Barbara L. Floyd

In 1872, Jesup W. Scott donated 160 acres of land to serve as an endowment for the Toledo University of Arts and Trades. Unfortunately, the university failed in its early years but was resurrected in 1884 by Scott's three sons, who gave the remaining assets to the City of Toledo to create a manual training school. By 1909, the institution was becoming a full-fledged university but struggled financially and did not have a permanent home. That changed in 1931 with the construction of the Bancroft Street campus, including the iconic University Hall, built in the Collegiate Gothic style. The University of Toledo remained a municipally supported university until 1967, when it joined Ohio's higher education system. In 2006, the University of Toledo merged with the former Medical College of Ohio, a state-supported institution founded in 1964. Today, the University of Toledo serves 20,000 students in degree programs as varied as medicine, law, engineering, business, education, pharmacy, nursing, and liberal arts.

While Jesup W. Scott proclaimed it the Future Great City of the World in 1868, in reality, Toledo saw little development for the first four decades after its founding in 1837. Plagued by swamps, disease, and unwelcoming occupants, few settled here. But slowly, the city attracted people who saw a chance to improve their lives and perhaps their fortunes, including Edward Drummond Libbey. In 1888, Libbey brought with him the glass industry that would dominate the city s economy and earn it the nickname of Glass Capital of the World. Legendary Locals of Toledo describes the impact of people like Scott, Libbey, and others who shaped Toledo from the well known whose names grace street signs, buildings, and monuments, to unsung heroes who few remember. Included are pioneers who were the first in their fields as well as leaders of business and industry, representatives of government and the law, and successful entertainers and sports figures. Some were born here and moved on to make their impact, while others lived here and impacted the city."

The headline, “Where Glass is King,” emblazoned Toledo newspapers in early 1888, before factories in the Ohio city had even produced their first piece of glass. After years of struggling to find an industrial base, Toledo had attracted Edward Drummond Libbey and his struggling New England Glass Company to the shores of the Maumee River, and many felt Toledo’s potential as “The Future Great City of the World” would at last be realized.The move was successful - though not on the level some boosters envisioned - and since 1888, Toledo glass factories have employed thousands of workers who created the city’s middle class and developed technical innovations that impacted the glass industry worldwide. But as has occurred in other cities dominated by single industries - from Detroit to Pittsburgh to Youngstown - changes to the industry it built have had a devastating impact on Toledo. Today, 45 percent of all glass is manufactured in China.Well-researched yet accessible, this new book explores how the economic, cultural, and social development of the Glass City intertwined with its namesake industry and examines Toledo’s efforts to reinvent itself amidst the Midwest’s declining manufacturing sector.

While Jesup W. Scott proclaimed it the Future Great City of the World in 1868, in reality, Toledo saw little development for the first four decades after its founding in 1837. Plagued by swamps, disease, and unwelcoming occupants, few settled here. But slowly, the city attracted people who saw a chance to improve their lives and perhaps their fortunes, including Edward Drummond Libbey. In 1888, Libbey brought with him the glass industry that would dominate the city's economy and earn it the nickname of Glass Capital of the World. Legendary Locals of Toledo describes the impact of people like Scott, Libbey, and others who shaped Toledo--from the well known whose names grace street signs, buildings, and monuments, to unsung heroes who few remember. Included are pioneers who were the first in their fields as well as leaders of business and industry, representatives of government and the law, and successful entertainers and sports figures. Some were born here and moved on to make their impact, while others lived here and impacted the city.