Quotes From "Toledo Profile; A Sesquicentennial History" by Taba Mosier Porter (1987)

A series of comments in this "story", http://swampbubbles.com/does_northwest_ohio_need_toledo_as_it_now_exists,
on Swamp Bubbles got me thinking about Toledo (and Lucas County) history. I went to the library, looked for references, and got several books, including the one referenced in the above title. So here are some quotes, and my questions, or comments, concerning them.

"To Toledo the discovery of natural gas in Findlay 1n 1884 seemed exactly what the city needed to attract new industry. In 1887 the Toledo Business Men's Committee, later the Citizens Committee of Toledo, placed advertisements in newspapers throughout the country seeking new industries to take advantage of Toledo's location and the 'perfect fuel.' Besides the natural gas, the area, located at the center of a network of railroads and steamship lines, could promise cheaper oil and coal than in the East, and had quantities of sandstone with a higher silica content, which made good glass. Several glass companies responded to the advertisements, but only three came to Toledo: the New England Glass Company, the Glassboro Novelty Glass Company, and the Toledo Window Glass Company."

"The New England Glass Company, founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1818, passed into the hands of William L. Libbey in 1870. At his death in 1883 his son, Edward Drummond Libbey, became the owner of the firm, which made fine cut-glassware. Glass blowers blew the blanks, and skilled artisans etched designs on the bowls and vases, then cut them in with emery wheels. Labor problems and marketing expenses, in addition to the high cost of fuel and raw materials in the East, led Libbey to answer the Toledo Business Men's advertisement in 1887. After considerable negotiation, on February 6, 1888, Libbey signed a contract to bring his glass works to Toledo. Toledoans raised the money to purchase a four-acre site on Buckeye Street for the factory and fifty building lots for Libbey's workmen. On August 17, 1888, the workers arrived on a train from Boston. The Grand Army of the Republic (editor's note: a civilian organization of Union Civil War veterans rather like the VFW) band and a crowd of citizens met them at the station and paraded the four miles through the city to the new factory. At a banquet on the factory grounds that evening, Libbey presented to the Mayor of Toledo the first piece of glass made in the new plant."

"The first three years were difficult, and Libbey had to borrow heavily to meet his expenses. Thirty-five of the glass workers became homesick and went back to Boston. It was not until 1891, when a strike at the Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York, provided an opportunity for Libbey Glass to produce light bulbs that Libbey was able to get out of debt. Prosperity came only after the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Thousands visited the company's glass factory at the fair and brought Libbey's products, creating a new demand for cut-glass, and for Libbey cut-glass in particular. The Libbey Glass Company established the glass industry in Toledo."

I guess what drew me to this story was the efforts put forth by the Toledo Business Men's Committee to secure new industries in Toledo. Maybe we have such committed business men in Toledo today, or maybe this kind of "solicitation" is left up to Carty Finkbeiner, and the Lucas County politicos. Also, the response of the citizenry (even coming up with the proverbial "brass band") to this new business makes me wonder if I have become jaded (I certainly didn't go out to cheer when we got Chrysler to "keep" Jeep here). And another thing to consider is that Toledo's p0pulation grew from 50,137 in 1880 to 81,434 in 1890. How much of that was through the natural increase because of the larger families prevalent then, and how through immigration (either from the East and South, and from overseas)? Maybe old copies of the Toledo Blade will be able to answer these questions.

So this brings the question: How do we emulate this "Toledo Businessmen's Committee" to get what Toledo needs to succeed in the next 40-50 years?