March 26, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the rivalry between Michigan and Ohio dates back long before the days of football. Tedd Long, curator and founder of Holy Toledo History, shares the story of how a small mapping error sparked the Toledo War—a real conflict that laid the groundwork for one of college football’s greatest rivalries.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories about
everything on this show and up next.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Perhaps one of the biggest football.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Rivalries in the United States is between Ohio State and Michigan.
On game day, traditionally the third weekend of November, fans
of Ohio State cover up every m they can see
and Michigan fans partake in Buckeye nutcracking. What most people
don't know, however, is that this rivalry extends back to
the early eighteen hundreds over a land dispute that turned violent.
(00:40):
Here's Monty Montgomery with a story.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's a well known fact if you live in the
Midwest that Michigan and Ohio don't really like each other
that much. Most of that comes down to football today,
but that hasn't always been the case. It used to
come down to a small strip of land known as
the Toledo Strip, that resulted because of a mapping error
in the Northwest Territories combined with interesting language in the
(01:16):
Northwest Ordinance in the early eighteen hundreds, which ultimately led
to a war between Michigan and Ohio when Michigan was
applying for statehood. Here's Ted Long, founder of Holy Toledo
History with more on this remarkable story.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
The rule was something like the Michigan was to run
on a line east and west drawn through the southerly
bend of the extreme of Lake Michigan till it reached
Lake Erie. And if you draw that line, it clearly
puts Toledo.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And Mammy Bay in Michigan.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
And as the story goes, in eighteen oh three, when
the state the legislature in Ohio was putting together their application,
a trapper comes down from up north and reminds them
if you follow that you're going to lose lake access,
and so they made an adjustment collide for statehood. Apparently
there were some people in Washington that raised an eyebrow,
(02:11):
but nobody did anything about it, and it passed, and
suddenly Ohio's estate and they have Mommy By.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Which, according to the language of the Northwest Ordinance, should
have been Michigan's.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Questions started to brew about how did this happen and
what's going on? And Edward Tiffin was the Surveyor General
of Northwest Territory later became governor of Ohio. He ordered
up a survey from a guy named William Harris, and
that survey followed exactly what the state of Ohio did
in eighteen oh three, So it was kind of a
(02:43):
ginned up deal. It's like, hey, we need you to
do a survey, just make sure it follows what we
already did.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That became the Harris Line.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And then in eighteen eighteen, President Monroe stepped in and said, well,
I'd like to order my own survey. So they asked
Cares to do it again, and he said no and
invited a guy by the name of John.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Fulton to do the survey.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
When he was done, we now have the Fulton Line,
and it, by the way, followed what the Northwest Ordinance
should have been. And so the difference between the Harris
Line and the Fulton Line becomes this four hundred and
fifty mile wedge shaped section of land that became known
as the Toledo Strip and it's basically five miles wide
(03:28):
at the Indiana border and eight miles wide by the
time you get to Lake Erie.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
But within that small space was something very important to
both Michigan and Ohio.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The big plus was lake access. You've got Mammy.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Bay included in that portion of the strip that's five
miles wide, that includes Mammy Bay and that was already
a very active port and an important part of the
Northwest Ohio are But what people also knew was that
coming along was probably the biggest economic development project coming,
(04:08):
which was the Miami Erie Canal, and that was going
to connect the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River. And
they knew that a terminus for that had to be
somewhere in that area, and so Ohio wanted that terminus,
and so did Michigan Territory.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
So to prevent Michigan from getting it, Ohio simply claimed
it as their own. But Michigan, led by twenty four
year old Governor Stevens Team Mason, wasn't going to let
Ohio walk all over them. Oh No, they were going
to fight for the land, but first with the pen.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Well, when Michigan finally comes around to apply for statehood,
their governor, Governor Mason, he oversees the passage of what's
referred to as the Pains and Penalties Act, which essentially
leveled fines against anyone and jail sentences, by the way,
on any Ohio officials who tried to exercise jurisdiction over
(05:07):
this contested territory. And so that meant anything going on
within what we know as Toledo today was covered under
the Pains and Penalties Act. Now, the big question became
was how was he going to enforce it. At the
same time that that went through, Ohio Governor Robert Lucas
then passed a resolution that extended the county borders into
(05:27):
the strip. Before that, if you look at old paperwork
here in Toledo area, a lot of it would be
filed under Port Lawrence, Michigan or Port Lawrence Township, Michigan.
