The Toledo War wasn’t that much of a war, unlike modern warfare. It didn’t really have any warfare in it. It was when Michigan wasn’t even a state. We wanted to become a state but we weren’t allowed to do that just yet. The reason we couldn’t was because by 1834 Michigan had more than enough people living here to become a state. The governor asked the Congress to vote to let Michigan become a state, but there was still a dispute over boundary lines. When we did become a state we wanted more land and the Toledo Strip would be a fine port for shipping, but Ohio wanted that for the same reason and we both claimed it as our own. Both governors waited for the other to give up the strip but of course that didn’t happen. So we had to send militia units to the strip to make sure that no one would cross the border. There really was no war in the Toledo War, except for one small confrontation , it was called the Battle of Phillips Corner.

The Battle of Phillips Corner was short and the only real battle that anyone got into. It is also sometimes referred to as the Toledo War. It was when Michigan and Ohio militia units happened to meet at the same spot. There was only one actual injury in the Toledo War, that was when Joseph Wood, an officer in Monroe, MI, went to Ohio to arrest an Ohioan that had violated the Pains and Penalties Act, but the Ohioan didn’t cooperate and stabbed Officer Wood. Woods then ran back to Michigan’s side of the strip to tell the governor what had happened.

In April 1835 a Michigan sheriff’s posse of thirty men surprised a smaller group of Ohio surveyors working in Michigan’s Lenawee County. Nine Ohioans were captured and imprisoned at Tecumseh, Michigan. They were charged with violating Michigan’s Pains and Penalties Act. This law said that only Michiganians could operate as public officials in the Toledo Strip. Several surveyors escaped capture. They returned to Ohio and told governor Robert Lucas that ‘”an armed force of several hundred men” stretched across the border between Michigan and Ohio. Then the Toledo War began.

There was conflict because Michigan wanted to be a state, but there was a dispute over the boundary line. So we said “ Say we need more land for us, so lets take that one. “ The reason we decided to take that was because we had little knowledge of that huge strip of land that was right above us and the Toledo Strip would be the perfect port for us since we already had Detroit. We wanted to have one more city that could bring in lots of jobs and tourists to our state to view the big boats come in. Ohio’s governor , Robert Lucas, and our governor, Steven T. Mason [also known as “ Boy Governor”] both wanted that strip called the Toledo Strip. Neither wanted to give it up, which started the Toledo War.

The only way this “war” could end was by the Michigan governor marching over to Ohio’s side of the strip and take for them self the Ohio side and take control [that’s what he thought!] But when they arrived they found nothing. Thinking they were victorious they went back home. When Mason returned to Detroit he found out that he was fired by the President and replaced by a governor on the Ohio side. A whole year passed and finally the president agreed for Michigan to give up the strip in exchange for the western half of the upper peninsula, at the time it seemed like a bad deal until later in it’s early statehood we found the Keweenaw Peninsula and all its mines. Turns out we got the last laugh.

And finally Michigan became part of American history.