Arcadia

How Arcadia began

Arcadia was laid out in 1855 on land of David and Ambrose Peters in Washington Township, Hancock County, and most likely was named after Arcadia, Greece. It was incorporated in 1859, the year the Lake Erie & Western Railroad was finished through it, and was damaged by a fire on July 21, 1903. Its recorded population peaked at 689 in 1970, and in 2013 it was recognized as a Tree City USA community. The 2020 census counted 564 residents.

Settled 1834 or 1835 (Ephraim, Ambrose and David Peters, natives of Virginia, on the site), platted July 1855 (123 lots; plat acknowledged July 17, 1855, in Washington Township), incorporated May 1859 (Spayth gives May 15, the 1886 county history May 19), by David and Ambrose Peters.

Where the name comes from

The village "most likely was named after Arcadia, Greece," a Greek place name.

Before the town

No source found records a site-specific Native American village, trail, mound, or treaty event at Arcadia -- the village was not platted until 1855, well after the era of Native settlement and removal in this part of Ohio had ended. Hancock County as a whole lay within the northwestern Ohio territory that remained Wyandot, Shawnee, Delaware/Lenape, Miami, and Ottawa land after the 1795 Treaty of Greenville and was only opened to settlement by later treaties; nothing more specific to this location was found. The county-level file should be checked for anything more detailed about this part of the county before Arcadia was platted. Spayth's 1903 county history lists mounds in Union, Orange, Liberty, Delaware, Allen, Blanchard and Pleasant townships; none is listed for Washington Township, where Arcadia stands.

Timeline

1. 1834 — Ephraim, Ambrose and David Peters, natives of Virginia, settle on the site of the future village.
2. 1855 — Arcadia is laid out.
3. 1858 — The Methodists build the first church in Arcadia, where regular services are still held in 1886; a steam grist-mill built by Samuel Blackford in 1858-59 burns in 1873 and is not rebuilt.
4. 1859 — Arcadia is incorporated, with George W. Kimmell the first mayor and Dr. D. B. Spahr recorder; a post office opens the same year with A. W. Frederick as postmaster, and the Lake Erie & Western Railroad is completed through the village.
5. 1860 — A Presbyterian society of fifteen members is organized on January 28, mostly from Enon Valley church in Big Lick Township, and builds its frame church in Arcadia in 1862.
6. 1870 — The village's recorded population is 288.
7. 1872 — The Lutheran congregation, begun in Jacob Heistand's barn, dedicates its brick church in Arcadia in September.
8. 1874 — Arcadia Lodge No. 595, I.O.O.F., is instituted in July with fifteen charter members.
9. 1880 — The census gives Arcadia 396 people.
10. 1881 — The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway lays iron into Arcadia from May 28, and the first cars cross Main Street on June 2, giving the village a second railroad.
11. 1886 — Arcadia has a four-room brick school with three teachers, four physicians, three handle factories, a steam flouring-mill and two hotels.
12. 1900 — The population is 425, down from 490 in 1890.
13. 1903 — A major fire causes considerable damage in Arcadia on July 21.
14. 1970 — The village reaches its peak recorded population of 689.
15. 2013 — Arcadia is recognized as a Tree City USA community by the National Arbor Day Foundation.
16. 2020 — The census counts 564 residents; the village school is Arcadia High School on Fremont Street.

Stories

Iron across Main Street

Arcadia was laid out in the summer of 1855 on the farm ground of David and Ambrose Peters, but it was the railroads that made it a place. The Lake Erie & Western, which had been surveyed through the county since the 1850s as the Fremont & Indiana, reached the village in 1859, the same year Arcadia was incorporated and received its post office. A second line, the New York, Chicago & St. Louis, the 'Nickel Plate', began laying iron into the village on May 28, 1881, and on the second of June the cars ran across Main Street, as Beardsley recorded in his county history that year. By 1886 the crossing supported a steam flouring-mill and elevator, three handle factories, a pump factory and a broom factory. The Blackford steam grist-mill of 1858, the village's first mill, had burned in 1873 and was never rebuilt.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Arcadia Village100% of residentsEast Branch Portage River (via 6 storage reservoirs)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Superfund sites (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026 edition (Directory of Officials): county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 6 of 6 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

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

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-02-18

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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