The Fascinating Story of Ohio's Borders | Shape of the Union Episode 1 (Countryball History) 

The Toledo dispute is thought to be the origin of the great Ohio State vs Michigan rivalry.

Amazing to find out that Ohio and Michigan's rivalries have been going on since our founding

Over 10 years ago there was a history channel series, called “how the states got their shapes.“ I bought the DVD, and was very disappointing to find out that it spent little to no time discussing… How the states got their shapes. It was actually more like “a few interesting facts about each state“ you, sir, have bettered them!

It's absolutely wild to think Connecticut was once much longer than it is today! Though the claim went beyond the Mississippi, as Connecticut's grant stated it would be from sea to sea, so out to the Pacific! Connecticut gave up western land claims following the American Revolutionary War in exchange for federal assumption of its debt, but of course held onto the Western Reserve of what's now northeastern Ohio for a bit longer. And something the region has in common with Connecticut: Clambake! After the Civil War, railroads began carrying fresh Atlantic seafood on ice from New York through Pennsylvania, Ohio and on to Chicago, which led to it becoming popular around Cleveland! Cleveland's Public Square was actually designed when it was part of Connecticut! Moses Cleaveland oversaw the New England-style design of the plan for what would become the modern downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning to CT, never again to visit Ohio. Moses Cleaveland once served in the Connecticut militia as a brigadier general during the American Revolution, and he was a shareholder in the Connecticut Land Company!

What a super video! As a resident of Ohio for almost 90 years, I'm amazed at how much was involved in defining the boundaries of the state. I'm also impressed at the amount of detail and humor you've managed to include in what would normally have been a pretty boring subject. Well done on all counts.

And that, children, is why Ohio State - Michigan is THE Game. There may be a military cease-fire but the war ain't over. Oh and by the way, the Shawnee may have pronounced the Maumee more like Mao-mee but we pronounce it Maw-mee.

Connecticut actually went to war with the Pennsylvanians three times over its Pennsylvanian portion before the federal government forced them to give it to Pennsylvania. Not on the border between Ohio and Kentucky, but an interesting Kentucky border that's the result of a river is the Kentucky Bend on the Mississippi River. The Kentucky Bend is bordered by Missouri to its north, but there is no bridge between it and New Madrid. The only way to leave the Kentucky Bend is through its southern border with Tennessee, and it's also the only way to get to the rest of Kentucky. Why does the Kentucky Bend exist? Good question! So the border stems from the Royal Colonial Boundary of 1665, which was meant to delimit overlapping inland claims of the Colony of Virginia and the Province of Carolina, respectively. It's unclear why the line was drawn this way, perhaps early surveyors simply incorrectly assumed the river's course. Tennessee once disputed it until 1848. The area was greatly affected by the New Madrid earthquakes in the early 1800s, some of the strongest in the US, and the changes in the river at that time may have been a contributing factor. At one point in time, 332 people lived there in 1880 as it was a big cotton-producing area. The six-decade feud on the Bend between two families was mentioned in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi.

There are a couple of issues at the beginning of the video. 1) The western land claims by various states were not some slapdash thing done post independence, but were based and the vague nature of their boundaries as laid out by their colonial charters upon their founding. These claims were often "from sea to sea", theoretically meaning "from the Atlantic to the Pacific". A great example would be the first colony, Virginia. In 1609, two years after the founding of Jamestown, the King gave the colony a land grant that shifted the colony's boundary south to Cape Fear in North Carolina and extended due west. The Northern boundary started in central New Jersey and extended northwest into Pennsylvania and New York and into Canada, this basically gave Virginia claim to most of the continental US and Western Canada. Then in 1611 the southern boundary was shifted to the 29th parallel, which basically cut through modern day Northern Florida. This basically gave Virginia a claim to the whole of the Trans Mississippi West, but then new colonies began to be formed and they received similar "from sea to sea" land grants. 2) The Treaty of Paris, granting the US their independence, was signed in 1783, not 1782. 3) The French did not own Louisiana in 1783. The Spanish did. The Spanish were given it by the French following the conclusion of the Seven Years War/French and Indian War. The French got it back in the opening years of the 19th century, where they then sold it to the Americans in 1803.

As a Toledoan (Perrysburg to be exact) with only very basic knowledge on the squabbles between Ohio and Michigan for Toledo, this was a really intriguing and educational video! I love the style, the use of Google Earth reminds me of one of my favorite creators (Jon Bois), and it’s a style that really excels here when talking about the geography involved. Great first video, keep it up!

Ohio and Michigan fought a war, and Wisconsin lost.

The art is amazing and the video is awesome! Now it's time for the algorithm to hold up its end of the bargain.

