JANUARY 26, 1837

In Washington, D.C., President Andrew Jackson signs the bill making Michigan the nation's 26th state. The enactment ended a struggle that began more than two years earlier, when 23-year-old acting Territorial Governor Stevens T. Mason declared that Michigan had a "right" to be a state, despite Congress's refusal to endorse a state constitutional convention. The struggle had become focused on the ownership of a 500-square-mile stretch of land called the Toledo Strip. Ohioans and Michiganians traded hostile words and then mobilized their militias to assert their claims. While Congress debated the matter, Michiganians wrote a state constitution with several farsighted features, including a comprehensive public education system under a state superintendent. President Jackson's signature also finalized Michigan's acceptance of a congressional proposal giving Toledo to Ohio and the wilderness of the western Upper Peninsula to Michigan.

• Learn more about Michigan's fight for statehood:
  • visit the Michigan Historical Museum in person
  • see the online version of the museum's Statehood and Settlement Galleries

Updated 06/23/2011