Alger

How Alger began

Alger began in 1882 as Jagger, a station laid out by Elias Jagger along the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad in Marion Township, at the edge of the drained Scioto Marsh in northern Hardin County. It was renamed Alger for Russell A. Alger of Michigan, a governor of that state, and was incorporated as a village in 1890 according to the 1910 county history, or in 1896 according to Wikipedia. The railroad and the reclaimed marsh muckland shaped its early economy; today it is a small rural village of under 900 people four miles south of Ada.

Platted 1882-10-23, incorporated 1890-03-03 (1910 county history); 1896 (Wikipedia), by Elias Jagger, on his own land.

Where the name comes from

First platted as Jagger, for founder Elias Jagger. Later renamed Alger in honor of Russell A. Alger, 20th Governor of Michigan.

Before the town

No source specific to Alger or Marion Township, Hardin County, names a Wyandot, Shawnee, or other village, camp, or trail on this ground. Alger sits near the Scioto Marsh, on which a drainage project was begun in 1859; marshland of that kind was Native hunting ground before removal, but no site-specific record was found. The nearby township of Roundhead (elsewhere in Hardin County, not adjoining Alger) is named for the Wyandot chief Roundhead, an associate of Tecumseh who lived in the area in the early 1800s -- a county-level fact, not a Marion Township one. County-wide, the Wyandot and Shawnee held this part of northwestern Ohio until the War of 1812 ended Anglo-Indian resistance, and the last Indian village in the county was abandoned by 1817.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1882 — Elias Jagger lays out the village of Jagger along the newly built Chicago & Atlantic Railroad in Marion Township.
2. 1883-spring — The Chicago & Atlantic Railroad is finished across Marion Township; the new town of Jagger, on the southeast corner of Section 8 where the railroad crosses the Ada and Round Head turnpike, already has two saw mills running with acres of logs around them, and hopes to become a shipping point if the marsh is drained.
3. 1886 — The first onions are raised on the drained Scioto Marsh, of poor quality because the soil is new; about 16,000 acres are eventually reclaimed, of which about 2,000 are put in onions.
4. 1890-03-03 — Alger is incorporated as a village, according to the 1910 county history, which also says the name was changed from Jagger to Alger some years after the town was laid out; Wikipedia gives 1896.
5. 1896 — The village, by then renamed Alger for Russell A. Alger, is incorporated.
6. 1900 — The Alger Gazette, a country newspaper, is founded.
7. 1906-10-23 — The Alger Savings Bank is organized under Ohio law with $25,000 in capital stock, $15,000 paid in, and Alex Carmen as president.
8. 1909 — A disastrous fire in the summer destroys the hotel, the livery stable and most of the business section; the town rebuilds, but with only a few stores.
9. 1910 — Alger has about 1,000 inhabitants by the county history's count, a large clay works making brick and tile with a planing mill and sash and door factory, onion storage houses holding up to 65,000 bushels, a brick schoolhouse costing about $18,000, and Methodist Episcopal and United Brethren churches.
10. 1960 — Alger records its highest census population, 1,068.
11. 2020 — Census population is 837.

Stories

From Jagger to Alger

When the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad was built across the edge of the Scioto Marsh, Elias Jagger laid out a village on his own land on October 23, 1882, and it took his name. The 1910 county history says the name was changed from Jagger to Alger some years after the town was laid out, in honor of Russell A. Alger of Michigan. That history gives March 3, 1890 as the date of incorporation, while Wikipedia gives 1896.

Onions on the drained marsh

Alger was laid out in October 1882 on the northwest edge of the Scioto Marsh, a wet wilderness the 1883 county history said would make the village a place of considerable trade only if the marsh were drained. It was. About 16,000 acres were reclaimed by ditching and by dredging the Scioto, and land that sold for about a dollar an acre wild went for one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five once drained. The first onions were raised in 1886 and tasted rank, but as the water left the muck soil the flavor improved, and by 1910 onions were Alger's business: the villagers were almost all onion farmers or onion shippers, and storage houses beside the railroad held the crop until prices were good. The weeding needed 1,200 to 1,500 workers a season, who camped in little shacks on the marsh, and school boys and college students earned their next year's tuition crawling along the green rows in June.

Photographs

Local history sources: remarkableohio.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · thevillageofalger.gov · hardincountyohio.gov · en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Alger Village99% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Mcguffey Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public libraries (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• Fiscal emergency: declared 2005-08-09, released 2011-12-20. source

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