Yo loved the video. Fascinating history. I learned a lot, as an Ohioan I appreciate it. Like the Polandballs style too.

It’s now 2023 and nothing has changed between Ohio and ❌ichigan 😂

As a Cincinnati resident Symmes really screwed up the area. Much of the plots of land that were sold, had never been surveyed leading to many local disputes. Oh and he never set aside land for a university (unlike Ohio University in Athens) leading to the repurpose of Symmes personal estate for the creation of Miami University in Oxford (middle of nowhere)

6:45 Oh! Now I get it. Case Western Reserve University finally makes sense.

5:31 your river (which is a dark brownish green) can’t stop us

this was very well executed! I undertood a lot, I hope you do more of these!

Great Video man👏🏾👏🏾

Proud to be ur 100 subscriber

All these years later Ohio and Michigan still hate each other 😂😂😂

Over here from TikTok! Amazing video, can't wait to see something like this for Missouri and why we have the bootheel!!!

Found you on TikTok and have been loving your stuff - so glad to see you've moved to RU-vid, too! This is a great first video and I'm excited to see what else you produce!

Great video man!

Very well made, nice job there :D

WTF, your videos are great, why are there only three? This channel could be huge. Hopefully, you're not ill or dead, and just have something else taking up your time.

Came from VTH to support you, fantastic video hope you continue to make videos and see the growth you deserve

This is REALLY well done. I'm a fan.

Subbed and great presentation !

Pennsyvania didnt just take the land back from Connecticut through political means. They went to war. 3 times. The yankee pennamite wars are little known but a neat part of pa history.

growing up I lived on a road creatively named "Old State Line Road" kinda cool to learn that it REALLY WAS the old planned state like between ohio and michigan.

Hella yes! Well done... Can wait for the next one. O-H!

Dang good content man. Keep it up

From tiktok, love your videos man

Love your TikToks and love this as well! Great work!! - A fellow Kansan lol

You are underrated, I am sure to subscribe

Great video I think you'll have a great future on youtube

Yo this is great content I hope you produce more of it

Nice content! I came here from your TikTok account

Captivating!!!!! Thank you.

Good stuff!

excellent summary, thank you

Toledo here. One more very important part had been left out. Plans for a canal system were in place that ended in Toledo so Ohio was not going to pay for a canal that took commerce to MICHIGAN

This was a pretty good video!

21:54 in some ways, the toledo war still continues today. Its mostly between the sports teams in the two states and their fans. The michigan-ohio state football rivalry is the biggest example imo.

Great stuff and I appreciate your hard work in doing the necessary research. Being from CT and having had relatives migrate to OH, I was hoping though to learn more about the resolution of the CT Western Reserve claim - and when and why that claim disappeared.

Vlogging through history brought me here.. great video

This was amazing

Great video

Its the border version of “fun with flags” by Sheldon Cooper

Sent this way By Chris with Vlogging Through History. I Enjoyed the video!

Love the bit about Athens and Ohio University.

This is a good video for teachers and regular viewers alike. I think you did a good job blending in both humor and informational facts. Although the portrait at 7:38 is actually of Rufus King.

Having grown up on the northern Pa/Oh border this has always blown my mind. I try to tell ppl whenever I can that it was the original 'wild west', while also gushing on abou lt the beauty of the Erie, Grand, Chagrin, and Cuyahoga valleys.

Personally as an Ohioan I propose they can have Toledo and we'll take the UP since they refused it the first time

As someone born just a few dozen yards from the Great Miami River, I can't believe I was almost a New Jersian...

impressive

I saw a bit of your Oklahoma border story on TikTok. Followed to RU-vid and enjoyed this one too!

You are SO underrated

I LOVE GATE NERD

1. I love this! I'm so happy to find someone who actually goes into more of the detail of individual territories within territories that formed the States rather than just another oversimplification video on the topic. So much gets missed! It shaped the State's and Country's character! 2. I think you should differentiate terms. The "stealing" of land should only be used as a term when actual federally sign agreements were violated. Or before being legally discarded, etc. People groups breaking signed treaties is a normal occurrence in history, of course. The Persian Empires and the Eastern Roman Empire alone are clear examples of that, but the USA should have been expected to keep its honored word if it saw itself as above such things, and how it wished to be dealt with by others with their honor in that regard as well. The other term I would differentiate and rather you use to be more descriptive of specific Indian battles, just plain removals, or events would be the word "Conquest." The natural law of conquest was practiced by Indian tribes, nations, empires, Europeans, and then Americans alike. So differentiating the different removals by using the words "Stealing" and "Conquest" would be very helpful. Thank you! 3. Why does the year 1863 keep popping up near the end? Was that a mistake? 4. I do not regret the Electoral College! You could make the USA country ball split on the issue for the joke though!

