Documents representing Ohio's legal history, including an early criminal and civil code as well as the record of the first Lucas County commissioners' meeting, are now on display at the Main Toledo-Lucas County Public Library in downtown Toledo.
The exhibit, one of the largest public displays of local historical material, opened last night. It runs through Nov. 29.
The codes and the government documents in "From the Wild, Wild West to Law and Order: The Evolution of the Law in the Northwest Territories" date from 1750 through the formation of the Toledo Police Department in 1868. They detail the change from frontier wilderness to the formulation of the rule of law in what is now known as Toledo.
Among the items loaned by John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade, for the exhibit are:
w●Maxwell's Code, the first criminal and civil code for the Northwest Territory - land that later would be known as the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin - published in 1795. Maxwell's Code marks one of the first attempts of Northwest Territory residents to move from a lawless frontier to a community based on law and order. It is the first book published inside the boundaries of what is now known as Ohio.
●The Treaty of Paris, 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. The treaty took all land east of the Mississippi River from France and gave it to Great Britain.●The journal of the convention that met in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Nov. 1, 1802, to write the state's first constitution.
Nineteen of the 31 documents on display are from Mr. Block's private collection.
All the documents are in The Blade Rare Book Room of the Local History and Genealogy Department on the third floor of the Main Library, 325 Michigan St.
The exhibit is free and open to the public during regular library hours.
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