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Description

Rare map of the towns in northeastern Ohio along the Maumee River, published immediately prior to the Toledo War.

Background

American settlement in the Maumee River area of Ohio began in the early 19th century but was set back by raids by the British and their Indian allies during the War of 1812. Perhaps the earliest such settlement was Port Miami, established in 1805 just below the falls of the Maumee as a port of entry for the newly-created District of Miami but abandoned in 1812. In 1816 Perrysburg was laid out across the river from the ruins of Port Miami and just downstream from Fort Meigs, which had been the scene of much fighting during the war. In the following year Maumee was laid out on the west bank.

In the early 1830s a group of Cincinnati investors began to develop Port Lawrence at the mouth of Swan Creek some twelve miles downstream from Maumee and Perrysburg. Another group, from Lockport, New York, began to develop an adjacent parcel by the name of Vistula. The two merged in 1833 to form Toledo, with the goal of competing against other Maumee River towns to become the northern terminus of the Miami and Erie Canal then being constructed between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Though the town of Manhattan a mile downriver from Toledo was ultimately selected, the latter received a sidecut along Swan Creek, whose greater water depth rendered it the de facto canal terminus. With the canal's completion in 1843 Toledo began a decades-long economic boom, while little Manhattan withered and was ultimately annexed.

The Map

The map depicts the area at the falls of the Maumee River, some 15 miles upstream for Lake Erie. It offers a relatively ambitious vision for Perrysburg, with no fewer than 794 lots platted, most of them small parcels in a dense town center, along with a shipyard along the river and turnpikes connecting with Cincinnati, Columbus and Sandusky.

Across the river are the smaller villages of Maumee and Port Miami, the latter presumably projected as a potential terminus for the Miami and Erie Canal.

The map was "projected" by Albion N. Olney, a Perrysburg Lawyer, who was active in promoting Perrysburg and served as its representative to a Railroad Convention held at White Pigeon, M. T. on January 6, 1835, which petitioned the War Department of the US to Survey a railroad route in order to unite Michigan Territory and Lake Erie by rail.

Heckrotte notes:

Perrysburg was a part of what was called the 12 mile reserve, a government reservation. Perrysburg was first laid out in 1806 and resurveyed in 1816-17. The surveys are illustrated in Sherman. The street pattern and names on the latter are about as in my map, but the original lacks the two diagonal streets present on my map and in today's town....

The map was engraved by G.W. Boynton in Boston.

Rarity

This is apparently the only surviving example of the map.

Provenance: Warren Heckrotte; purchased from Philadelphia Print Shop in October 1995.