By: MELINDA KRICK

It Happened in October …

Many important and memorable events in Paulding County history have taken place in the month of October. Take a step back in time to:

1841 – Antwerp village is platted by Horatio N. Curtis, Isaac Woodcock and Samuel Rice and surveyed by W. Wilshire Riley and James Riley. They begin offering about 100 town lots for sale.

1860 – The first county fair is held at Junction at Doyle’s on the east side of the canal. Premiums are offered for many departments. A trotting match and a plowing match are on the schedule.

1872 – The first county fair is held at the new fairgrounds in Paulding. The agricultural society raised $900 to purchase 25 acres of land and began clearing the property, building a fence, stands, stalls and office.

1882 – The long-awaited New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, better known as the Nickel Plate Road, begins running trains through the county.

1882 – The village formerly known as Malottville, called Puckerbrush by some, will now be known as Payne.

1884 – The public school building at Payne was discovered to be on fire and as the village has no fire company, the citizens were unable to combat the flames. The school, the furniture and about half the books were burnt to ashes. The building was a nice two-story frame and was only completed about a year ago.

1899 – Thousands of people listen to presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan speak on the courthouse lawn during a train tour of northwest Ohio. He spoke nearly an hour on the grave questions that concern the nation.

1902 – The Windiate flouring mill, formerly the Weidmann Mill, is totally destroyed by fire. In a few minutes the entire structure was ablaze from top to bottom. The fire soon spread to the adjoining buildings, the brick barn, the large store house, corn cribs, etc. The loss is estimated at more than $50,000. The mill, established by the Weidmann Company in 1888, was three stories high with a basement under the entire structure.

1903 – A fire destroys the Cincinnati Northern and Nickel Plate depot at Latty. The papers, books and some freight and expressage was destroyed. The fire is supposed to have been caused by an explosion of an oil lamp left burning in the express room. This leaves two railroads without shelter for their patrons.

1907 – A company of Paulding citizens has leased a farm and will raise 60 acres of tobacco next year. Although the acreage of tobacco was small this year, only about 125 acres, the yield has been exceedingly flattering.

1910 – An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people attend the formal opening of the new million-dollar German-American Sugar Co. beet factory at Paulding. Speakers include Governor Harmon and gubernatorial candidate Warren G. Harding. A parade of about 100 automobiles to the factory grounds was a highlight.

1912 – The town of Paulding will soon have special free delivery of mail. Postmaster Cullen was informed that this town could get free delivery services if the citizens would comply with requirements necessary to meet postal regulations. Paulding was selected out of 30 towns recommended in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky and one of 15 towns in the whole U.S. to be used as a test for better mail facilities. A meeting of citizens was called and response was enthusiastic. Council passed an ordinance providing for marking the street intersections and numbering houses.

1920 – The county commissioners have succeeded in getting the state highway department to take over portions of the Junction Pike, Antwerp-Payne Pike and Oakwood-Defiance Pike as state roads.

1920 – As women prepare to cast their ballots for the first time, Isabella Hakes, age 81, of Oakwood, has the honor of being the first woman in Paulding County to vote for a president of the United States, by absentee ballot. Mrs. Zona Secrest is a candidate for probate judge.

1921 – Of the 15 who served on the grand jury, seven were women, this being the first time in the history of the county that women have ever served on a jury.

1933 – As part of a Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association program, $500 is raised in three days to equip the sheriff’s office, car and county jail with short-wave radio receiving sets.

1934 – A historical meeting at Fort Brown celebrates the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the first flour and saw mill in Paulding County, Brown’s Mill.

1940 – The Paulding Lumber Company and the depot freight office and warehouse of the Cincinnati Northern Railroad lie in smoldering ruins, the results of a fire of unknown origin. Damages are estimated at up to $100,000.