A lot of the Ohioans just thumbed their nose at
the Pains and Penalties Act and the Michigan governor and said,
we made a decision, We're part of Ohio.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And that decision, the thumbder nose at Michigan, resulted in
all out war in Michigan raised its militia and sent
them the Phillips Corner where the first battle was fought.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Spring of eighteen thirty five. There was a number of
things that happened. Actually the I think it was April ninth.
There was a posse that was led down by the
Michigan sheriff and he arrested a number.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Of Ohio state officials.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
There were some newspaper reports that they tore Ohio state
flag down and dragged it through the streets and then
burned it. And then a few days after that, about
sixty Michigan partisans came down and intercepted a survey team
on April twenty sixth, and that became known as the
Battle of Phillips Corners.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And there's actually a plaque out in the middle of.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Nowhere designating where this Phillips Corner took place. At Battle
of Phillip's Corner, actually there was no battle at all.
The Michigan militia showed up. There were nine members of
the survey party. The militia shot over their heads, and
I think a couple of people were actually captured. The
rest of them ran off. There was no blood or
anything like That was more of a shot across the
(07:02):
bow for the state of Michigan or the Michigan territory.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
And seeing that Michigan was going to fight for the land,
Ohio naturally fought back, or at least one Ohioan did.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
So a couple of months after the Battle of Phillip's Corner,
in July of eighteen thirty five, the Michigan Sheriff Joseph
Wood comes into Toledo and he's going to try to
arrest a couple of Ohio partisans, one of whom is
a gentleman by the name of two Stickney, who actually
had a brother named one Stickney. His father, Benjamin Stickney,
(07:40):
was one of the really the founders of the Toledo area.
He was heavily involved in both Port Lawrence and Visjulia
and helped promote the idea of those two organizations with
those two towns coming.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Together to form Toledo.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Anyway, the sheriff come in, comes in, tries to arrest
to Stickney. Scuffle breaks out. I've heard it describe. Does
a penknife Stickney pulls out of his pocket, stabs the
sheriff kind of left him with a minor wound, But
that was the first and only blood drawn in the
whole Michigan War. How they say that Sheriff Wood was
kind of the Toledo Wars loan casualty.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Soon enough, the federal government, especially President Andrew Jackson, grew
tired of these shenanigans and sought a resolution to the conflict.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Well, there were a lot of different things going on
in Washington, and how it played out. It was pure politics.
But Jackson eventually steps up and says, enough's enough.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
We're going to offer you.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
All the Upper Peninsula and we're going to give Toledo
essentially what was laid out in the original Ohio statehood application.
Folks in Michigan were not real excited about that, but
they also knew that the federal government, which had actually
reached a point where they were getting ready to distribute
(09:04):
actual money to some of the states, in order to
get in line for that, they had to get statehood.
That money was not going to come to Michigan territory.
So they knew they had to get in line, and
so originally they voted against the proposition, and then things
got pretty ugly when they realized that they were just
going to be left out in the cold, weren't going
(09:24):
to get any federal support. They had then a second convention,
which was referred to as the Frostbite Convention in December
of eighteen thirty six, and they reluctantly agreed to the
compromise and took on the Upper Peninsula, and Toledo became
part of Ohio.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And it's funny because Michigan.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Becomes the twenty sixth state in the Union, and a
lot of folks said, you know, they kind of got
the short end of the stick. But at the same time,
as time went by, they realized that that nine thousands
square mouse of land they picked up and the up
was heavily loaded with deposits of copper and iron ore,
(10:08):
and so they were able to get their money's worth
out of it from that standpoint. And then today, if
you look at that area, it's a spectacular vacation area winter, summer, fall.
And I don't want to say anything, having you know,
lived here in Toledo, but I think Michigan might have
done okay in that deal in the in the end.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
The Upper Peninsula, that's what they got for the deal.
