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The original northernmost lock in a canal system which linked Lake Erie with the Ohio River was located near the foot of LaSalle Street. Indiana’s Wabash & Erie Canal (1843-1874) joined Ohio’s Miami & Erie Canal (1845-1913) near Defiance and shared the same course to this location. Toledo’s Swan Creek side cut became the northern terminus in 1864.
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The Toledo University of Arts and Trades was established in 1872 with an endowment of 160 acres of land from Jesup W. Scott, local pioneer, publisher, and real estate broker. Scott envisioned Toledo as the “Future Great City of the World” and wanted an institution to train young people to fulfill their roles in the city’s bright future.
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In 1872, Jesup W. Scott donated 160 acres at this site as an endowment for a university to train “artists and artisans” to assume important roles in a growing industrial Toledo. The University held classes at Scott Park from 1922 to 1931. In 1969, the site of Scott’s land donation became the site of the University’s Community and Technical College.
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In 1847, eight persons formed a mission parish of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Sandusky Circuit). Reverend Henry J. Young, the minister, had come to Toledo through the Underground Railroad, as had some of his congregation. Richard Mott and Congressman James Mitchell Ashley helped the mission to rent a frame building on the southwest corner of Adams and Summit streets. The mission later became the Toledo Circuit of the A.M.E. Church.
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On March 5, 1817, Lieutenant Almon Gibbs, formerly of Army Lodge No. 24 at Fort Meigs, Perrysburg, formed Northern Light Lodge No. 40 “at Waynesfield” (now Maumee). Gibbs served as Worshipful Master, William Griffith as Senior Warden, and Charles Gunn, Junior Warden. The lodge was founded under a dispensation from Henry Brush, Ohio Grand Master and Captain of the Ohio Militia. Among many prominent early members was General James B. Steadman of Chickamauga fame. Almon Gibbs later became Maumee’s first postmaster and Justice of the Peace. [Masonic Symbol]
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The Wabash & Erie Canal opened between Toledo and Lafayette, Indiana, May 8, 1843. The Miami Extension Canal was completed to Junction, Ohio, on July 4, 1845, linking the Wabash & Erie Canal with Cincinnati and resulting in changing the canal’s name to the Miami and Erie Canal. Prosperity reigned until the 1850s when railroad competition caused a slow decline in commerce. The canal branch to Indiana was in disuse by 1858 and totally abandoned in 1888. The canal system was revived from 1906-1909 with much reconstruction and improvement only to be badly damaged by severe statewide flooding in 1913. The canal was maintained from here to Maumee for generating hydro-electric power until it was drained in 1929. Twelve miles of canal and the Maumee Side Cut Canal have been leased to the Toledo Area Metroparks since 1932.
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This rail line was the original route of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, the first railroad to operate west of the Allegheny Mountains. The train made its initial run on October 3, 1836 from Toledo to Adrian, a total of approximately thirty miles. In 1837, a steam locomotive replaced horses as the train’s engine. The E. & K. R.R. opened markets from Lake Erie to the Michigan Territory.
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The earliest improved public road west from Lake Erie to the Indiana border, the Territorial-Indiana Road was built by the U.S. Government in 1834-1835 through the Cottonwood Swamp, then a major obstacle to travel. It ran parallel to the Harris Line, the northern boundary of a narrow strip of land contested by Ohio and Michigan from 1803 until 1836, when Ohio annexed it following the “Toledo War.” Completion of the 110-mile road gave farmers and settlers much improved access to markets and new western lands. It became the Indiana Plank Road in 1848 and later Sylvania-Metamora Road. The Toledo and Western Electric Railway’s parallel right-of-way was completed in 1902.