Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Sept. 13
1902: Sheep farmers in Ottawa County say their flocks are being raided too often by packs of wild dogs. Reports indicate as many as five sheep have been killed by the dogs, and the farmers say the dogs need to be shot.
1908: While on their way home from church, the Crandall family's horse drawn buggy is hit by a train on the Hocking Valley Tracks near Walbridge. Mrs. Crandall, of Lake Township, dies from her injuries, but her husband and daughter survive.
1911: A cavalry unit and a large posse are ordered into a rural area of Elmore to search for man who was reported to have taken liberties with a six-year-old girl.
1943: Award-winning children’s writer Mildred Taylor is born in Jackson, Miss. Her family later moves to Toledo, where she would graduate from Scott High School and the University of Toledo. Her second children's novel, "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry," won the 1977 Newberry Award. Her books are based on stories of her own family in the south and in Toledo.
1953: Fostoria welcomes Governor Frank Lausche as he cuts the ribbon to mark the opening of a new railroad underpass system in the city.
1961: Former President Harry Truman visits Toledo and gives a speech at the National Exchange Club Convention inside the Sports Arena.
Sept. 14
1902: The Toledo Auto Club is formed, someday to become AAA of Toledo.
1903: A statue of late President William McKinley is unveiled at the Lucas County Court House. Thousands of people show up for the celebration.
1906: Nine Italian railroad construction workers plunge to their deaths in the Maumee River when their hand car runs off the rail drawbridge at Ironville in East Toledo.
1929: General Anthony Wayne’s Fallen Timbers monument and historical site is dedicated.
1937: A major fire destroys the Farmers Elevator at Elmore. The blaze started early in the morning and gutted much of the building and contents. A portion of the town was at risk for a time and three homes across the street were damaged by the heat. The Elmore fire department called in fire crews from Woodville to help douse the flames. The cause is unknown.
1942: Crooner Bing Crosby performs at the Commodore Perry Hotel and for soldiers at Camp Perry near Port Clinton.
1962: Toledo native Foy Kohler and his wife Phyllis leave for Moscow as he becomes the new ambassador to the Soviet Union. Within weeks he would become the U.S. “point man” in Moscow as the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded.
1974: Toledo Police Chief Corrin McGrath fires two warning shots at a man he found rifling through the back of his car. He is formally reprimanded for violating policy against the firing of warning shots.
Sept. 15
1886: A doctor and medical student are arrested in Toledo for robbing the grave of 17-year-old Belle Bowen near Attica. They put it aboard a train to Toledo for use as a cadaver at the Medical College. The body was found in a trunk at the Wheeling Lake Erie Rail Depot.
1914: Bowling Green State Normal College (later to become BGSU) opens.
1920: Baseball legend Babe Ruth plays in an exhibition game at Swayne Field in Toledo.
1934: The newly constructed Reptile House is dedicated at the Toledo Zoo. It was built by relief labor using salvaged materials from the canal locks, the Wabash Railroad, the old Jefferson School and from the old sidewalks along Cherry Street.
1938: The City of Toledo cuts off all relief money to about 8,000 people.
1943: All Toledo Public Schools shut down when three non-teaching unions go on strike against the school district.
1953: The township of Oregon forms its first fire department.
1967: The Toledo Mud Hens win the Governors’ Cup Championship of the International League for the first time.
Sept. 16
1896: Abolitionist and Toledo Congressman during the Civil War, James Ashley, dies of a heart attack at age 74. Ashley was also a governor of the Montana Territory and was the builder of the Ann Arbor Railroad.
1904: Bowling Green resident Mrs. Feltman was injured severely by an exploding fruit jar. It was reported the jar exploded without warning, sending pieces of glass into her flesh and opening a vein on her arm.
1933: A search begins for a missing mail plane along shore of Lake Erie near Toledo. The wreckage is found five days later 100 miles off course near Jackson, Mich. Pilot Harold Neff is alert and talking when rescued but dies two days later.
1959: The first edition of the Oregon News is distributed on the streets.
Sept. 17
1923: The trial in Ottawa County for the men accused of robbing the Genoa Bank in November 1922 opens with jury selection. It was a robbery in which local druggist Winfield Rhodert was shot to death. Clifford Truax, Robert Farmer, Henry Hip and Don Reeves are charged in the case. Rhodert was shot to death by one of the bandits as he crossed Main Street to check on his mother who lived there across from the bank. The robbers made a getaway and were only caught and indicted recently. The trial is expected to last about a week.
1930: Perrysburg’s Prudence Lamb confronts city workers with a rifle as they try to tear down her new white picket fence on Front Street. Police return the next day with a posse and a machine gun and proceed to remove what they say is an illegal fence.
1937: The newly built Naval Armory at Bay View Park opens with a grand ceremony and dinner as thousands attend the gala event.
1938: Fourteen strikers are shot by guards on the picket line at the Federal Creosote Plant in Toledo. Two of the strikers were seriously wounded.
1973: Notorious Toledo gangster Thomas “Yonnie” Licavoli dies at his home in Columbus a few years following his controversial pardon by Governor Jim Rhodes.
Sept. 18
1863: A young farmer from Genoa area is shot and killed in Toledo while trying to break into a house. August Kniles, who owned a “fine farm,” was in Toledo to join a military encampment for the Civil War, but for some reason, he tried to enter a home in North Toledo, and as he made his way through a window, the homeowner, Mr. Backus, grabbed a pistol and shot Kniles through the heart. Kniles staggered away and exclaimed “Oh my” then collapsed dead in the yard. The jury later ruled the killing justifiable.
1902: Toledo pioneer and well-known community figure, Elijah Woodruff, celebrates his 100th birthday with a big party held at Navarre Park in East Toledo.
1937: The Commodore Perry Statue is erected and dedicated in downtown Perrysburg.
1970: Toledo policeman William Miscannon is shot to death while in his patrol wagon on Dorr Street. The man accused of the killing was put on trial twice and both times the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
1981: Toledo real estate developer Peter Sawicki is shot to death near his home as he attempts to rescue his daughter during an attack by the notorious Cook brothers.
Sept. 19
1879: It's reported that William Winters, also known as “Buffalo Bill,” is arrested for stealing a horse just north of Genoa. The horse belonged to Commissioner Rathbun and the Sheriff went to Genoa and found Winters and brought him to the courthouse to face charges.
1884: Earthquake tremors are felt in Toledo and throughout Northern Ohio. The shaking was so bad that the Williams County Courthouse in Bryan suffered severe damage and had to be rebuilt.
1914: The town of Curtice gets electric lights. The report in the Exponent says the hardware store was “radiant inside and out.” The depot also has a light on the outside, which is very appreciated by the townspeople of Curtice.
1929: Roger Conant, curator of reptiles at Toledo Zoo, is bitten by a rattlesnake at the zoo. The bite is very serious, and Conant develops lock jaw and loses a thumb.
