Did you know?
• Cloverdale was first called Evansville, then Drucilla. The town was named Cloverdale when it was platted in 1891.
• In 1882, the Skewer Pin Company was founded in Leipsic; they manufactured wooden pins used to hold meat as it roasted.
• Vaughnsville’s first school opened in 1902. The first year, the school was located in the Henry Gardner building, and it moved to the town hall for its second year.
• February 4th, 1899, burglars blew open the safe at Leipsic’s post office, fled with about $800 in stamps and money, and 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 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, though in the future the fair was held in December. The 1916 fair brought in 10,000 people over the course of three days. People came to see the animals being shown and watch entertainment, including music and horse-pulling contests. The Mid-Winter Fair was discontinued during WWII.
• The Palmer Township Mutual Insurance Company was formed in 1888; at that time, it served four townships. By 1922, it had grown to serve 17 townships and 4 counties. The company’s policies covered loss by fire, lightning, and tornadoes.
• In the early 20th century, Avis a town in Greensburg Township west of Ottawa. was on the Findlay, Fort Wayne and Western Railroad line, and once had a stave factory, post office, train depot, and general store. After the railroad left, the town dwindled until only the general store remained; it closed in 1964.
• Kalida Presbyterian Church congregation organized in 1845 and built a church in 1852. After the congregation disbanded, the Putnam County Pioneer Association used the old church building until around 1940.
• In 1890, 100 Ottawa residents signed a petition asking the village council to install an electric light plant in town. After reviewing Piqua’s electric system, the council approved electric service and on September 30th, 1890, electric lights were turned on for the first time in Putnam County.
• On a foggy day in 1912 outside Miller City, a passenger train hit the rear of a freight train. The passenger train’s engine was turned around in the collision, and the engineer was scalded to death, though the train’s fireman survived.
• Abraham Baughman is credited as the first permanent white settler in the Leipsic area, where he built a log house in 1835. Over the next few years, enough people moved into the area that Baughman and other voters could formally organize Van Buren Township. The township’s first election was held in Baughman’s home on February 18th, 1843.
• James Riley was surveying land, including parts of Putnam County, around 1818 when he fell into a creek, which is how Riley Creek got its name.
• I909, a fire on Main Street on Gilboa destroyed two homes and a few businesses. The fire department’s equipment was mainly a push cart with tools. Men took buckets full of water from the Blanchard River to try to douse the fire.
• Prentiss, a community northwest of Leipsic, began as a railroad station and had a post office from 1896 to 1902. It also had a grain elevator and a store.
• In 1938, ten men and women were hired through a New Deal program to sort, file, and inventory records in the attic at the Putnam County Courthouse.