OCTOBER, YEARS AGO – The tenth month was a busy one for important events in this city years ago…It was on the first of October 1879 that “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” showed at Union Hall, Second and Lawrence Streets, for the first time…
Following that, the famous drama appeared on the stage here no less than twice a season for the next fifty years…Few senior citizens of the city can truthfully say that they never read about nor saw Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Simon Lagree, Eliza, and Little Eva.
October 5, 1871, Col. George Schachleiter invited patrons to the first free lunch served by an Ironton tavern…The editor of the witty Morning Irontonian wrote “He can’t make money that way” but free lunch on Saturday night was a treat many years before national prohibition in 1920…On the 5th of 1932, Keyes Motors started.
October 8, 1871, this city in five hours raised $3,000 in cash relief for victims when news of the great Chicago fire started by Mrs. Murphy’s cow reached town.
October 3, 1873, the first all-stone church edifice the Congregational at Sixth and Vernon was dedicated…October 4, 1881, the Philharmonic Society the first musical club was organized at Whittenberg Hall with Charles Lintner president…Who remembers Wittenburg Hall on Third between Railroad and Lawrence Streets?
October 2, 1894, the town paid honor to a native son, Charley Zimmer, catcher for the Cleveland National League Baseball Club…That team came to town, and played at the new Pastime Park following a big parade…That park site on Third above Kemp Ave. is now the Schaefer supermarket and parking lot.
October 9, 1918, Dr. E. E. Wells, city health officer closed churches, schools, theatres, and public places when it was announced that 907 cases of flu were reported by county doctors…Thirty-nine years ago today the first Sunday movies in the Tri-State were shown at the Marlow Theatre in this city, thus many important news stories occurred in the first ten days of October of other years.
October 2, 1932, Governor George White came to town to dedicate Lawco Lake…That memory recalls the names of the late Leo Brumberg, Waldo Mittendorf, Cecil Bales, Lee O’Leary, Frank Sanda, Ambrose Dillon, Watt Allen, I. U. Eggert, H. B. (Doc) Riley, and others who took an active interest in the program.
October 8, 1949, the city centennial opened with seven great historical parades attracting 25,000 visitors to the city…On the same date in 1938, the Northwest Territory Sesquicentennial parade won state-wide publicity as the late funeral director W.W. Phillips of Waterloo, walking barefoot in the street at age 60 drove six yokes of oxen pulling a prize-winning float…On the same date in 1943, the Army Show visited the city resulting in the sale of $100,000 in war bonds.
October 6, 1952, Ike and Mamie made a whistle stop at the N&W depot…October 7, 1869, Cole & Johnson on Front Street advertised “First shipment of Baltimore oysters received this week. Bring your own dish or bucket for pints or quarts.”…Oyster lovers what do you know about that…Imagine if you can keep oysters cold coming from Baltimore, part way from Pittsburgh on a river boat with ice cut last winter from the river stored in sawdust.
Written by Charles Collett
Huntington, WV Newspaper – First week in Oct. 1965
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