April

                 Aprli

 

Historical Happenings in and around Piqua during the month of April.

April 01—The first post office was established for the village in 1811 under the name Piquatown.
April 02—The formation of the city’s first automobile service garage was announced in 1903 as the Piqua Automobile Station. 
April 03—A semi-pro baseball team, the “Piqua Spots” was organized in 1912.
April 04—John Hilliard and his son settled east of the Great Miami River in 1797.
April 05—In 1903, the Western Ohio Traction Line began its first regular run between Piqua and Lima.
April 06—The City of Piqua elected its first mayor in 1850, Stephen Johnston.
April 07—The first 3.2% beer was sold in Piqua in 1933 with the end on National Prohibition.
April 08—In 1861, the community’s first known labor organization was established as the McClarn Working Men’s Institute of Piqua.
April 09—The village of Huntersville, on the east bank of the Great Miami River was annexed by Piqua in 1893.
April 10—Miami Foundry announced its formal opening in 1939.
April 11—In 1908 Annie Oakley visited Piqua.
April 12—Piqua’s first female physician, Dr. Belle C. Buchanan, announced in 1883 the opening of her office on Park Avenue.
April 13—In 1865, the Piqua National Bank was issued a national charter.
April 14—In 1952, a weeklong Ohio Bell Telephone Company strike ended.
April 15—The Miami County Women’s Christian Temperance Union was established in Piqua in 1888.
April 16—The Miami & Erie Canal Association, headed by Henry Flesh, offered a reward in 1887 of three hundred dollars for the construction of a canal boat at least sixty tons.
April 17—The first Salvation Army meeting in Piqua was in 1887.
April 18—In 1885, the D.C. Statler quarry south of Piqua began furnishing stone for the new courthouse in Troy.
April 19—The employees of the Val Decker Meat Packing Company went out on a seven day strike in 1934, demanding a minimum wage of forty-five cents an hour for women and fifty cents an hour for men.
April 20—In 1829, Colonel Johnston was replaced as the area’s Federal Indian Agent by John McElvain.
April 21—A city ordinance was passed in 1924 providing for the implementation of Daylight Saving Time.
April 22—The Doctor Bosanto Medicine Company was incorporated in 1879.
April 23—In 1909, Jessie Masden, the Schmidlapp Library’s director reported that the library held 15,000 books, 65 magazines and 7 out-of-town newspapers.
April 24—A concert was held in 1917 by Piqua Central High School’s first modern band.
April 25—in 1897 Superintendent Dr. Charles W. Bennett addressed the YMCA Men’s Club on the evils of cigarette smoking.
April 26—In 1861, the city’s first Civil War unit, Company F, Eleventh Regiment, was mustered into service.
April 27—The J.W. Brown Department Store announced the opening of a new furniture store in 1934 at the old Campbell Store at 410-412 N. Main.
April 28—Lodge No. 8 of the Improved Order of Oddfellows was organized in 1839.
April 29—Piqua physician, Godwin V. Dorsey, laid a black floral wreath on the breast of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
April 30—The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Piqua turned on the power in 1884 for the city’s first electric lights.