The Shape of Ohio:A Historical Examination of the Ohio’s Boundaries

Todd Tucky – Heartland GIS

2011 Ohio GIS Conference

September 30, 2011

General Background

• Major Events that Determine States Boundaries– French and Indian War– Louisiana Purchase– Civil War– Historical Connections to England / Spain

• Guiding Principal for State’s Shape– All States are created Equal!

Northwest Territory

Edward Tiffin, Surveyor General Commissioned Harris Line

President Andrew Jackson

Stevens T. Mason Acting Territorial Governor of

Michigan

Robert Lucas Ohio Governor

Timeline of Major Events in Toledo War

• 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.“

• 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.

• 1812: War of 1812 delayed survey of the Ordinance Line

Timeline of Major Events in Toledo War

• 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 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. This was, in effect, a no-man's land between Michigan and Ohio, claimed by both.

Timeline of Major Events in Toledo War

• 1827: The Michigan Territorial Council organized the wedge-shaped area into Port Lawrence Township.

• 1828: The U.S. House Committee on Territories 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.

• 1832: 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.• 1834 - July: Stevens T. Mason, age 23, became Michigan's acting Territorial

Governor.

Timeline of Major Events in Toledo War

• 1835 – February – Governor Lucas calls for time extension for disputed territory• 1835 – February – Michigan institutes the Pains and Penalties Act ($1,000 fine or 5

years hard labor for Ohioan to be trespassing in disputed area.• April 1: Michigan held elections for township officials in the disputed area.• April 2: Lucas and Ohio line-runners arrive in Perrysburg for re-survey (armed

escort).• April 3: Rush and Howard (President Jackson’s commissioners) reached Toledo.

Both Ohio and Michigan had already created a situation for war.• 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.

• April 25: Lucas stationed forty armed men with the surveying party and gathered a force at Perrysburg.

Timeline of Major Events in Toledo War

• April 26: About noon on Sunday the Michigan posse moved in on the surveying party. The first shots of the war had been fired at the so-called Battle of Phillips Corner, a term sometimes used to describe the whole of the Toledo War.

• 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.

– Ohio's response was unsettling. In a special session of the legislature, the delegates passed a number of laws enforcing the state’s jurisdiction over the Toledo area, a law provided three to seven years hard labor for anyone guilty of the "forcible abduction of citizens of Ohio."

– 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.

– 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.

– the lawmakers directed the court of common pleas to hold session there the first Monday in September (September 7).

• July 12: Fighting broke out on the border. The deputy sheriff of Monroe County, Joseph Wood, was commissioned to arrest Two Stickney of Toledo

Timeline of Major Events in Toledo War

• 1836 - January 18: Letter written 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 (2/3) of the Upper Peninsula.

• June 15: Congress passed an act admitting Michigan into the Union once it surrendered the Toledo Strip for the Upper Peninsula.

• 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.

Timeline of Major Events in Toledo War

• 1915 - The official survey of the line was finished and the governors shook hands over the border.

• 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.

Good Sources

How the States Got Their Shapes – Mark Stein

The People Behind the Borderlines – Mark Stein

Lost States – Michael Trinklein

http://www.ohio.n2genealogy.com/oh-maps.html

Questions?