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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Toledo (Toledo, Ohio) 1931-1971

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About Toledo (Toledo, Ohio) 1931-1971

This newspaper series was the project of its editor and publisher, a Hungarian American immigrant named Dr. Géza Farkas, and proudly heralded itself as “The Only Hungarian Newspaper in Toledo and Vicinity.” It further identified as the “Official Organ of the Hungarian Churches and Societies in Toledo, Ohio,” emphasizing its innate links to that community.  Although these papers were published primarily in Hungarian, they did feature occasional English-language content as well. Almost all but the earliest issues were four pages long and were issued weekly until late 1954, at which point the paper became a biweekly publication. From 1960 onward, it was issued monthly.

Géza Farkas was born in 1878 and raised as a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where as a young man he earned a doctorate of law. Per an interview Farkas did in a 1957 issue of the New York Fraternity, a Hungarian American fraternal newsletter, he came to America in 1904 for what was initially intended to be a short stay. He remained, however, and in 1908 moved from Cleveland to Toledo, where he gained American citizenship in 1911. Though the Toledo Hungarian-American Weekly (which shortened its title to Toledo in 1931) did not begin publishing until 1930, Farkas had already served as a civic leader and advisor to Toledo’s Hungarian American community for many years. He also reportedly maintained a close relationship with the editor-in-chief of the much more widely circulated Toledo Blade, Grove Patterson, to whom he would often turn for advice.

Toledo’s pages reflected Farkas’s fervent patriotism for his adopted county: every issue’s masthead included a prominent image of the American flag, and Washington’s birthday and Lincoln’s birthday were always observed with the respective presidents’ portraits at the top of page one. In his Fraternity interview, Farkas claimed he broke all ties with his homeland in World War I, sold United States war bonds through both world wars, and received a citation from the U.S. Treasury Department for those efforts. (That citation can be seen proudly displayed on the front page of Toledo on November 24, 1944.)

Despite Farkas’s pride in the United States, he and his newspaper maintained their distinctly Hungarian American identity. Toledo’s coverage spanned many important events in twentieth-century Hungarian history, including World War II, the postwar Soviet occupation, and the 1956 revolution. The impacts of these events rippled throughout Toledo’s Hungarian community, as many immigrants maintained connections to their homeland. According to Birmingham Days, a history of that community, these bonds to Hungarian identity and consciousness began to wane in the mid-twentieth century as the population blended into mainstream American culture. But until it ceased publication in 1971, Toledo served as a persistent link for the community to its language and heritage.

Provided By: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Toledo (Toledo, Ohio) 1931-1971

Dates of Publication

  • 1931-1971

Created / Published

  • Toledo, Ohio : Dr. G. Farkas, 1931-

Headings

  • -  Hungarians--United States--Newspapers
  • -  Hungarians
  • -  United States
  • -  United States--Ohio--Lucas--Toledo

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Monthly, 1960-1971
  • -  2nd yr., no. 6 (Jan. 30, 1931)-
  • -  Ceased in 1971?

Medium

  • v.

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn89075238

OCLC Number

  • 20768589

Preceding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

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Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Toledo Toledo, Ohio -1971. (Toledo, OH), Jan. 1 1931. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn89075238/.

APA citation style:

(1931, January 1) Toledo Toledo, Ohio -1971. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn89075238/.

MLA citation style:

Toledo Toledo, Ohio -1971. (Toledo, OH) 1 Jan. 1931. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn89075238/.