You now what, Michigan can have Toledo

Subbed

I would like to actually point out something. American settlements did exist in Ohio before the revolutionary war. It’s just that the seven years war destroyed most of these settlements. Also fun fact the Quakers stopped a large amount of these settlements till the start of the Seven years war when the brutality of the conflict and scope of it expanded across the entire frontier.

Great video young man, keep up the good work.👍

At 17:06, you flip the year around. I'm pretty certain it should be 1836, not 1863. All around, though, great job!

Glad to see people continuing the legacy of Brain4Breakfast

Shawnee were some fearsome warriors the Comanche and Apache of Ohio.

very good video

Taking 3 tries to correctly pronounce the indigenous name for a river is peak America.

Hell yeah Ohio university representation. I’m a proud bobcat baby

I seen your tiktok and i really love history

As someone loosely related to Rufus Putnam, I have learned more through this one video about my own history than my home state ever taught me. Ohio Education truly is something.

I live near this region now. I knew of this, still amusing. Many of the towns were built around forts. My family on my father's side has been here at least 150 years.

Came from TikTok. Love your videos. This channel deserves to be huge. Keep going!!!! 😊👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Buckeyes nearly screwed us. Great vid

9:30 You say this like it is a bad thing. The Shawnee didn't farm, so therefore they weren't using the land anywhere close to its full potential. To this day, Native Americans don't exploit the land as well as we do. The United States supports far more people in far more wealth then would be possible if the Shawnee still controlled the land in their traditional ways. I won't apologize for that.

Ohio called the first frontier, yet everyone forgot Kentucky and Tennessee that was settled since 1770's

You correctly pronounced Muskingum (muskeggum or muskiggum) River but botched the Maumee. It's not Polynesian but First Nations and pronounced mawmee.

9:55 Super interesting to a local who lives near modern-day Symmes Township, which lies in part of this sane area!

I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan (11/10/1946), but grew up in Cleveland, Ohio (mom was from there). With that background, you would think I would know Ohio's history a lot batter. Not. I wonder why we never had any civics or history classes about the state? Great video. ;-)

Do you still make videos? The ones on your channel are pretty awesome and I'd love to watch more of your content!

I grew up in Marietta! Great town.

As a genealogist, I always find it amusing when I read an historical reference saying that somebody "moved to the West" -- meaning OHIO!

Great video, thanks! As someone who lived in Toledo for 5 years though, Maumee is pronounced "Maw-mee".

Growing up in Cleveland, I never really understood why EVERYONE hated Michigan. Took a podcast or two to hear about the Toledo war. The fact I live in Cuyahoga county often makes me think and therefore upset... E: Didn't mean to detract!!! This is an amazing video. Never really thought about why all the western states are so squared off lol...

this is the first ohio empire

I have a direct line relative who was awarded land in southern Ohio. For serving in the War of Independence

Yo love the videos hope to see you making some new content

Nice one showing off the great side of the polandball community

Sent by VTH. This was an incredible video

I now live in Toledo! I was born in Cleveland, and I grew up in Niles, Michigan. In between living in Niles and Toledo, I spent most of my life living in Indianapolis. So I found this video interesting since going through school, I was only educated on Michigan history, and not Ohio. I knew how Michigan borders were formed, but until I viewed this video, I knew nothing of the content about Ohio. Now, if I could find a similar video on Indiana.

growing up in hilly SW Ohio (outside of Cincinnati), I never knew most of Ohio was flat. Until I went to Bowling Green University and drove back and forth

Very good I love country ball’s

As a Michigan resident with family living in North Carolina, I can honestly say that the worst part of driving to visit them is transiting through Ohio. Sheer tedium at the slow speed limits in place which are enforced by more state troopers per mile than any other state in which I’ve driven. O how I hate, Ohio state.

Now Toledo is a place that neither state would want

As an ohio university grad and resident of Athens I very much enjoyed this video

Ohio should have just pushed into Michigan with it's Militia and show them why we become one of the leading states to send the most troops to the Union during the Civil War lol

10:12 Another fun fact of Symmes is that he was the main proponent of the theory that the Earth is actually entirely hollow. There is a "Hollow Earth" monument in the city of Hamilton (major city in the Symmes Purchase region). Wacky part of histiry that's fun to visit if you happen to fund yourself driving theough Butler County Ohio

As a toledoan, our part of Ohio is much more culturally similar to Michigan than the rest of Ohio! Also super interesting hearing all these people’s names that ended up being Ohio county names!

I would love to see a video on Alabama/Mississippi! The Spanish control of the future states of Louisiana and Florida plus the claims of Georgia made for a lengthy process of shape changing for the Mississippi and eventually the Alabama territories.