1941 – Oakwood’s Varsity “O” Club nullifies the present name of “Green Devils,” by which the basketball team had been known. Members proposed three new names—Trojans, Bobcats and Archers. The student body voted and the name “Bobcats” is initiated into the school. The name “Green Devils” was voted on by students back in 1934. Monograms of the “Green Devil” were difficult to obtain and very expensive.

1943 – Arden King of Payne receives the American Farmer Degree at the national Future Farmers of America convention. A 1941 graduate of Payne High School, he is the first in the county to receive this award.

1960 – A UFO report from Paulding County was made to Project Blue Book, U.S. Air Force. The individual saw a “very brilliant star” in different locations in the night sky, several nights in a row, sometimes turning orange and red. The person said that the light would disappear suddenly. According to the Air Force report, the individual did not reply to a follow-up questionnaire and the sighting was concluded to be Jupiter.

1982 – The Oakwood News publishes its final issue. The newspaper began in 1889.

1983 – Dedication ceremonies and open house are held for the new Grover Hill Elementary building.

2001 – The “Freedom Playstation” opens at LaFountain Park in Paulding. For five days, hundreds of volunteers gladly toiled – some for nearly 14 hours a day – to build the giant play area. About 300 people attended the dedication ceremony on the final day. The name was chosen following through a contest among county students.

2009 – Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels are among the dignitaries who help open a 23-mile segment of newly constructed U.S. 24 between Woodburn and Defiance. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is held on the four-lane highway at the state line. Sections connecting Woodburn to I-469 and Napoleon to Toledo will be completed by 2012.

Melinda Krick has a heart for preserving local history. Thanks to her, soon you will have the opportunity to place an important volume of Paulding County history on your bookshelf.

The Historical Hand-Atlas 1882 Illustrated and History of Paulding County, Ohio is now available for presale, with delivery in November, just in time for Christmas.

Only a few copies of the original over-sized book—printed 144 years ago—survive, and the photocopied versions that are floating around are small print and difficult to read.

Published 10 years later, the 1892 Paulding County atlas is widely available, thanks to a reprint done in 1976 to honor the country’s Bicentennial. The 1882 volume contains original information that the 1892 atlas does not.

The newly printed nine by twelve-inch hardcover edition is 124 pages long, and packed with local history from a century and a half ago. Besides summaries of local, township, and village histories, the book contains biographies of the leaders of the community as well as township maps and several never-before printed photographs.

So much changed locally in those 10 years. Paulding County would have been in its canal era in 1882, and on the cusp of railroad transportation. Both a north-south and an east-west railroad opened in 1882, just months after the publication of the book. Krick points out that the Reservoir War still was five years in the future when the original was printed, and the courthouse that stands today was not yet built.

“This is going to be completely new material for many people. It’s exciting to think that some kid is going to pick up this book and have insight to what Paulding County was like all those years ago,” said Krick. “Today, we take for granted what these pioneers had to endure.”

Many of the featured citizens resided along one of the two canals, and many of those locations are now ghost towns. The personal sketches reveal that a lot of children did not survive to adulthood and a lot of mothers did not live through childbirth. The book’s profiles include former slaves, women and a great many Civil War veterans. It also contains some history of the Indians who resided in early Paulding County.

The original 1882 atlas contained no local maps or photographs. Popular in the last quarter of the 1800s, these books were designed as global atlases containing world, United States, and Biblical histories with maps and illustrations pertaining to these larger subjects. Typically, a small section in the back was devoted to local history. That content was contracted out to historians and newspaper editors of that region, and individuals paid to have their biographies printed in them.

Local author, poet and journalist Everett A. Budd was responsible for the Paulding County histories in both the 1882 and 1892 atlases. He used some material from the 1882 book for the 1892 version, making the 1882 Atlas original source material. Budd was a Civil War veteran and early Paulding County settler. He wrote a poem about Bowman’s Rock, which sits in the Oakwood Park to this day and bears his name.

