Looking Back
100 YEARS AGO, OCTOBER 26, 1921
This is the season of the year when juvenile devilment runs rampant. What license there is for one season to be open time for depredation against property anymore than another is not known, but boys from time ages ago have taken free license during the declining days of
October to play a prank or avenge a juvenile injury. Many times the so-called pranks are well thought out and held
in abeyance until the Hallowe-en season when a nursed grievance could be avenged under the guise of “just a
boyish prank.” Mayor Newcomer and Chief of Police Ague authorize the warning that pranks must be taboo this year. Depredations and destruction of property will
not be tolerated. Property must not be defaced and dangerous practices must be discontinued or arrests and punishment will ensue. Already the pranks have started.
Soap, the bane of the window washer’s life, is already being used on plate glass windows in the uptown sections. Cabbage stalks and shelled corn, and the tick-tack have
found heavers and handlers in he residential districts. The boy who rings a doorbell and the vanishes, is also abroad and a few small buildings have been pried loose.
Someone is going to wake up some morning in the calaboose and some juvenile’s parent is going to have to pay a fine. The officials named above ask the co-operation of the parents of Wapakoneta children in putting an end to the malicious practices. It will be well to heed the please and instruct the youngsters of the house hold as to their
conduct before it is too late. Let’s have a sane Hallowe-en as well as sane Fourth of July.
Though beaten in their first attempt on the gridiron the defeat Saturday afternoon of the Blume High School
at the hands of St. Marys Hi was no disgrace to them, for the boys put up a wonderful game despite grand odds. The final score was 19 to 0.
The golden wedding anniversary of Judge and Mrs. Fernando Coello Layton of this city was quietly celebrated with a six o’clock dinner at the home of their son, General Roy Layton, 207 West Pearl Street. Because Mrs. F.C. Layton has not been in very good health for some time, plans for a more public affair were dispensed with. On October 24, 1871, F.C. Layton, then a struggling young lawyer, was
married to Miss Amalia Wehrmann, oldest daughter of William Wehrmann sheriff of Auglaize county. Judge and
Mrs. Layton immediately set up housekeeping in a neat little home on the same lot on which they now live, 307
South Blackhoof street, and on which they have lived ever since for 50 years, except for a few months when their new om was being built. To them were born on this same lot, two sons, Roy and Vernie Layton, the eldest of whom now lives in a new home in the same square in which he was
born. The youngest son suddenly of pneumonia in 1910, leaving one daughter the only grandchild. Judge and Mrs. Layton have lived continuously in Wapakoneta, except for
six years that they had a temporary residence in Washington when Ferd, as he was familiarly known throughout this part of Ohio, represented, represented the 4th district
in the National Congress. They are too well known to require at this time any extended biographical account.
75 YEARS AGO, OCTOBER 26, 1946
Attendance at the 1946 Fall Festival will be 17,000 persons, said Bill Miller, chairman of the publicity committee. The new pavement downtown will be converted into one gigantic playground, with traffic cut off for four hours while the mardi gras progresses. Mr. Miller’s 17,0000 is based upon information that 16,000 was the largest celebration heretofore recorded. The event will also include the Corn, Pumpkin, and Squash show. In the children’s pet parade prizes will be awarded for: largest pet,
smallest pet, oddest pet, best dressed pet, most intelligent pet, largest group of pets, oldest pet, and youngest pet. The Blume High band and Eagles drum and bugle corps will lead the parade. Prizes will be awarded for the best
costume, best dressed man, best dressed woman. Best patriotic, best comic couple, most comic individual, best woman dressed as man, best man dressed as woman, best character costume, best negro mammy, nest negro male,
best hobo, best rube, largest woman, and largest man.
50 YEARS AGO, OCTOBER 26, 1971
Jeannette Severt, daughter of MM Roman Severt, Route 1, St. Marys, was crowned Auglaize County Dairy Princess during the annual meeting and awards
banquet of the Auglaize County Dairy Herd Improvement Association. Jane Grover, daughter of MM Edward Grover, Route 6, Wapakoneta, was named Brown Swiss Princess. Lester Kruse, Washington Township, Marvin Elsass, Pusheta Township, Charles Hardesty, Union Township, were among those elected directors of the Auglaize County Dairy Service Association. More than 130 dairymen and their families attended last night’s banquet and meeting at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church.
Bring Your Favorite Witch to Great Pumpkin Masquerade Ball. VFW, October 30, 9 pm $50 in prizes. Free lunch at the witchin’ hour. All members free; guests $1.00
each. Music by the Notations
25 YEARS AGO, OCTOBER 26, 1996
The Wapakoneta YMCA now has a home. Approval has been granted by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati for the
St. Joseph Parochial School in Wapakoneta to donate land for the construction of a full-service YMCA facility. The 12-acre tract is located immediately north of the school.
St. Joseph Pastor Father William O’donnell said that the church is seeking to improve the quality of life in the local community, promote family life, provide for children, and young people, and serve the poor and forgotten among us.