75 years ago in 1944:

• A scene at the Mahoning County Jail took everyone by surprise. Ted Deputat of Campbell and Adolph Dudak of Youngstown attempted to escape around 2:45 a.m. with guns they had smuggled into the jail. They encountered Deputy Sheriff Clyde Smith and ordered him to put up his hands. Smith responded, “like hell I will” and rushed to dodge the first shot aimed at him. Smith slammed shut the solid steel door to the cellblock that became his refuge. The jail was quickly surrounded by additional deputies and city police who forced the two men back into their cells and disarmed them.

The investigation found that the guns were smuggled into the jail through a 5-inch hole in the corridor window that welders failed to repair when they were working at the jail two months before. It is believed that Deputat and Dudak sawed their way through the much-hacked bars that separate the cellblock from the corridor.

Deputat was awaiting trial after being indicted by a grand jury on two burglary counts and an assault with intent to kill in Campbell. He had previously served a term in a reformatory for manslaughter in 1938.

50 years ago in 1969:

• Sunday’s attendance record at the Canfield Fair was topped again with 119,000 going through the gates for the annual Family Day celebration. The year’s main events also included a 4-H saddle horse judging, farm machinery pageant, a talent competition, rooster crowing contest and pig iron derbies. The winning ponies dragged 4,000 pounds of pig iron more than 4 feet, topping the other teams’ distances. In the Heavy Division, Ed Henry drove his team with 4,500 pounds of pig iron to first place. Henry had been a contestant at the Canfield Fair for years with the crowd voting him the “Best Driver” award.

40 years ago in 1979:

• The Canfield Fair welcomed famed comedian and all-around star Bob Hope. Hope cracked jokes at everyone’s expense, including his own, which kept an adoring audience helpless with laughter. The applause began when Hope’s escorted limousine was seen crossing the track into the infield across from the grandstand. That applause never died down during either of the two-hour shows.

Hope also reacquainted himself with local golfers and old friends during his time at the fair. One of those was Thelma Herbert, who told Hope that she played the piano at one of his road shows in East Palestine. The comedian responded with “Thelma, darling, isn’t this wild! I guess you and I are the only two left standing.”

The shows continued with scheduled jokes and brilliant ad-libs about the fair-goers listening in at the fence. Hope then accepted a resolution from Tom Barrett, Mahoning County Commissioner, which proclaimed him an adopted citizen of Mahoning County.

15 years ago in 2004:

• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman at Youngstown’s Butler Institute of American Art. Actress Jane Seymour happened to be an avid artist stating, “In the same way that some people need to play music, I need to paint. I need to create.” More than 40 of her paintings, on exhibit at the Butler, featured watercolors, oils and pastels.

Her art served as a healing process as she worked through difficult times in her life, focused on her interests in gardening, equestrian activities, ballerinas and family. She spent hours during her “creative days” at her studio at her Malibu home or at Catherine Court, her 14th century home in Bath, England.

Seymour often donated her works for charitable causes, giving a portion of this show’s proceeds to the Butler’s preservation efforts.

• Compiled from the archives of The Vindicator by Traci Manning, curator of education at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society