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Art Tatum was born in Toledo on October 13, 1909, the son of Arthur Tatum, Sr. and Mildred Hoskins Tatum. Despite being blind in one eye and only partially sighted in the other, he became one of the greatest jazz pianists of his era. To deal with his sight disability, he attended the Ohio State School for the Blind in Columbus from 1918-1920. He came from a musical family and had some formal training at the Toledo School of Music, but was largely self-taught. Influenced by famed Fats Waller, Tatum began playing his music on a local radio station at age 18 and then lived in Chicago, New York City, Cleveland, and Los Angeles, playing and recording extensively both as a soloist and in small groups. His ability to improvise set him apart as a musical genius. Tatum died in November 1956 and was named to the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1983.
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The Village of Poland officially incorporated in August 1866, a year after the end of the Civil War. In April 1867, the citizens elected John Leslie as mayor. As of 1880, Poland’s population exceeded 400. Through its history, the village has consisted of a four-acre village green, churches, schools, hotels, a sawmill, gristmill, post office, tannery, and foundry, as well as carriage, tin, and cabinet shops; drug, dry goods, and hardware stores, and doctors, blacksmiths, and shoemakers. Residents swam in and skated on Yellow Creek. The Poland Municipal Forest was established in 1938 and annexed later as the Village continued to grow. In 1966, the residents held a three day Centennial Celebration, featuring an address by Governor James Rhodes. The centennial year also saw the publication of a history of Poland and the restoration of Centennial Gardens.
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The Hindu Temple of Toledo was established in 1981 for the growing Hindu and Jain communities in northwest Ohio. Religious functions were initially held in a house located on a 15-acre property purchased in 1983. The Temple, designed in a Hindu-American style, was dedicated in August 1989. In 2000, the Temple underwent an expansion of 6000 square feet to the Heritage Hall area. Deities, Ganesh, Krishna, Radha, Vishnu, Laxmi, Rama, Sita, and Mahavir, are housed in the Temple. The holy structure is a living legacy of peaceful co-existence among religions and cultures.
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In 1887, John Eisenmann designed this stick-style building for the Peninsula Board of Education so that it could consolidate two one-room school houses. The Peninsula and the Boston Township Boards of Education merged in 1919. The brick addition, designed by architects Harpster and Bliss, was built in 1920. The trustees of Boston Township purchased this property in 1939 from the Board of Education. Union Grange #2380 occupied the first floor for nearly 50 years. The non-profit Boston Township Hall Committee, Inc. was formed in 1990 to work with the township trustees to restore the building.
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In 1934 at the age 17, Dino Crocetti (1917-1995) who became known as the world-famous crooner, actor, and television star Dean Martin, took the stage for the first time at the Craig Beach Dance Hall. As the George Williams Orchestra played, Crocetti sang “Oh Marie.” Acquiring his first stage name, “Dino Martini,” Martin got his first big break into show business later in the 1930s, singing with the Ernie McKay Orchestra, from Columbus, Ohio.
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Established as the Oxford Township Cemetery in 1880, this public graveyard replaced the original one at the corner of College Avenue and Spring Street. That earlier burial ground was abandoned when the railroad bisected it in the 1850s. New cemeteries were established including the privately incorporated Oxford Cemetery, the Catholic Mt. Olivet Cemetery, and this one, renamed Woodside Cemetery in 1931. Bodies transferred here from the original graveyard included those of early 19th-century settlers, who were reinterred in the “Pioneer Quad” at the south end. The cemetery includes veterans of the nation’s wars, including one from the 54th Massachusetts regiment of Civil War fame, and generations of African Americans, who comprised 20% of Oxford’s population in the late 19th century. Maintained by the township and then jointly by the township and city, Woodside became solely the city’s responsibility in 2002.
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When radio station WJW disc jockey Alan Freed (1921-1965) used the term “rock and roll” to describe the uptempo black rhythm and blues records he played beginning in 1951, he named a new genre of popular music that appealed to audiences on both sides of 1950s American racial boundaries–and dominated American culture for the rest of the 20th century. The popularity of Freed’s nightly “Moon Dog House Rock and Roll Party” radio show encouraged him to organize the Moondog Coronation Ball–the first rock concert. Held at the Cleveland Arena on March 21, 1952, the oversold show was beset by a riot during the first set. Freed, a charter inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, moved to WINS in New York City in 1954 and continued to promote rock music through radio, television, movies, and live performances.
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Moses Fleetwood Walker was born on October 7, 1856 in Ohio to Moses M. Walker, a physician, and Caroline, a midwife. He attended and played baseball at Oberlin College and the University of Michigan. In 1883, Walker joined the newly formed Toledo Blue Stockings and became the first African American major league ballplayer when Toledo joined the Major League-sanctioned American Association the following year. As a barehanded catcher, his biggest assets were his catching ability, powerful throwing arm, and aggressive base running. He endured racial prejudice from teammates, opponents, and baseball fans, and eventually left to become a writer, inventor, civil rights advocate, and entrepreneur. Walker was elected to the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. He died in 1924 and is buried in Stuebenville, Ohio in the family plot at Union Cemetery.