City of Toledo Marker
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Toledo Marker in front of the Government Center.
A Toledo postcard, circa the 1930s.
An aerial view of Toledo, date unknown.
The Toledo skyline today. Photo by jrossol on Flickr.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Toledo, which was named in 1833, became a part of Ohio is 1836 after the “Toledo War” boundary conflict between Ohio and Michigan. The city was incorporated in 1837 after the merging of the towns of Fort Lawrence and Vistula. Despite the appeal of the Maumee River for commercial transportation, the population spurred on slowly due to the devastation of a series of epidemics in 1838 and 1839. Once the Miami-Erie Canal was completed in 1845, the population began to rise more steadily.
The growth of industry and the presence of railway and water transportation turned Toledo into a city. A number of companies, from breweries to furniture producers, sprang up. One particularly successful venture was Libbey Glass Works, which earned Toledo the nickname “City of Glass.” It and other glass companies came to Toledo after natural gas was discovered there in 1888.
By the turn of the century, Toledo had become one of Ohio’s biggest cities. The city continued to focus on manufacturing, which led to it suffering high unemployment rates during the Great Depression. However, during World War II, many of Toledo’s factories turned to producing items for the war effort, including jeeps at the Willys-Overland Company. Toledo has continued to be the home of a great deal of manufacturing and is now the fourth largest city in Ohio.
Sources
Toledo, Ohio. Ohio History Central. Accessed October 19, 2018. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Toledo,_Ohio.
Toledo Ohio skyline day. Flickr. October 19, 2005. Accessed October 19, 2018. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jrossol/54147883. Photo source.