Article published February 12, 2007
Lost memories find way home
W. Toledoan reunites slain officer's kin with scrapbook
Bob McCarthy discusses details about his family with Laura Warner as they look over his scrapbook at her home in West Toledo. Mrs. Warner said her stepfather had given her the scrapbook at least 15 years ago.
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THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON
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By CHRISTINA HALL
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The pages of the bound book were a little dog-eared and brittle, but that didn't matter to Bob McCarthy.
For five hours, the Maumee man sat in a chair, thumbing through a long-lost piece of family history that had just been returned to him after several decades.
The scrapbook, originally a 1909-1910 builders' index, was filled with page after page of glued-in newspaper clippings from 1929 to 1942. All pertained to the career of Mr. McCarthy's grandfather, Toledo police Lt. John McCarthy, who was slain in a gunfight downtown in January, 1947.
"It's just a treasure," the 64-year-old said. "There are things in there, obituaries in there, names of relatives I've not known in there. … It's almost like a family tree has been introduced to me."
The reunion was made possible by Laura Warner, a 67-year-old West Toledoan, who said her stepfather gave her the scrapbook at least 15 years ago.
She saw a story on the 60th anniversary of the shoot-out in The Blade last month in which the missing scrapbook was mentioned. The shootout that killed Lieutenant McCarthy near the Safety Building also resulted in the deaths of the gun-toting Michigan bandit and his companion.
A newspaper clipping of Offi cer John McCarthy is just one of the items in the scrapbook.
(
THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON
)
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The lieutenant's name sounded familiar, and Ms. Warner found the book tucked away in a cedar chest in her home.
"When I realized the name was the same, I went right to the phone and called [Mr. McCarthy]," she said. "I wasn't sure if that was what he was looking for."
When he stopped by to pick up the scrapbook a few days later, Mr. McCarthy immediately recognized its pink pages and photographs.
Mr. McCarthy said he last recalled seeing the scrapbook in 1960 in a basement storage room at his family's South Toledo home.
Among the clippings was one about his grandfather and the man who built the Arawanna excursion boat - which his family now owns - rescuing a man and a woman who were stranded overnight on an island.
Mr. McCarthy thought the scrapbook would never be found.
"I thought it went to a dump," he said. "I had no idea someone would have it."
"It was just meant to be," Ms. Warner said.
She said her stepfather, Tom Steinmetz, gave her the scrapbook years ago. He was a local history buff and she likes to do genealogy work at the library.
Ms. Warner said her stepfather thought she would come across the lieutenant's name. She never did. She asked a few police officers if they knew the family. They didn't.
"I don't know why I didn't toss it. I don't like to throw things away," Ms. Warner said.
In this case, she's glad she didn't.
"[Mr. McCarthy] was just thrilled to get it and I was just thrilled to give it to him," Ms. Warner said.
She guesses that her stepfather, who died more than four years ago, got the scrapbook through a newspaper want ad in which he was asking for local history memorabilia.
"It's filled from front to back - every page. Every piece of page is used up in that book," she said. "It's amazing that someone would put all that work into it."
That's exactly what Mr. McCarthy wants to preserve.
"It's too nice of a thing to have it deteriorate more than the way it is," he said. "It's a piece of work."
Contact Christina Hall at:
chall@theblade.com
or 419-724-6007.
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