All 8 locations of the PCDL will be closed Monday June 20th in celebration of Juneteenth - Freedom Day

Checkout audiobooks at any of our 8 locations of the PCDL, download from our digital catalog https://ohdbks.overdrive.com/, or download from hoopla https://www.hoopladigital.com/

Did you know?

• In June 1915, the first 18 county graduates of normal school, mainly from Ottawa and Continental, were honored at commencement in Ottawa. A new law required a year’s study at normal school in order to teach.

• Putnam County landowners voted in favor of establishing a local Soil Conservation District in 1956, which became known as the Putnam Soil and Water Conservation District in 2005. Putnam County was the second-to-last county in Ohio to form a soil conservation district.

• During WWII, German POWs were brought to work in several Putnam County industries, including Buckeye Sugar Company, to supplement local employees.

• In 1921, a demonstration of twenty tractors was held County Commissioner Frank Giesken’s farm west of Glandorf. Tractors were in development during the 1920s, so the demonstration allowed farmers to see their capabilities.

Check out the great prizes we are giving away this summer

Sign up at Beanstack,  record your books & select what drawing you want to enter or get paper reading logs 

**Paper logs must be turned in by June 30 for June Drawings and  by July 30 for July Drawings

All 8 locations of the PCDL will be closed Monday, July 4th

In 1941, County Commissioners implemented a program to reduce the number of crows in Putnam County because the birds were destroying farmers’ seed and corn. Hunters were reimbursed 10 cents for every crow head they brought to the commissioners’ office, and by March over 1000 crow heads were turned in.

Day’s Opera House in Columbus Grove held a musical event in 1924 that benefitted people in Europe who were left in need after WWI. The show featured vocal music and songs on violin and piano, as well as a comedy sketch.

North Creek, a ghost town northwest of Miller City, had its own post office until 1957 after the postmistress, Grace Ball, retired.

The Pandora Potato Exchange shipped their first load of graded and sacked potatoes, which were sold under the “Sandy Ridge” brand name, in August 1931.

In 1951, Nickel Plate Railroad crews laid what were called the longest rails at the time in Miller City. The rails came from a shop in Bellevue and each was 1443 feet long.
 

The sheriff’s office was on the third floor of the Putnam County Courthouse until 1958, when a part of the sheriff’s residence in the county jail was remodeled into office space.

In the fall of 1940, men and women competed in a corn-husking contest in Riley Township before a crowd of around 3000 people. The event also included demonstrations of farm implements by dealers and band music. The contest was an annual event for several years, and took place at farms across the county.

In 1938, the Ohio Sugar Company, a sugar beet refinery founded in Ottawa in 1912, expanded to include a fertilizer manufacturing plant and an alfalfa-dehydrating mill. That year, the company had 10,000 acres of beets contracted for the fall harvest.

In the fall of 1928, five county schools had football teams: Columbus Grove, Continental, Leipsic, Saints Peter and Paul, and Pandora.

The Pandora and Gilboa school districts consolidated in 1951 after the Ohio Department of Education ordered the closure of Blanchard High School in Gilboa due to low enrollment