In 1941, a young man pulled up to a filling station in Fort Jennings, ordered a quart of oil from Gilbert German, and while German was measuring the oil, the man demanded the station’s cash. German turned, threw the oil in the man’s face, and the man fled empty-handed.
The Hector Creamery and Cheese Company was founded in 1891, making it Putnam County’s first creamery, or milk and cheese store. Hector, now a ghost town, was located in the southwest corner of Palmer Township.
Deisel-Wemmer opened a cigar factory on Main Street in Ottawa in 1917. It operated until 1924, when it closed due to labor shortages, difficulty in training employees, and the increased use of machinery in cigar production. At the time it closed, the factory had 70 employees.