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The First Ohio Map in an American Folio Atlas

Nice example of Carey's map of Ohio, one of the most influential early maps of Ohio and the first large format map of Ohio to appear in an atlas.

The map illustrates Ohio 11 years after it gained statehood on February 19, 1803, and shortly after several battles were fought on land and in Lake Erie, during the War of 1812. On September 10, 1813, the Battle of Lake Erie, one of the major battles, took place in Lake Erie near Put-in-Bay, Ohio.  The map is illustrated as Plate VII in Smith's Mapping of Ohio and receives several pages of discussion. Carey spent two paragraphs in the introductory notes to the 1814 edition of his atlas discussing this map.

The map also includes a strip of land in northwestern Ohio which would become the subject of the Toledo Wars and ultimately become part of Michigan.

Engraved by Samuel Lewis, Smith notes that the map is one of the first to depict the early counties of Ohio (23) and contains many interesting inaccuracies, Deerfield County (located above Hamilton & Clermont), never existed. Gallia County is Gallipolis and Columbiana is Columbia. Lewis paid particular attention to the Indian Wars between 1790 and 1794 and the War of 1812. Carey had been criticized for his early depiction of this area. However, Fort Adams and Fort Recovery are still depicted too far to the West, outside of the State boundary, and Perry's victory in Lake Erie is referred to as Pudding Bay.

Carey's General Atlas published in 1814 was the first American Atlas to be offered for sale with hand coloring on the maps.

The Toledo War

The Ohio-Michigan boundary dispute, known as the Toledo War, was a territorial conflict over the Toledo Strip, a 468-square-mile region between northern Ohio and southern Michigan. The dispute originated from ambiguities in the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which defined state boundaries, and an error in the 1802 enabling act for Ohio's statehood, which described the northern boundary based on an inaccurate map by John Mitchell. The Toledo Strip included the city of Toledo, located near the mouth of the Maumee River, a strategically significant area for trade and transportation.

In 1835, Michigan, under Governor Stevens T. Mason, passed the Pains and Penalties Act, criminalizing Ohio’s exercise of jurisdiction in the Toledo Strip. Ohio, led by Governor Robert Lucas, responded by organizing the region as Lucas County. Both states deployed militias to the area, with skirmishes occurring near the town of Phillips Corners (now part of modern-day Morenci, Michigan). Despite the mobilization of militias, the conflict remained largely bloodless, with only minor altercations reported.

President Andrew Jackson became involved in the dispute in 1835, appointing Richard Rush and Benjamin C. Howard to mediate. However, their efforts to reconcile the two sides failed. In 1836, Jackson signed legislation admitting Michigan to the Union as a state on the condition that it cede the Toledo Strip to Ohio. To compensate Michigan, Congress granted it the western two-thirds of the Upper Peninsula, a region initially intended for Wisconsin.

Michigan initially resisted the compromise, with its citizens voting against the agreement in a convention held in September 1836 in Ann Arbor. However, a second convention, known as the "Frostbitten Convention," held in December 1836, reluctantly accepted the terms, enabling Michigan to achieve statehood on January 26, 1837. The Toledo War officially ended, leaving Ohio in possession of the Toledo Strip and Michigan compensated with valuable mineral-rich lands in the Upper Peninsula.