Timeline of the Toledo Strip

Background history

1700s

1780s

• 1787: The Northwest Ordinance, also known as the Ordinance of 1787, established the boundary for possible future states in the Northwest Territory as "an east-west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan."

  1800s

• 1802: Congress restated the Ordinance Line of 1787 as Ohio's northern boundary, in the Enabling Act of 1802, which allowed Ohio to become a state. Ohio petitions to gain statehood, and the northern boundary is set by the Ohio constitution as the Ordinance Line of 1787 with one proviso: If the line intersected Lake Erie to the east of the mouth of the Maumee River, then "with the assent of Congress of the United States, the northern boundary of this State shall be established by, and extended to a direct line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami Bay." This laid the basis for the Toledo War.
• 1803: Ohio admitted into the Union with an enabling act authorizing the inhabitants to set up a state government.
• 1805: Congress created the Michigan Territory with the Ordinance Line as Michigan's southern boundary.
• 1809: Congress established the Illinois Territory.

  1810s

• 1812: War of 1812 delayed survey of the Ordinance Line.
• 1816: Indiana admitted as a state, with a northern border ten miles north of the Ordinance Line, to allow the state some lakefront. Michigan Territorial Governor Lewis Cass renewed request for national survey.
• 1817: Edward Tiffin, Surveyor General of the Northwest and former Governor of Ohio, commissioned William Harris to rerun the line. Harris drew a line favoring Ohio's claim to the Toledo Strip.
• 1818: The state of Illinois admitted into the Union. The Michigan Territory was enlarged to include Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. Michigan pressed her claim to the southern boundary. At Lewis Cass' urging, President James Monroe ordered a new survey. John A. Fulton plotted the Ordinance Line a few miles south of Toledo.
• The situation was now more confused than ever. The Harris Line agreed with the Ohio Constitution, and the Fulton Line agreed with the Northwest Ordinance. The difference between the two was a wedge-shaped strip of land, five miles wide at the Indiana border, eight miles wide at Lake Erie, and from west to east, an area of about and including the mouth of the Maumee river. This was, in effect, a no-man's land between Michigan and Ohio, claimed by both.

  1820s

• 1827: The Michigan Territorial Council organized the wedge-shaped area into Port Lawrence Township.
• 1828: The U.S. House Committee on Territories in the United States House of Representatives reported that the framers of Northwest Ordinance of 1787 intended to give every state created from the Northwest Territory equal accessibility to the Great Lakes, thereby supporting Indiana's claim to a Lake Michigan outlet and Ohio's claim to Maumee Bay. Congress, however, took no definite action in resolving the dispute.

  early 1830s

• 1832: Michigan Territorial Council petitioned Congress for an enabling act which would permit Michigan to call a constitutional convention. Congress refused the request because of the unresolved boundary dispute between Michigan and Ohio. Congress passed a law providing for a third survey of the Ordinance Line to be completed December 31, 1835. Andrew Talcott, captain of U.S. Army Engineers was commissioned to undertake the project, and the actual survey was made by Lieutenants Washington Hood and Robert E. Lee.

1834

• May: Congress turned down Michigan's petition for statehood.
• June: The Talcott survey was reported to Congress. The Talcott Line practically coincided with the Fulton Line, thereby supporting Michigan's claims to Toledo.
• Late June: Congress enlarged Michigan Territory to encompass Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and the eastern parts of North and South Dakota. Since 1818 Wisconsin and part of Minnesota were already considered part of Michigan. Two of Michigan's first six counties, including Brown, were in what is now Wisconsin.
• July: Stevens T. Mason, age 23, became Michigan's acting Territorial Governor. He called a special session of the Michigan Legislature to expedite Michigan's admission into the Union.
• November: Mason stressed the importance of retaining the Toledo Strip. He wanted Congress to create the Wisconsin Territory and return Michigan to its natural boundaries. Mason wanted the Michigan legislature to press for statehood after that.

  1835

January

• January 26: Acting-Governor Mason signs Enabling Act for Michigan to hold a constitutional convention on the second Monday in May 1835.

  February

• February 6: At the request of Governor Robert Lucas, Ohio lawmakers passed a law extending the jurisdiction of their state over the disputed area.
• February 12: The Michigan territorial legislature responded. If Ohio would extend its control into the Toledo region, then Michigan would make it a criminal offense to do so. They passed the Pains and Penalties Act which fixed a fine up to $1,000 and/or up to five years imprisonment at hard labor. Mason appointed Brigadier-General Joseph Brown of the Third U.S. Brigade to be ready to strike against any Ohio trespasser.

