SEWARD, Ohio - Ohio is finally giving credit where credit is long overdue.
The Ohio Bicentennial Commission and the state historical society plan to commemorate the Toledo War, a fraternal squabble with Michigan that nearly sparked a civil war 166 years ago.
The historical marker to be erected in the Fulton County hamlet of Seward will be one of 20 the commission is placing statewide to recognize significant events that occurred during Ohio's 200-year history.
The boundary dispute took place Sept. 6, 1835, at the northwest corner of Ohio Rt. 109 and Ohio Rt. 120, two miles east of Lyons. At issue was possession of Toledo.
Shots were fired when Ohio troops stormed an otherwise deserted barn at Phillips Corner, which is now Seward, while chasing away surveyors from territorial Michigan.
Depending on which version is believed, stories report the only bloodshed occurred when either a horse or a mule inside the barn was shot.
“It's better legend than it is fact,” Lee Yoakum, a spokesman for the bicentennial commission, said of the war's sole casualty.
Dave Blesing, who lives west of Lyons and is a past president of the Lyons and Area Historical Society, said an Ohio survey crew was camped in the spot when Michigan territorial militia set upon them, capturing some, while others escaped and found their way to Perrysburg.
A few shots were fired. “The only casualty was a mule, which got in the way of a stray bullet,” Mr. Blesing said.
The Ohio “prisoners” were released from their Adrian jail the next day, and the war was over.
“We think it was all pretty ridiculous today, but it was serious business to people then,” Mr. Blesing said.
A year after the brief but fabled skirmish, Congress weighed in with a compromise:
It accepted Ohio's claim to the strip of land 70 miles long and 7 miles wide, which included the port city on the mouth of the Maumee River. As a consolation prize, territorial Michigan won the Upper Peninsula and a pledge by President Andrew Jackson to push for statehood.
Mr. Yoakum said Ohio, which had its eye on the port and its potential as a canal terminus, was considered the winner of a “real diamond.” The settlements there were incorporated as the city of Toledo in 1837.
“Michigan got a box of rocks,” he said. “But they greased the wheels for statehood to pacify Michigan.”
The Ohio Historical Society's marker program, begun in 1953 as part of its sesquicentennial celebration, has received a renewed emphasis because of the state's 200th birthday in 2003.
Other Northwest Ohio sites have received historical markers recently, including:
Mr. Yoakum credits Naomi Twining, a Toledo historian who pushed for historical markers for the Auto-Lite and McGuffey sites, for submitting the application for the Seward location.
The Toledo War historical marker, which the state will erect early next year, won't be the first sign there that marks the event.
Concerned with the lack of recognition for the war that put Toledo on the map, Mrs. Twining erected a sign of her own in Seward years ago.
It reads: “Site of Ohio Michigan War (Toledo War), The Battle of Phillips Corners, April 26, 1835.”
“For many, many years I dreamed of having a proper sign there,” Ms. Twining said.
The wording for the new marker has not been finalized yet, Mr. Yoakum said. The wording is being handled by the Fulton County Historical Society, which will submit it to the state for approval, he said.
The Toledo War marker in Seward will complement a plaque erected in April in Berkey that commemorates the Old Territorial Road, built in 1834 and credited with opening up northwest Ohio.
The sign is in Lucas County, a half-mile from the Fulton County line.
The Territorial Road now is the Sylvania-Metamora Road and is State Rt. 120 west of Metamora. It was built in 1834 to help folks get across northwest Ohio.
Michigan, which is now content with having the tourist-rich Upper Peninsula, erected a sign in 1957 along M-125, just south of Erie in Monroe County, to commemorate the border dispute. Michigan's historic marker calls the dispute the “War With Happy Ending.”
Ms. Twining said she approached Michigan for assistance with the Seward Toledo War marker “but got turned down flat.”
“They're still mad,” she reasoned.
Blade staff writer Mike Tressler contributed to this story.
First Published December 3, 2001, 11:45 a.m.
