Local Author Ken Dickson Discusses Original Ohio-Michigan Rivalry
BY BECKY JACOBS — MIRROR REPORTER
Ken Dickson was the featured speaker for the first of eight history lectures to be held Thursdays through March 25 at 10:00 a.m. at the Maumee Branch Library. The free talks are sponsored by the Wolcott House Museum Guild and the library.
Dickson and his wife, Bonnie, are longtime residents of Point Place and reared their family in a lakeside home.
Ken has written two books about Point Place and is the author of books concerning local gangsters known as the “Purple Gang” who were part of Toledo’s past.
Dickson has also published “Traditions of the Ottawas” in the Northwest Ohio Quarterly and most recently, following 20 years of research, has published a book on Benjamin Franklin Stickney and the Maumee Valley.
This week’s lecture was centered on the Toledo War. A dispute between the state of Ohio and the then-territory of Michigan, it was considered one of the most bizarre wars in American history. It involved an east-west territory line across the top of Ohio drawn by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
Following two surveys, two lines were drawn 8 miles apart at Lake Erie and 5 miles apart at the Indiana border, with a total of 468 square miles between the two. This meant Toledo was the center of the controversy.
The dispute sat quiet until Michigan sought statehood in 1833. Ohio congressmen successfully lobbied to block Michigan’s acceptance as a state until Michigan accepted Ohio’s version of the strip of land.
There was no bloodshed during this so-called “war,” but instead various cases of one-upmanship.
The area would have included the downtown area, including Cherry and Lagrange streets, in what was known as the Vistula area. It was the belief that the communities of Port Lawrence and Vistula, later known as Toledo, would become a leading city of the Northwest. After all, the canals would pass through Toledo and make way for shipping.
This is where Stickney came in. He was familiar with the entire area and fought Michigan with all he had to the end.
If the land went to Michigan, Stickney would lose from his business investments. He had already lost $1 million in the past.
Throughout the years Stickney and his followers would invent ways to cause the Michigan militia to come to Ohio, but this was a hard task. If they could make their plan work, it would look bad for Michigan in the eyes of President Andrew Jackson and Michigan would be certain to lose the land battle.
So great was the boundary dispute and the importance of Toledo that Michigan was refused statehood until 1837.
In 1835 Stickney married Mary Matilda Way of Baltimore, Md. The wedding took place in Sandusky. She had a son, George, and Stickney had two sons, One and Two, and two daughters, Mary and Indiana.
George was the first editor of The Blade, owned by Stickney.
Benjamin Stickney’s son Two became deeply involved in the Michigan and Ohio plots.
At one point a deputy sheriff, Joseph Wood, came to Ohio to investigate a burglary of a wagon and horses. After a little tussle with the sheriff, Two pulled out a 6-inch knife and stabbed Wood in the ribs.
Wood was emphatic he did not want to die in Ohio so his entourage moved on to have a few more drinks. He kept feeling better, and when he got to Michigan he found out it was nothing more than a scratch. He had been told by a Dr. Clark, an Ohio sympathizer, that he was surely going to die.
Two was never charged nor pardoned.
Another visit by the Michigan militia involved surrounding a barn. There were 100 men with muskets. After hearing a noise from within, the men gave the culprit a warning to “come out with your hands up” with no results. Finally, every gun went off shooting toward the barn. A horse, the only fatality of the war, was killed.
The owner asked for $50.00 for the horse and $50.00 interest.
Surely, Stickney can be called a leader in the development of the frontier and the Toledo area.
Many other good tales are included in Dickson’s book along with history of the Maumee Valley.