“This was maybe the first attempt at writing a county history. He had to completely compile all the information – go through handwritten records and go talk to other early settlers to gather facts about the first residents, first marriages, first schools, first churches, early industries and more,” said Krick. “We can easily look up this information now, but there were no libraries and few newspapers here in those days. Mr. Budd pretty much had to start from scratch.”

For the reprint of the 1882 Atlas, Krick used the 1878 plat map, which is the earliest known map of Paulding County property owners. That map is widely available, but has not been printed in a book before.

Also, she painstakingly restored dozens of photos to include in the book, using a computer program rather than A.I., taking up to eight hours per image to restore. Many of the originals had been taken using glass-plate negatives in the days before film cameras were used.

“The photographs give people a taste of what it was really like in the early days,” said Krick. “The wooden buildings, plank sidewalks, dirt streets, business signs and large multi-paned windows take you back to another era. You just wonder what was in those buildings. Who worked there? What were they selling?”

She said that the pictures of the Six-Mile Reservoir make you feel like you could actually be standing on the bank and looking out over miles and miles of water with the unbroken woods in the background.

Amid this year’s buzz about America’s 250th Anniversary, talk of reprinting the 1882 Paulding County atlas and offering it to the public increased at the Paulding County History Museum. Krick felt called to be the one to take on the project.

“I’ve never done a book or anything this long,” Krick explains, “but I felt like I had the knowledge and skill to do it.”

From 1998 to 2019, she was the editor of the Paulding County Progress, where she created an annual supplement, called Visions, which highlighted local history in each issue and became something that readers collected.

Most recently, Krick has been one of the researchers to obtain the Paulding Downtown Historic District designation. From that information, she created a Historic District Walking Tour brochure. She worked on the three Paulding County pictorial history books and wrote the application for the Ohio Historical Marker at New Rochester.

Pictures are her passion. Since the 1980s, Krick has collected photographs of local historic significance. Many appear in this book, as well as several from the museum’s collection.

She poured many volunteer hours into the project, from planning to reformatting to adding original maps and photographs, resulting in a very accessible “new and improved” version of the original 1882 work. It was helpful to bounce ideas off of fellow volunteers at the Paulding County History Museum, said Krick. She also enlisted some of them to be proofreaders.

The 1882 Atlas will be an invaluable resource for genealogists and researchers of local history. The book is available for a presale cost of $45. The 1892 Atlas can also be purchased in a bundle for a presale price of $55 for both books. Pre-sale orders are due by Nov. 10 and can be purchased through the Paulding County History Museum. Order forms also are on the museum’s Facebook page, at the library and at West Bend Printing in Antwerp.

After that date, the regular price for the 1882 Atlas will be $50, and the two books together will be $60. All proceeds from the sale of the books go to the museum.

Krick will be among several local authors at the museum’s “Meet the Author Night” on Tuesday, Nov. 17. The event will be open to the public and is part of the upcoming Festival of Trees celebration.

PAULDING – “Railroads, Ghost Towns and the Civil War” will be the subjects of guest speakers Mike Iler and Mike Speiser at the Paulding County History Museum at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 20, 2026.

The men, both Paulding County residents, will share stories behind some of the interesting artifacts they have found in the county while metal detecting.

The program and meeting are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served after the program. Guests may tour the museum before and after the meeting.

The museum is located at 600 Fairground Drive in Paulding, across from the fairgrounds. It is open every Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Admission is free.

On an exquisite autumn day in early October, several history buffs and supporters of the preservation of the historical significance of Paulding County Ohio citizens converged on the lawn of the Live Oak Cemetery in Paulding just behind the Paulding Exempted Village Schools. Attendees paid a nominal donation to tour a selected few gravesites – including one inside the newly renovated mausoleum – where volunteers were in character to tell the stories of four individuals that helped shape what the Village of Paulding and surrounding area is today. Jessie Pursel, Sergeant Theodore Aaron Noffsinger, Gilbert Barnes, and Chase W. Hastings were the featured Paulding residents.

