Turnpike is opened to traffic.

Oct. 2
1908 - Addie Joss, a Toledo resident, sports writer and pitcher for Cleveland Bluebirds pitches a perfect game. He faced only 27 batters in a shutout victory over Chicago, the only perfect game in professional baseball to that point.
1920 - Coal famine strikes Toledo. A severe shortage of coal affects many residents as homes and businesses suffer from lack of heat. Residents complain to mayor for help.
1932 - Congregation shocked when pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Toledo has jazz orchestra play instead of traditional church music.
1934 - Several Toledo teachers are accused by the school board of teaching “radicalism” and one teacher, Clyde Kiker of DeVilbiss High School, is reassigned to janitorial duties after he is accused of being a radical. He resigns in protest.
1936 - Street lights are turned off in Point Place because of dispute with Toledo Edison.
1940 - GOP presidential candidate Wendell Willkie makes campaign stop in Toledo, speaks to a crowd of 20,000 in front of Lucas County courthouse
1950 - At Toledo Sav-Way Markets, a can of salmon is selling for 25 cents and fresh chicken is 43 cents a pound.