757 M. TOLEDO, Pop. 243,109.
(Train 3 passes 2:45; No. 41, 7:25; No. 25, 5:45; No. 19, 11:05. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 3:35; No. 26, 5:15; No. 16, 7:30; No. 22, 11:08.)[2]
[2. Note that westbound trains here change to Central time; while eastbound trains change to Eastern time at next station (Sandusky).]
Toledo was built on the site of Ft. Industry, erected in 1800. It lies within an immense tract of land, constituting several reservations bought by the U.S. government from several Indian tribes in 1795. Upon that part of the tract farthest upstream the town of Port Lawrence was laid out in 1807. In 1832 a rival company laid out the town of Vistula immediately below and a year later the two united and were named Toledo.
This district was the storm-centre for the more or less ridiculous episodes of the "Toledo War" in 1835, a dispute over the boundary line between Ohio and Michigan. This boundary, named the "Harris Line" (1817) after its surveyor, left in dispute a strip of land from 5 to 8 M. wide, a rich agricultural region within which lay Toledo. Gov. Lucas of Ohio, by authority of the State Legislature (1835), sent three commissioners out to re-mark the Harris line so as to include the bone of contention. When Gov. Mason, appointed by President Jackson as administrator of the territory of Michigan heard about this, he dispatched a division of militia to occupy Toledo.
Gov. Mason over-ran all the watermelon patches, stole the chickens, burst in the front door of a certain Maj. Stickney's house, and proudly carried him off as a prisoner of war, after demolishing his ice house.
Lucas responded by sending out the Ohio militia who occupied a post at Perrysburg, 10 M. to the south. No fighting took place in this most genteel of wars, although there were several arrests and much confusion.
A Dr. Russ, who was with Mason's forces on their march to Toledo gives a description of the soldiers' jumpy nerves. Various jokers had circulated dark stories of the number of sharp-shooting Buckeyes waiting for them at Toledo, which so alarmed this amateur legion that nearly one half of those who had marched boldly from Monroe availed themselves of the road-side bushes to withdraw from such a dangerous enterprise.
President Jackson put an end to the dispute by requesting Michigan to stop interfering with the re-marking of the boundary line, but slight outbreaks continued until he presently removed Gov. Mason from office, and until Congress in 1836 decided in favor of Ohio.
The city administration became famous for its efficient honesty after 1897, when Samuel Milton Jones (1846-1904) a manufacturer of oil machinery, was elected mayor by the Republican party. The Independent movement which he began was carried on by Brand Whitlock.
Mayor Jones was re-elected on the non-partisan ticket in 1(899?), 1901 and 1903, and introduced business methods into the city government. His integrity in business and politics gained him the nickname "Golden Rule Jones."
Brand Whitlock was born in Urbana, Ohio, in 1869. He began his career as a journalist, but decided to practice law instead. After four years of study in Springfield, Ohio, he was admitted (to?) the bar in 1897, when he removed to Toledo. In 1905 he was elected mayor of that city as an Independent, running against four other candidates, and was re-elected in 1907-1909 and 1911 under similar conditions. President Wilson in 1913 sent him as minister to Belgium where he made a distinguished record during the War. In 1919 he was appointed ambassador to that country. His Memoires of Belgium under the German Occupation, published in 1918, gives an excellent description of "frightfulness" in actual operation.
The park system includes about 1,000 acres, connected by a boulevard 18 M. long. Toledo University (2,100 students), which include Toledo Medical College, was founded in 1880.
The advantages of Toledo as a lake port have always been recognized, and its growth has been rapid. It is situated about 4 M. from Lake Erie, and is connected with it by a channel 400 ft. wide and 21 ft. deep—sufficient to admit the largest vessels from the lake to the 25 M. of docks. Toledo is a shipping point for the iron and copper ores and lumber of the Lake Superior and Michigan regions, and for petroleum, coal, fruit, grain and clover seed. There are factories for motor-cars, plate and cut-glass, tobacco, spices, and beverages, also lumber and planing-mills, flour and grist mills, etc., with products of an annual value of $200,000,000 or more. At Butler (367 M.) we enter Indiana.