The tour started in the mausoleum where Gilbert Barnes, portrayed by Paulding County Engineer Scott Strahley, was laid to rest in 1923. Barnes was a noble family man whose contributions to the establishment of the village of Paulding include the infamous Hotel Barnes and Barnes Mansion. There is some discrepancies of his birth year that were discussed but Strahley’s hoping it doesn’t disturb his eternal rest.

Next up on the tour was down the lane to the resting place of Sergeant Theodore Aaron Noffsinger. Paulding County Commissioner Mark Holtsberry told a slightly despondent tale about Noffsinger’s life in the military. He was never married, and he had a simple burial in November of 1918. His mother is buried beside him.

Just up the cemetery road, the tour next came to Chase W. Hastings. Hastings was born in Indiana in 1866 and later moved with his family to Paulding County, where he attended local schools before studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1891. He practiced law in Grover Hill and was appointed Probate Judge in 1904, serving until 1909 and earning a reputation for being courteous, fair and just. During his humble life, he also served as Mayor, of which village, it’s unclear. Hastings died in 1917 leaving behind a legacy of faith, friendship, community involvement and the respect of those who knew him. More than a century later, perhaps the best summary of Chase W. Hastings is the headline his own community gave him in a local newspaper when he died: “A Good Man.”

Rounding out the tour was a lady of renown for the Paulding community — Jessie Pursel. Her family were the owners of the Pursel & Pursel Clothing Store on the square in Downtown Paulding. At one point, their clothing store was the largest in the region for women’s clothing. Though never married, Jessie’s legacy as a woman business owner in a day when that was not all that common or accepted has been an inspiring portion of Paulding County history.

The Community Revitalizing of Paulding was the organization who coordinates this event each autumn. It was a fabulous day to celebrate the distinguished residents of Paulding Ohio.

PAULDING – Antique trucks and special interest vehicles were on display Sunday, September 20, during the Flat Rock Creek Fall Truck Show at the Paulding County History Museum.

A highlight of the day came during an ATHS meeting held in conjunction with the show, when longtime volunteer and preservationist Gary Crowl was presented with a 50-Year Golden Achievement Award recognizing his decades of dedication to the preservation and restoration of trucks and farm equipment.

The Flat Rock Creek Fall Truck Show was held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and included free admission and parking, with donations benefiting the Paulding County History Museum. Lunch was also available at the museum.

Sunday, September 13, Sherwood Village Mayor David M. Weaner officially signed a proclamation declaring September 13, 2026, as John L. Fahy Sherwood VFW Post #5665 Day in honor of the post’s landmark 80th birthday!

First organized on February 24, 1946, Sherwood VFW Post #5665 has spent eight decades serving our local veterans, their families, and the wider community.

As we celebrate this incredible milestone, we also pause to honor the dedicated leaders who have guided—and continue to guide—our post. We give special recognition to:

Current Commander: Mark Baden

Acting Commander: Tom Case

Current Quartermaster: Greg Adkins

Past Commanders: John Walk, Ned Steele, Jerry Mekus, Max Haver, and Ron Luderman

Past Quartermasters: Max Haver, Ron Luderman, and Darwin Shroeder

We also remember the brave hero behind the post’s name: Shipfitter First Class John L. Fahy. Entering the U.S. Navy from right here in Ohio, Fahy made the ultimate sacrifice on October 15, 1942, during the grueling Guadalcanal campaign. He was serving aboard the Gleaves-class destroyer USS Meredith when it was struck and sunk by enemy carrier aircraft. While his remains were never recovered, his bravery and legacy remain permanently enshrined in our hearts and through the vital work of Post #5665.

Please join us in thanking the members of Sherwood VFW Post #5665 for 80 years of dedication to our community, and let us always remember the legacy of Shipfitter First Class John L. Fahy.

Presented by Community Revitalizing Paulding (CoRP), the cemetery walk will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Live Oak Cemetery on Emerald Road in Paulding on Saturday, October 3rd. The final tour will depart at noon.

