U.S. #1018
3¢ Ohio Statehood
Issue Date: March 2, 1953
City: Chillicothe, OH
Quantity: 118,706,000
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Rotary Press
Perforations: 11 x 10½
Color: Chocolate
U.S. #1018 commemorates the 150th anniversary of Ohio’s admission to the Union. The stamp pictures an outline of the state behind the state seal. Sixteen stars line the sides, representing the 16 states added to the Union before Ohio, and a 17th star appears above the seal, representing Ohio.
Ohio’s Road to Statehood
Ohio became part of the Northwest Territory in 1787. That year the Northwest Ordinance was passed, which provided for granting Ohio, and other territories, statehood. On April 7, 1788, the Ohio Company of Associates established Marietta, the first permanent European settlement in Ohio. In July 1788, Marietta became the first capital in the Northwest Territory. Veterans of the American Revolution were rewarded for their service with land grants. Many of these veterans began settling along the Ohio River.
In 1800, the Division Act created the Indiana Territory out of the western part of the Northwest Territory, which was given the new capital of Chillicothe. In 1802, a convention met in Chillicothe to create a constitution in preparation for statehood. On March 1, 1803, Ohio became the 17th state to join the Union. The capital city alternated several times during a relatively short period of time. First it was Chillicothe, then Zanesville, then Chillicothe again, and then Columbus – the present-day capital.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 gave the U.S. control of the Mississippi River. This meant that goods from Ohio could be shipped down the river to the port of New Orleans. This trade was further enhanced by the introduction of steamboats. The first steamboat to travel the Ohio River was the New Orleans in 1811. In 1818, the steamboat Walk-in-the-Water became the first steamboat to sail on Lake Erie. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, and the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1832, further enhanced Ohio’s economic growth. However, the railroads soon came to replace these waterways as the primary means of transporting goods.
Treaty Of Greenville
On August 3, 1795, the United States and a group of Native American tribes (known as the Western Confederacy) signed the Treaty of Greenville, establishing the boundary between American and Native American territory.
The United States gained title to the massive Northwest Territory from the British after the Revolutionary War. However, there were over 45,000 Native Americans living in the territory at that time. And the British maintained their forts while supplying and encouraging the Native Americans to prevent American settlement.
Since the Native Americans in the Northwest Territories were not included in the Treaty of Paris, they refused to recognize the United States’ claim to their territory. In 1785, members of several Native American tribes met in Fort Detroit and agreed to band together to fight the United States, rather than fighting on their own. This marked the start of the 10-year Northwest Indian War, also known as Little Turtle’s War. Little Turtle was the chief of a Miami tribe that historian Wiley Sword described as “perhaps the most capable Indian leader then in the Old Northwest.”
When they met the following year, they established the Ohio River as the boundary between their territory and that of America. The Western Confederacy included the Wyandot (Huron), Shawnee, Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Lenape (Delaware), Miami, Kickapoo, Kaskaskia, Wabash Confederacy, and Chickamauga Cherokee.
Attacks on American settlers began shortly after and the number of raids quickly increased. America sent its first troops over in the fall of 1786, led by General Benjamin Logan. However, their attack was on several Shawnee towns whose warriors were out raiding forts in Kentucky. The attack and deaths of noncombatants angered the Shawnee, who in turn retaliated with larger and more frequent attacks.
President George Washington sent military expeditions against the Indians in 1790 and 1791, but they met with defeat. Then, in 1792, Washington appointed Anthony Wayne head of the U.S. Army. This brilliant tactician had earned the name “Mad Anthony” Wayne through his acts of reckless courage during the Revolutionary War.
On August 20, 1794, Wayne’s forces defeated a large army of Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, near present-day Toledo, Ohio. (Click here to view the original statue that U.S. #680 was based on.) That defeat was a major blow to the Native American cause. Additionally, the British and Americans signed the Jay Treaty a few months later. In that treaty, the British agreed to evacuate their forts, meaning they could no longer provide assistance to the Native Americans. With this realization, the Native American leaders agreed to meet with the Americans to discuss a treaty.
On August 3, 1795, both parties met at Fort Greenville (present-day Greenville, Ohio) to establish a treaty of peace. Wayne represented America and Little Turtle the Western Confederacy. In addition to ceasing hostilities, the representatives agreed on a new border between the U.S. and Indian land, which became known as the Greenville Treaty Line. America also gave the Native Americans $20,000 in goods (blankets, utensils, and animals).
Other Americans present for the signing of the treaty included William Wells (who would go on to serve in the War of 1812), future president William Henry Harrison, and explorers William Clark and Meriwether Lewis.
In spite of the terms of the treaty, many American settlers ignored the boundary and settled in Native American territory, leading to further conflicts in the coming years.
Click here to ready the full text of the treaty and here to view a map of the borders it established.