  March

• March 23: Mason dispatched Senator John Norvell to talk with the President. Mason was also upset by some inhabitants in the disputed area who wanted to belong to Ohio because of interest in the Toledo canal. Norvell would press for presidential action.
• March 24: President Jackson appointed Benjamin C. Howard of Baltimore, and Richard Rush of Philadelphia to serve on a commission to arbitrate the dispute.
• March 31: Lucas and the Ohio line-runners set out for Perrysburg.

  April

• April 1: Michigan held elections for township officials in the disputed area.
• April 2: Lucas and the Ohio line-runners arrive in Perrysburg.
• April 3: Rush and Howard reached Toledo. Both Ohio and Michigan had already created a situation for war.
• April 4: Michigan residents proceeded to the polls to elect delegates for the constitutional convention in May.
• April 5: Writing from Monroe, Howard indicated that all signs pointed to Governor Lucas’ determination to carry out his designs. "He is very firm in his character," he noted. "And though doing what nine tenths of the nation will hereafter pronounce wrong, yet will listen to no argument upon the point, because he says that his State has decided upon it and it is his duty to exercise her laws."
• April 6: Ohio held elections in the disputed area.
• April 8: The Monroe County sheriff and posse moved into Toledo and began arresting violators of the Pains and Penalties Act. The most publicized incident took place in the night. The Monroe contingent, numbering some thirty-five to forty persons, entered into Major Benjamin F. Stickney’s house and drove his two guests, George McKay and N. Goodsell, out of their beds, having first attempted to gouge out McKay’s eyes and having throttled Stickney’s daughter for sounding the alarm. They then carried the two to Monroe; had a mock trial; and released them on bail two days later. The alleged crime being interference with the arrest of Toledoans loyal to Ohio.
• April 10: Writing again from Monroe, Howard described the situation: "Men galloping about - guns getting ready - wagons being filled and hurrying off, and everybody in commotion."
• April 11: The Ohio line-runners sized up their precarious situation. One of them wrote from Maumee, “We shall certainly be made prisoners.” They knew Michigan was resolved to enforce its right over Toledo.
• Mid-April: Michigan’s determination to enforce the Pains and Penalties Act put Governor Lucas into a fighting position, the rumor was carried to Michigan that any further incursion into the disputed territory would be met by force. Ohio was mustering ten thousand volunteers.

1. Ohio was to continue running the Harris Line.
2. The residents in the disputed area were temporarily to decide whether they wished to belong to Ohio or Michigan. This would be in effect until Congress made a definite decision at its next session.
3. They suggested that Michigan not enforce the Pains and Penalties Act nor try anyone under its provisions until Congress had a chance to act.

• April 25: Lucas stationed forty armed men with the surveying party and gathered a force at Perrysburg.
• April 26: About noon on Sunday the Michigan posse moved in on the surveying party. Thrown into a panic, the line-runners made a quick retreat for the border. A remaining party of nine Ohio guardsmen took shelter in a small log cabin on Phillip’s property and barricaded themselves inside.
• April 27: The line-runners arrived in Perrysburg. Despite their rapid nocturnal flight through the southern swamp, they suffered no greater injuries than the ruining of coats and trousers. Lucas moved his forces out of Perrysburg and into the disputed territory.
• April 29: Mason pointed out to Secretary of State, John Forsyth, that once Ohioans crossed the Fulton Line, they would be resisted by Michigan. Of course, it is one thing to decide to have a war and quite another to find people to fight it.

  May

• May 1: Mason wrote to Howard and Rush indicating his willingness to let Lucas rerun the Harris Line if Ohio would do nothing to extend jurisdiction over the Toledo area once the project was completed. Mason would also deliver to the Ohio courts any individual Lucas requested. He would make these concessions out of regard for "public sentiment."
• May 2: Quiet returned to the border with the disbanding of the Ohio volunteer army. Monroe, Michigan was full of "bustle" and much excitement in getting ready for the impending war. The Michigan Sentinel of Monroe reminded citizens "mustn't take lightly the prospect of civil war in which brother takes up arms against brother."
• Mid-May: The Michigan Constitutional Convention met in Detroit.

  June

• June 11: The Secretary of State warned Governor Lucas that if he renewed the running of the line without regard for the feelings of Michigan, he would create a crisis demanding presidential interference.

1. a law provided three to seven years hard labor for anyone guilty of the "forcible abduction of citizens of Ohio."
2. a new county, to be named after the Ohio Governor, was to be formed from the disputed territory with Toledo as the temporary seat of justice.
3. the legislature appropriated three hundred thousand dollars to implement these statutes and empowered Governor Lucas to borrow three hundred thousand more if he found it necessary.
4. the lawmakers directed the court of common pleas to hold session there the first Monday in September.