Visitors will walk among the headstones at Live Oak Cemetery, where costumed interpreters will portray people whose lives helped shape the Paulding community and share their stories at their final resting places.

Among the individuals highlighted during the walk:

 a local businessman whose grand hotel became a landmark in downtown Paulding;

a prominent judge whose influence reached beyond the courtroom;

a serviceman who died in action during World War I and was returned home for burial;

and a local milliner who traveled to Chicago and New York and brought big-city styles back to Paulding.

Tickets will be available at the cemetery, with children ages 12 and younger admitted free. Refreshments will also be available.

The event will be held rain or shine, and proceeds will benefit Paulding CoRP.

By; MELINDA KRICK

40 Years Ago

From the Paulding Progress, Sept. 17 1986:

Dr. Earl Butts, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, was the guest speaker at the Paulding County Farm Bureau meeting Sept. 11.

St. John Lutheran Church, Briceton, will celebrate its 100th anniversary with special events on Sept. 20-21.

Residents of Grover Hill and the immediate area are facing a problem with disposal of wastewater. A public hearing has been set at Grover Hill Elementary School to discuss sewage collection and treatment alternatives open to the village.

Members of the Visiting Nurse Auxiliary considered plans for the annual Christmas Walk, to take place in a number of homes in the Haviland-Latty Area.

Defiance County American Association of Retired Persons Inc. (AARP) is sponsoring a new chapter in Paulding.

Five Span Marina is sponsoring the Auglaize Crappie Tournament Oct. 4, a first for the establishment.

55 Years Ago

From the Paulding Progress, Sept. 15, 1971:

The Paulding water treatment plant set a record, pumping 19,627,000 gallons during August, due to the amount of water needed for Stokely tomato factory processing. The plant operator, Phil Hull, has been working 14-16 hours daily, seven days a week. Also, the village administrator reported the swimming pool situation is in “bad shape” as the income was only $5,952.40 up to Aug. 31, compared to about $7,600 last year.

H. Kent Mawer is the new Sears authorized catalog sales merchant for Paulding.

Bryan’s Bar, owned and operated by Eugene “Tuffy” Bryan, is now open at 107 W. Perry St., serving breakfast, lunch and snacks. Assisting Tuffy will be Bud Ross.

The Payne-Blue Creek-Grover Hill school consolidation opened with 1,686 students.

75 Years Ago

From the Paulding Progress, Sept. 20, 1951:

A new church edifice, recently completed by the Latty Apostolic Christian Church, opened to visitors at special worship services. Formal dedication services will be held Sept. 30. Ground was broken for the new church in the fall of 1949.

The county’s first case of polio this year has been reported.

A Mid-Western Ohio Semi-Pro Baseball Tournament will be held at Grizzly Ball Park. Grizzly, Grover Hill, Middle Point and Edgerton, four of the outstanding teams in this part of the state, will play a four-team tournament.

E.E. Rush, proprietor of the Vagabond Village, has donated special award trophies for the Paulding High School football and basketball teams. The trophies will be awarded on the basis of sportsmanship, aptitude and grades.

Some 4-H winners at this year’s Paulding County Fair: Dairy Showmanship, Jim Overmyer; Swine Showmanship, Russell Stoller; Sheep Showmanship, James Johanns. Individual Market Pigs, Burl Barnes Jr.; Dairy Cow, Jim Overmyer; Dairy Heifer, Richard Yoh; Market Lambs, Allen Overmyer; Steers, John Eibling; Beef Steers, John Eibling. Champion steer fitted by John Eibling, Payne, weighing 1,215 lbs. bought by Stucky Farm Equipment Co. at 37 cents a pound; Champion market pig fitted by Burl Barnes Jr., weight 225 lbs., bought by Stucky Farm Equipment for 25 cents a pound.

125 Years Ago

From the Paulding County Republican, Sept. 19, 1901:

A nation mourns our martyred President William McKinley, who died at 2:15 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the hand of an assassin. The new president is Theodore Roosevelt.

