The Toledo War
The Toledo War could possibly be called the most bizarre war in American History. Fought in 1835, it resulted in one casualty, quite a bit of bickering between grown men and a lot of territory changing hands. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 sparked the controversy over Toledo. It established a boundary between the Michigan and Ohio Territories that was to start at the southern tip of Lake Michigan and go east until it met Lake Erie. This dividing line worked well until 1805 when surveyors discovered that the boundary was actually a few miles too far north and should actually include the area known as Toledo. The gap between the boundary lines recognized by Ohio and Michigan became known as the "Toledo Strip".The Ohioans in Congress immediately campaigned to have the northern line accepted as the true border, however their quick acti
The argument softly rankled for the next 15 years until 1833 when Michigan applied for statehood and the issue was brought to the surface once again. Michigan, as a condition of statehood (and a nice parting gift), would receive the 9,000 square miles of land that is now known as the Upper Peninsula. A year later Congress made the decision to make the Toledo Strip part of Ohio. Eventually the two militias packed up and went home and the territorial dispute was not resolved. Negotiations between Michigan and Ohio governors proved fruitless and a compromise could not be reached. In 1818 a neutral third party was appointed to make another survey of the land and call it in accordance with the Northwest Ordinance. The survey determined that the strip of land was the rightful property of the Michigan Territory; however Ohio paid no attention to it and claimed the area, which included the mouth of the Maumee River, as part of their territory. In 1817 Edward Tiffin, the United States Surveyor General and former governor of Ohio, sent a man named William Harris to survey the line according to what was written in Ohio's constitution. Mason, the 21 year old "boy" governor of Michigan, decided to send a small militia south to stake Michigan's claim for the Toledo strip and settle the issue for good. on did not save the battle for the Toledo Strip from being long and drawn out. Ohio in turn sent their own militia to defend the Toledo Strip. In turn the governor of the Michigan Territory, Lewis Cass, called upon President Monroe to protest Harris' boundaries. The potential for a bloody battle was there, but the two troops instead spent the better part of a week lost in swamps. Michigan without the Upper Peninsula just would not be the same.
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