   July

• July 12: Fighting broke out on the border. The deputy sheriff of Monroe County, Joseph Wood, was commissioned to arrest Two Stickney of Toledo for allegedly having resisted two Michigan officers by force. Two Stickney notified Wood that the day he set foot in Toledo his life would be in danger.
• July 16: The deputy sheriff attempted to carry out his commission. Stickney stabbed him in the left side with a dirk, saying: "Damn you, you have got it." Wood was taken to the nearest inn for treatment and subsequently recovered. Meanwhile, fifty to seventy-five leading Toledo citizens, including Goodsell and McKay, gathered to pledge resistance against any further Michigan arrests, "as long as they have a drop of blood left."
• July 18: Mason asked Lucas to allow extradition to Michigan of Two Stickney, a request the Ohio Governor refused on grounds the stabbing had taken place on Ohio soil. The Two Stickney episode removed the border controversy one step farther from an amicable settlement. The decision of Governor Lucas to hold out on Mason confirmed the Michigan legislature in its support of Mason.
• July 22: Secretary of State Forsyth in a letter to Cass regretted that Mason had submitted the controversy to the legislature. The matter could be resolved simply by the Governor himself. David Disney had said that Lucas was willing to abide by Jackson’s recommendations.

  August

• August 3: General Brown informed Mason he had it on good authority that Lucas was raising an armed force “of some magnitude” in Toledo to protect the court to be held there the first Monday in September.
• August 16: Cass wrote that Forsyth had threatened Mason's removal from office if the President's recommendations were not followed.
• August 17: Mason appeared before the legislative council in defense of his position against Ohio. He could permit the rerunning of the boundary and suspend the Pains and Penalties Act. He could not recognize that Ohio had equal claim to the disputed territory. Especially since Lucas had mustered a force with the avowed purpose "of murdering our citizens." The legislature stood firm behind Mason and chided the President.
• August 24: The Michigan Democrats nominated Mason for their gubernatorial candidate under the new state constitution.
• August 25: Mason ordered up either a force of 200 volunteers or, if that was impossible, the territorial militia.
• August 29: President Jackson removed Mason as Michigan's acting Governor.

  September

• September 6: The Michigan troops pitched camp at Mullhollen's, about eight miles from Toledo. They expected to meet Lucas' force the next day. Lucas ordered court to be held before daybreak.
• September 7: Lucas' adjutant general, accompanied by twenty armed men, left Maumee at one o"clock in the morning with the judges and court officials. Two hours later, in old schoolhouse, they conducted the business of officially opening court and making the necessary appointments. These brief proceedings were written on bits of paper and then deposited in the clerk’s high bell-shaped hat. The court and its escorts adjourned to a tavern to celebrate. Word came that they had been spotted by the enemy. The group made haste for the Maumee. On the run they discovered that they had been given a false alarm and the clerk had lost the hat. Two guards made their way back in the dark and retrieved the hat. After joining their companions and firing two salvos, the whole company returned to Maumee at six o’clock rejoicing in having deceived Michigan.
• Late Fall: The Territory proceeded to act as if it were a state. Michigan elected Mason as Governor and called the legislature into session. They elected John Norvell and Lucius Lyon as U.S. Senators and Isaac Crary as Representative.

  December

• Congress refused to seat the three Michigan representatives, granting them only the privilege of observers.

  1836

• January 18: Norvell and Crary wrote a letter to Mason pointing out that their hopes for rapid admission into the Union had disappeared. They were certain that statehood rested on the resolution of the boundary question in Ohio's favor. By the end of January, the admission bill, along with the boundary issue, was locked in the judiciary committee of both Houses of Congress.
• March: When the bills were reported out of committee, it was generally acknowledged that to enter the Union Michigan would have to cede the Toledo Strip in exchange for the western two-thirds of the Upper Peninsula.
• June: Congress reviewed the committee reports.
• June 15: Congress passed an act admitting Michigan into the Union once it surrendered the Toledo Strip for the Upper Peninsula.
• July 25: The Michigan legislature put out a call for delegates to decide whether Michigan would accept or reject the Act of June 15. Governor Mason ordered another survey. The results confirmed the Fulton Line. At the end of September, after four days' deliberation, the delegates turned down the congressional proposal by 28 to 21. By the end of October, the second council of assent, had become a reality.
• December 14: After two days of debates, the Act of June 15 was submitted.
• December 27: President Jackson reported the action to Congress.

  1837

• January 26: Andrew Jackson signed the Congressional bill officially admitting Michigan as a state in the union 2 years to the day after Mason signed Michigan's Enabling Act.

  1915

1973

• February 22: The United States Supreme Court sides with Ohio on a dispute over the eastern boundary of the Toledo Strip within Lake Erie.