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.
• Thomas Ridenour of Dupont, age 99, was the county’s last Civil War veteran, passing away in February 1946.
• 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.
• In 1949, County Commissioners approved the purchase of a radio system for the sheriff’s department. Two-way radios were installed in the sheriff’s office in the courthouse, at the county jail, and in the sheriff department’s cars.
• 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.
• Charles N Haskell was born in Liberty Township and became the first governor of Oklahoma in 1907. He died in July 1933.
• 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.
• Saint Barbara’s Catholic Church in Cloverdale had a parochial elementary school until 1966, when it closed mainly due to a teacher shortage. After this, students in the area went to Continental and Ottoville school districts in Putnam County and Grover Hill school district in Paulding 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
• 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.
• Columbus Grove’s Civic League opened a Civic Center on South High Street in 1922. The center was used as a place for people to do things like rest and eat their lunches; it was also used as a social hall.
• Putnam Airport, Inc. opened in 1946 after being approved by the State of Ohio. The airport leased 20 acres of land east of Ottawa and hired Emery Russell to teach people how to fly a plane.
• In May 1935, preparations began to drill an oil well on the W.B. Gierhart farm in Blanchard Township. At one point or another, almost every Putnam County township had at least one oil well.
• In the 1920s, Putnam County residents used vehicles like the Model T as a car, truck, and tractor.
• Pandora’s1st school, a two-story brick building in 1873, one large room upstairs & downstairs, became a garage for Riley Township when a new school was built across the street.
• Louisa M. Emery, born to J.J. Lowry in West Leipsic in 1852, was one of the first women doctors in Putnam County.
• On February 4th, 1899, burglars blew open the safe at Leipsic’s post office, and ran off with about $800 in stamps and money. Locals pursued the burglars, but they escaped by train. Authorities alerted stations on the train’s path, and when the burglars reached Bellevue, they stole a horse and buggy but were caught after a several-hour chase.
• Although Glandorf was settled in the 1830s, it wasn’t incorporated until 1891. William Altekruse was the town’s first mayor.
• Putnam County’s flood of 1913 ended all boat traffic on Ottoville’s canal because the rushing water tore out several locks.
• In 1840, pioneers in Fort Jennings built a log cabin that they used as a church and school. Local Catholics held their services in the cabin on Sunday mornings, and the Lutherans held theirs on Sunday afternoons.
• Columbus Grove held its first Mid-Winter Fair in January 1913, later held in December & discontinued during WWI. The 3 day 1916 fair brought in 10,000 people to see the animals being shown, music, and horse-pulling contests.
• The Palmer Township Mutual Insurance Company formed in 1888, served four townships. By 1922, it had grown to serve 17 townships and 4 counties, covering loss by fire, lightning, and tornadoes.