And Ohio, well they got Toledo, and it was at
the time what they wanted. What a great deal for
both in the end, the Toledo War. Here on our
American story
This is our American Stories, and we tell stories about
everything on this show and up next.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Perhaps one of the biggest football.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Rivalries in the United States is between Ohio State and Michigan.
On game day, traditionally the third weekend of November, fans
of Ohio State cover up every m they can see
and Michigan fans partake in Buckeye nutcracking. What most people
don't know, however, is that this rivalry extends back to
the early eighteen hundreds over a land dispute that turned violent.
(00:40):
Here's Monty Montgomery with a story.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's a well known fact if you live in the
Midwest that Michigan and Ohio don't really like each other
that much. Most of that comes down to football today,
but that hasn't always been the case. It used to
come down to a small strip of land known as
the Toledo Strip, that resulted because of a mapping error
in the Northwest Territories combined with interesting language in the
(01:16):
Northwest Ordinance in the early eighteen hundreds, which ultimately led
to a war between Michigan and Ohio when Michigan was
applying for statehood. Here's Ted Long, founder of Holy Toledo
History with more on this remarkable story.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
The rule was something like the Michigan was to run
on a line east and west drawn through the southerly
bend of the extreme of Lake Michigan till it reached
Lake Erie. And if you draw that line, it clearly
puts Toledo.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And Mammy Bay in Michigan.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
And as the story goes, in eighteen oh three, when
the state the legislature in Ohio was putting together their application,
a trapper comes down from up north and reminds them
if you follow that you're going to lose lake access,
and so they made an adjustment collide for statehood. Apparently
there were some people in Washington that raised an eyebrow,
(02:11):
but nobody did anything about it, and it passed, and
suddenly Ohio's estate and they have Mommy By.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Which, according to the language of the Northwest Ordinance, should
have been Michigan's.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Questions started to brew about how did this happen and
what's going on? And Edward Tiffin was the Surveyor General
of Northwest Territory later became governor of Ohio. He ordered
up a survey from a guy named William Harris, and
that survey followed exactly what the state of Ohio did
in eighteen oh three, So it was kind of a
(02:43):
ginned up deal. It's like, hey, we need you to
do a survey, just make sure it follows what we
already did.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That became the Harris Line.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And then in eighteen eighteen, President Monroe stepped in and said, well,
I'd like to order my own survey. So they asked
Cares to do it again, and he said no and
invited a guy by the name of John.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Fulton to do the survey.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
When he was done, we now have the Fulton Line,
and it, by the way, followed what the Northwest Ordinance
should have been. And so the difference between the Harris
Line and the Fulton Line becomes this four hundred and
fifty mile wedge shaped section of land that became known
as the Toledo Strip and it's basically five miles wide
(03:28):
at the Indiana border and eight miles wide by the
time you get to Lake Erie.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
But within that small space was something very important to
both Michigan and Ohio.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The big plus was lake access. You've got Mammy.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Bay included in that portion of the strip that's five
miles wide, that includes Mammy Bay and that was already
a very active port and an important part of the
Northwest Ohio are But what people also knew was that
coming along was probably the biggest economic development project coming,
(04:08):
which was the Miami Erie Canal, and that was going
to connect the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River. And
they knew that a terminus for that had to be
somewhere in that area, and so Ohio wanted that terminus,
and so did Michigan Territory.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
So to prevent Michigan from getting it, Ohio simply claimed
it as their own. But Michigan, led by twenty four
year old Governor Stevens Team Mason, wasn't going to let
Ohio walk all over them. Oh No, they were going
to fight for the land, but first with the pen.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Well, when Michigan finally comes around to apply for statehood,
their governor, Governor Mason, he oversees the passage of what's
referred to as the Pains and Penalties Act, which essentially
leveled fines against anyone and jail sentences, by the way,
on any Ohio officials who tried to exercise jurisdiction over
(05:07):
this contested territory. And so that meant anything going on
within what we know as Toledo today was covered under
the Pains and Penalties Act. Now, the big question became
was how was he going to enforce it. At the
same time that that went through, Ohio Governor Robert Lucas
then passed a resolution that extended the county borders into
(05:27):
the strip. Before that, if you look at old paperwork
here in Toledo area, a lot of it would be
filed under Port Lawrence, Michigan or Port Lawrence Township, Michigan.