The big fair is now in full swing with everything indicating the best fair ever held in the county. The grounds have a new Art Hall, new speed barn and stock sheds, new fences and first class accommodations. The Wiseleys have on exhibition their famous herd of Poland China swine. Thomas Barbert of Carryall Township shows his fine herd of cattle. Mrs. J.E. Dix of Paulding made 109 entries in the vegetable department. There are now on the grounds about a dozen running horses and 39 entries in the six harness events. Balloon ascension and parachute drop by Miss Lillian LaFay every day.

From the Paulding Democrat, Sept. 19, 1901:

Two men from Payne were instantly killed when a building they were working on moving in Edgerton, Ind., collapsed without warning.

Last Saturday night, someone tramped down nearly all the flowers in one of the beautiful flower beds on our courthouse square. The ladies of Paulding have given such care and time to our public flower beds that this is simply outrageous.

Oakwood’s main street is badly torn up just now and farmers are obliged to hitch their teams in the side streets while the pike is being built through town. The city fathers are putting in iron hitching racks for the public.

Township trustees have condemned the bridge that crosses the Little Auglaize River on the Hamer Road.

M.N. Ridenour as principal, and Bessie Graham in the lower room, will begin their school in the Briceton district next Monday.

The 25th annual Flat Rock Creek Fall Truck Show will be held on Sunday, September 20 at the Paulding County History Museum from 10:00-3:00 PM, rain or shine.  As a strong supporter of the Historical Society, the late John Henry Kauser began the show in 2000 (2020 was canceled due to COVID) to benefit the museum and attract more visitors.  The Kauser family and friends are carrying on the tradition today and intend to remain one of the museum’s major fundraisers. The Paulding County Fireman’s Association will host a pancake & sausage breakfast at the fairgrounds.  There will be a free-will lunch provided inside the recently renovated museum kitchen from 11:00 AM -1:00 PM.  Deja Brew by Cassy coffee truck, Fat Pig Smokehouse food truck, and the Grover Hill Lions Club homemade ice cream will also be on the grounds along with a few venders. The Auburn Heritage Truck Club meeting will take place at 1:30 PM inside the museum.  

By: Mark Holtsberry

An Interesting Letter

(part two)

I assure you the line Company boys don’t take my liberal attitude, but are looking down the barrel of that rifle which bent up vengeance.

I’d do the same. You would really be interested in my surroundings. I’m sitting on a second floor balcony with the warm Italian sun creating a false feeling of peace and tranquility. The Italians really go in for spacious buildings, with big flare for unnecessary adornments. My desk is a box of grenades, all over the floor is scattered debris from the surrounding walls. It certainly will be a sad day when the owner returns and finds his house in such ruin. Many of the men have fled into the hills carrying a few meager possessions but they will return gradually as their homes are liberated from the Nazis. They are very bitter against the Germans, and small wonder. They even have looted what little the Italians were able to take with them. All of the stories about the unscrupulous Germans must have been true, even more so what some of the Germans have to say is very interesting.

Before I decide to start a novel on this subject, l’d better sign off, assuring you I am o.k. and will write as often as opportunity presents itself.

Corporal Royce E. Smith

35345369 85th Infantry, Division Band

P.S. A correspondent just gave four of us an interview. He took notes on our reaction to our first enemy air bombing. I consider myself lucky I didn’t get hit. Those Stukas were plenty terrifying. He also took the address of the Paulding Republican Newspaper, which I just received.

Royce Smith was my neighbor from my childhood until he passed away. I loved his sense of humor, craftsmanship in making human models for the Paulding Historical Museum. Leaving model heads in the windows of his shop was often scary. But as he would say, “No one ever broke in”. I knew his father Altie and his mother, Agness, great people. I had really neat neighbors as a kid growing up. I only wish that I would have wrote down what they said. All I have are great memories from old neighbors and watching new neighbors living in their homes. I guess to them, I am starting to be that old neighbor.

… Until Next Time!