Beginnings (pre-1833) edit
Fort Industry was founded near the site of present-day downtown Toledo, at the confluence of Swan Creek with the Maumee River. On July 4, 1805, the Treaty of Fort Industry was signed here, establishing this place as the western boundary of the United States. This treaty was signed by representatives of the United States and several Native American nations; including Weyapiersenwah, who was the primary signatory for the Shawnee.
During the War of 1812, Fort Meigs in what is now Perrysburg, Ohio fortified the Americans position in the region against the United Kingdom. When the fort held, American settlement in the region became possible. A reservation established by the Treaty of Greenville for settlement encompassed twelve miles square (144 mi², or nearly 373 km²) around Fort Industry. The U.S. Congress ordered that this reservation be surveyed and sold at auction. This reservation was purchased at auction in Wooster, Ohio in February, 1817 by a conglomerate of interests which became known as the Port Lawrence Company.
In 1832, Vistula was incorporated as a village, near Port Lawrence. Vistula was set up in competition with Port Lawrence, as the two settlements were founded by competing settlement companies, both receiving charters for incorporation. Toledo was founded in 1833, when these two villages agreed to set aside their differences and unite to take advantage of a proposed canal to bypass rapids on the Maumee.
Toledo War edit
Main article: Toledo War
This proposed canal led to a skirmish between Ohio and Michigan, called the Toledo War (1835-1836). When the canal was proposed, Ohio directed surveyors to draw the boundary established by the Northwest Ordinance so that this canal-- and with it, the mouth of the Maumee River-- would be located in Ohio. Michigan protested this survey, and claimed that a line extending due east from the southern tip of Lake Michigan (as ordained in the Northwest Ordinance) would pass south of the canal. The boundary claimed by Michigan is now approximated by Angola Road.
Militias from both states were sent but never engaged. The only casualty of the Toledo War was Michigan sheriff Joseph Wood, who was stabbed in the thigh by Two Stickney. Two Stickney was the youngest son of Major B.F. Stickney, a major in the Ohio militia. Wood was stabbed as he was taking the Stickneys, along with Two's older brother One Stickney, to jail. (See also Toledo Strip.)
Toledo grows edit
In 1837, Toledo was chartered as a city, as many settlers from Ohio had moved to the village to prepare for its defense during the Toledo War.
The Glass City is born edit
On January 15, 1936 the first building to be completely covered in glass was completed in Toledo. It was a building for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company and marked a milestone in architectural design that eventually led to the International style of architecture.
Toledo Riot edit
On Saturday, October 15, 2005, a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi group planned to conduct a permitted rally and march in Toledo to protest what the group claimed was the mistreatment of whites by black gangs. As approximately two dozen neo-Nazis assembled in a North Toledo historically Polish neighborhood, protestors began throwing rocks at police and the Nazis. The neo-Nazis were escorted out safely as the mob continued their riot by overturning a car, throwing rocks at a police car, looting storefronts in the area and also looting then setting ablaze a bar. Mayor Jack Ford, who had tried to neutralize the Nazi rally by calling the date a "Day of Peace," condemned the riots as "just what the Nazis wanted" and set an 8 PM curfew and declared a state of emergency. As of Sunday, October 16, at least 114 protestors were arrested.[1]