A lot of the Ohioans just thumbed their nose at
the Pains and Penalties Act and the Michigan governor and said,
we made a decision, We're part of Ohio.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And that decision, the thumbder nose at Michigan, resulted in
all out war in Michigan raised its militia and sent
them the Phillips Corner where the first battle was fought.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Spring of eighteen thirty five. There was a number of
things that happened. Actually the I think it was April ninth.
There was a posse that was led down by the
Michigan sheriff and he arrested a number.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Of Ohio state officials.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
There were some newspaper reports that they tore Ohio state
flag down and dragged it through the streets and then
burned it. And then a few days after that, about
sixty Michigan partisans came down and intercepted a survey team
on April twenty sixth, and that became known as the
Battle of Phillips Corners.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And there's actually a plaque out in the middle of.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Nowhere designating where this Phillips Corner took place. At Battle
of Phillip's Corner, actually there was no battle at all.
The Michigan militia showed up. There were nine members of
the survey party. The militia shot over their heads, and
I think a couple of people were actually captured. The
rest of them ran off. There was no blood or
anything like That was more of a shot across the
(07:02):
bow for the state of Michigan or the Michigan territory.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
And seeing that Michigan was going to fight for the land,
Ohio naturally fought back, or at least one Ohioan did.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
So a couple of months after the Battle of Phillip's Corner,
in July of eighteen thirty five, the Michigan Sheriff Joseph
Wood comes into Toledo and he's going to try to
arrest a couple of Ohio partisans, one of whom is
a gentleman by the name of two Stickney, who actually
had a brother named one Stickney. His father, Benjamin Stickney,
(07:40):
was one of the really the founders of the Toledo area.
He was heavily involved in both Port Lawrence and Visjulia
and helped promote the idea of those two organizations with
those two towns coming.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Together to form Toledo.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Anyway, the sheriff come in, comes in, tries to arrest
to Stickney. Scuffle breaks out. I've heard it describe. Does
a penknife Stickney pulls out of his pocket, stabs the
sheriff kind of left him with a minor wound, But
that was the first and only blood drawn in the
whole Michigan War. How they say that Sheriff Wood was
kind of the Toledo Wars loan casualty.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Soon enough, the federal government, especially President Andrew Jackson, grew
tired of these shenanigans and sought a resolution to the conflict.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Well, there were a lot of different things going on
in Washington, and how it played out. It was pure politics.
But Jackson eventually steps up and says, enough's enough.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
We're going to offer you.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
All the Upper Peninsula and we're going to give Toledo
essentially what was laid out in the original Ohio statehood application.
Folks in Michigan were not real excited about that, but
they also knew that the federal government, which had actually
reached a point where they were getting ready to distribute
(09:04):
actual money to some of the states, in order to
get in line for that, they had to get statehood.
That money was not going to come to Michigan territory.
So they knew they had to get in line, and
so originally they voted against the proposition, and then things
got pretty ugly when they realized that they were just
going to be left out in the cold, weren't going
(09:24):
to get any federal support. They had then a second convention,
which was referred to as the Frostbite Convention in December
of eighteen thirty six, and they reluctantly agreed to the
compromise and took on the Upper Peninsula, and Toledo became
part of Ohio.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And it's funny because Michigan.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Becomes the twenty sixth state in the Union, and a
lot of folks said, you know, they kind of got
the short end of the stick. But at the same time,
as time went by, they realized that that nine thousands
square mouse of land they picked up and the up
was heavily loaded with deposits of copper and iron ore,
(10:08):
and so they were able to get their money's worth
out of it from that standpoint. And then today, if
you look at that area, it's a spectacular vacation area winter, summer, fall.
And I don't want to say anything, having you know,
lived here in Toledo, but I think Michigan might have
done okay in that deal in the in the end.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
The Upper Peninsula, that's what they got for the deal.
And Ohio, well they got Toledo, and it was at
the time what they wanted. What a great deal for
both in the end, the Toledo War. Here on our
American story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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