Harbor View

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How Harbor View began

Harbor View is a village of 0.02 square miles on Maumee Bay, established in 1921 and completely encircled by the city of Oregon, which was Oregon Township until 1957. The surrounding township was erected in 1837 on land that, at the mouth of the Maumee, had been home to an Odawa (Ottawa) village and to the French Navarre brothers who lived among its people, and much of it was not open to settlement until the Ottawa treaty of 1833. A secondary source describes the village as a former Lake Erie summer resort before heavy industry changed the area; its population peaked at 392 in 1950 and was 89 in 2020.

Incorporated 1921.

Where the name comes from

The origin of the name Harbor View is not recorded in the available histories. Waggoner (1888) does record how the surrounding township was named: it was popularly called 'Utah', Henry W. Hicks proposed 'Yondota', and Pierre M. Irving suggested 'Oregon' in 1837, probably inspired by Washington Irving's Astoria.

Before the town

No Native village, camp or treaty event inside Harbor View's own small boundaries is recorded in the sources we reviewed. For the surrounding township, Killits (1923) records that the six Navarre brothers were living in 1808 with the Odawa (Ottawa) at their village at the mouth of the Maumee; that the Ottawa treaty concluded at Maumee in February 1833 gave the Navarres an 800-acre reservation; and that before that treaty much of the township's land was not open to white settlement. In 1835 the Ottawa chief Au-to-kee, son of Tush-que-gan, deeded to James W. Knaggs 125 acres of his treaty grant 'at the mouth of the Maumee River (south side) adjoining Presque Isle,' bounded north by Lake Erie. Waggoner (1888) records that the 1807 Treaty of Detroit reserved a tract four miles square on Maumee Bay including the village where Meshkemau and Waugau lived. None of these sources places a site within Harbor View. The Harbor View Historical Society states that it was formed to document the Native inhabitants and early settlers of Oregon and Harbor View.

Nations recorded here: Odawa (Ottawa).

• Odawa village at the mouth of the Maumee (village) — mouth of the Maumee River, in the territory of Oregon Township; exact site not given, by 1808 until the 1830s (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1807 — The Treaty of Detroit reserves a tract four miles square on Maumee Bay including the village of Meshkemau and Waugau.
2. 1808 — The Navarre brothers, Alexis, Antoine, Francis, Jacques, Peter and Robert, are living with the Odawa at their village at the mouth of the Maumee.
3. 1833-02 — The Ottawa treaty concluded at Maumee grants the Navarres 800 acres and opens more of the later Oregon Township to settlement.
4. 1835-08-04 — Chief Au-to-kee deeds 125 acres of his treaty grant at the mouth of the Maumee, bounded by Lake Erie, to James W. Knaggs.
5. 1835 — On the same August day that he sells 125 acres to James W. Knaggs, the Ottawa chief Au-to-kee sells George B. Knaggs and E. A. Forsyth the 81-acre tract known as Presque Isle for $1,000, certified by agents John E. Hunt and Horatio Conant.
6. 1837 — Oregon Township is erected on a petition presented June 11 by Isaac Street and others, with the first election set for July 4 at Street's house; the name Oregon is suggested by Pierre M. Irving, nephew of Washington Irving, over the popular 'Utah' and Henry W. Hicks's 'Yondota'.
7. 1856 — On December 2 the part of Oregon Township inside Toledo's limits is annexed to Port Lawrence Township, and the part of Port Lawrence outside the city is attached to Springfield Township.
8. 1872 — By an ordinance of July 2 and county action of December 30, Toledo annexes more of Oregon Township to the Wood County line; on November 2, 1874 the part of Manhattan Township south of the Maumee is added to Oregon.
9. 1888 — Waggoner describes Oregon Township as the largest in Lucas County, about 80 square miles, where timber and stave making had been carried on, Captain Eber Ward of Detroit had held large tracts and built ships on a canal to Lake Erie, and a lumber and stave mill still ran in the east.
10. 1893-03-19 — The eastern part of Oregon Township is cut off to form Jerusalem Township.
11. 1921 — Harbor View is established as a village on Maumee Bay.
12. 1930 — The census counts 292 residents in Harbor View in its first count after its 1921 founding; it counts 361 in 1940 and a peak of 392 in 1950.
13. 1950 — The village's population peaks at 392 residents.
14. 1957 — Voters in Oregon Township approve incorporation as the city of Oregon, 3,660 to 2,925; Harbor View remains a separate village inside it.
15. 2020 — The census records 89 residents, down from the 1950 peak.
16. 2023 — The village's estimated population ticks up slightly to 90.

Stories

Utah, Yondota, Oregon

When settlers on the east and south side of the Maumee asked the Lucas County commissioners for a township of their own on June 11, 1837, the petition came from Isaac Street and others, who had already laid out a town on that shore called Oregon. The territory was popularly known as 'Utah'. Henry W. Hicks, who owned a fine estate there, devised the 'euphonious' name Yondota, which found its way into the records in the transfer of his farm but was not accepted by the settlement. The name Oregon was suggested by Pierre M. Irving, a nephew of Washington Irving who lived in Toledo from the spring of 1830 to the summer of 1838 to look after his uncle's interests; Waggoner, writing in 1888, thinks it was probably inspired by his uncle's book Astoria, which had awakened great interest in John Jacob Astor's trading lands. Irving left for a visit to New York in 1838, never returned, and died there in 1876. Harbor View, founded in 1921, sits entirely inside the territory of that township.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · bloggerbill.com · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · harborviewhistoricalsociety.org · archive.org

Lake Erie, via a submerged intake crib about 1.5 miles offshore and 16 feet deep, connected by a 48-inch line to the Low Pressure Pumping Station near Anchor Point Marina The water here

• Oregon City100% of residentsLake Erie

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Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
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