FOSTORIA | Confetti, Not Cabbages: How Fostoria Pioneered the Municipal Halloween in 1915

Author: FFP Ai Bot

A Halloween postcard of the era, 1908

FOSTORIA — Each October, Fostoria holds a Halloween parade and costume contest downtown. The idea of a town-run Halloween party has deep roots here. According to the files of the Fostoria Daily Review, the city staged its first municipal Halloween celebration in 1915, a few years before many better-known towns took up the idea.

The story was pieced together in the mid-1940s by a Fostoria newspaper, as the Exchange Club got ready for its 32nd municipal Halloween celebration. The paper reprinted items from 1915 and minutes of the Exchange Club from 1921 and 1922. This article draws on those reprinted records.

Quick timeline

1915: King Corn and the YMCA

According to the reprinted 1915 items, the social committee of the Y.M.C.A. met on Oct. 26, 1915, with Mayor George Cunningham and Y.M.C.A. secretary I.H. Bass to finish plans for a “Hallowe’en celebration and community social” at the Y on Saturday evening. W.F. Maurer served as secretary of the group making the arrangements.

The plans were ambitious for a small city. A “King Corn” stalk would be crowned, and a grand review of masqueraders would pass before him so he could pick the best costumes. The Y.M.C.A. offered memberships as prizes, one year for first place, six months for second and three months for third, in a contest open to boys ages 10 to 18. Other contests and prizes were promised.

One detail shows just what the organizers were up against. “As it is a Hallowe’en celebration and the youngsters must have something to throw on this occasion,” the paper said, “confetti will be furnished in place of cabbage, beets, etc.” The Y.M.C.A. lobby was decorated and thrown open to everybody as a social center.

Halloween postcards like this 1908 design by illustrator Ellen Clapsaddle were popular in the years Fostoria began its celebration

Pranks that went too far

The celebration had a serious purpose. The 1940s article described the city’s observances as an effort “to curb depredations so common in many communities.” One 1915 item reported that boys had stretched a wire across the sidewalk on Crescent Street at night, and a woman tripped and fell, narrowly escaping a broken limb. The paper called the prank “criminal” and noted that police had warned that Halloween pranks “must not continue a week or two but on Hallowe’en only.”

On Saturday, Oct. 30, 1915, the paper announced “Hallowe’en With Us This Evening; Safety First,” noting that while young people had been celebrating early for several nights, the real party would happen that night at the Y.

The Exchange Club takes over

The Exchange Club’s minutes, as quoted in the later article, show how the celebration passed into the club’s hands. On Oct. 24, 1921, the club read a communication from C.L. Guernsey about the Oct. 31 celebration, and members volunteered to help the Halloween committee. A week later, on Oct. 31, 1921, a member reported on the club’s work with the committee.

Then, on Oct. 30, 1922, the minutes record that the committee that had run the celebration “was unable to function.” At a last-minute meeting on a Sunday afternoon, several Exchange Club members agreed to take over. The club made it an annual project from then on, and by the mid-1940s it was planning its 32nd celebration.

A Halloween pioneer?

The 1940s article called Fostoria “a pioneer in conducting municipal observances.” Other towns claim the title too. Anoka, Minn., which calls itself the Halloween Capital of the World, dates its community celebration to 1920. By Fostoria’s own records, its first municipal celebration came five years earlier. Halloween has a long history in Ohio, as the Ohio History Connection has noted, but we have not found a full survey of which town was truly first.

Fostoria’s tradition carries on. See our story on this year’s Halloween parade and our roundup of upcoming events, including trick-or-treat.

Photo note: Photographs and images published before 1931 are in the public domain in the United States. Historical images in this article are shared for educational and historical purposes.

Sources

• Fostoria newspaper, “Fostoria Is Pioneer City In Staging Municipal Hallowe’en Celebrations,” mid-1940s, quoting the Fostoria Daily Review of Oct. 26 and Oct. 30, 1915, and Exchange Club minutes of 1921 and 1922 (clipping reviewed; not reproduced)
• Wikimedia Commons, Dirigible Halloween card (Ellen Clapsaddle, 1908, public domain), from Middlebury College Special Collections: https://archive.org/details/c132_halloween_card_dirigible
• Anoka Halloween, History: https://anokahalloween.com/history/
• Ohio History Connection, Spooktacular History: https://www.ohiohistory.org/spooktacular-history/