Fort Loramie

• Lake LoramieBuilt 1844 · 629 acres

How Fort Loramie began

Fort Loramie takes its name from a fur-trading post built in 1769 by French-Canadian trader Pierre-Louis (Peter) Loramie, who traded with the Shawnee and Wyandot until American forces destroyed the post in 1782. After the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, General Anthony Wayne ordered a supply-depot fort built on the site. The present village was surveyed in 1837 by Jonathan Counts and was first named Berlin for its German Catholic settlers, only taking the name Fort Loramie in 1911. The Miami and Erie Canal was built through the town between 1836 and 1841, and St. Michael's Catholic Church, built in 1881 in the Gothic Revival style, remains the village's landmark, part of Ohio's regional group of 'cross-tipped churches.'

Settled 1769 (Loramie's trading post, near but not on the later village site), platted 1837, by Jonathan Counts (1837 survey); the earlier trading post and fort were established by Pierre-Louis de Lorimier and, after 1794, the U.S. Army under Gen. Anthony Wayne.

Where the name comes from

The village is named for Pierre-Louis de Lorimier (anglicized Peter Loramie), a French-Canadian fur trader who built a trading post near the site in 1769. The platted town was first named Berlin, reflecting its German Catholic settlers, and did not adopt the name Fort Loramie until 1911; no source gives the reason for the change.

Before the town

Fort Loramie's founding story is directly tied to Native American history: Peter Loramie's 1769 trading post served Shawnee and Wyandot traders, and by the Revolutionary War the Shawnee used the post as a staging area for raids against American settlers, prompting Colonel Benjamin Logan's detachment (under George Rogers Clark's command) to destroy it in November 1782. After the U.S. victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794 ended the Northwest Indian War, the fort built on the site in 1795 marked one of the boundary points named in the Treaty of Greenville, the treaty by which the Shawnee, Wyandot, Miami, and other Ohio nations ceded most of the future state to the United States. The site was later referenced again in the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs. No specific named Shawnee village or burial/mound site within the present village has been located in the sources checked.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Wyandot, Miami.

• Loramie's Trading Post / Fort Loramie site (trading post) — just north of the present village of Fort Loramie, Shelby County, 1769 (trading post) to 1795-c.1820 (U.S. Army fort) (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1769 — Pierre-Louis (Peter) Loramie and his father establish a fur-trading post near the future village site, trading with the Shawnee and Wyandot.
2. 1782 — A detachment of 150 men under Col. Benjamin Logan, part of George Rogers Clark's campaign, attacks and burns Loramie's trading post in November; Lorimier flees west across the Mississippi.
3. 1795 — Following the Battle of Fallen Timbers (August 1794), Gen. Anthony Wayne orders a fort built on the site as a supply depot linking Fort Adams, Fort Defiance, and Fort Wayne; the site is named as a demarcation point in the Treaty of Greenville, signed August 1795.
4. 1815 — The fort is sold to James Furrow; its use as a military and trading post ends by 1820.
5. 1817 — The former fort site is referenced again in the Treaty of Fort Meigs.
6. 1837 — Jonathan Counts surveys a new town near the old fort site, first named Berlin for its German Catholic settlers.
7. 1836-1841 — The Miami and Erie Canal is built through the town, spurring growth and enabling construction to begin on St. Michael's Catholic Church.
8. 1858 — The town's first flour mill and general store are built.
9. 1881 — The present St. Michael's Catholic Church, a Gothic Revival brick building, is constructed.
10. 1909 — Canal operation through the village ceases.
11. 1911 — The village, until then called Berlin, is renamed Fort Loramie.
12. 1913 — The Great Flood of 1913 devastates the village.
13. 1979 — St. Michael's Catholic Church Complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

From Loramie's trading post to a demarcation line of the Treaty of Greenville

Peter Loramie's trading post, built in 1769 just north of today's village, was a hinge point in the contest for the Ohio country. Loramie traded furs with the Shawnee and Wyandot, but as tensions with American settlers grew, the Shawnee used his post as a staging ground for raids during the Revolutionary War. In November 1782, Colonel Benjamin Logan led 150 men, part of George Rogers Clark's campaign against Ohio's Native towns, to burn the post to the ground; Loramie himself escaped west across the Mississippi. The site sat abandoned until 1795, when, fresh off Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers, the U.S. Army built a fort there as a supply depot. That same year, the site was named as one of the boundary markers in the Treaty of Greenville, the agreement that opened most of Ohio to American settlement. A civilian town was not platted near the spot until 1837, more than sixty years after Loramie first arrived.

A German village named Berlin, renamed in wartime

When Jonathan Counts surveyed the new town near the old fort site in 1837, its settlers were largely German Catholic immigrants, and the town took the name Berlin. It grew steadily through the canal era and into the twentieth century, anchored by St. Michael's Catholic Church, a Gothic Revival brick complex begun in 1881 that remains part of the regional cluster of Catholic 'cross-tipped churches' built by German settlers across west-central Ohio. In 1911, the village dropped the name Berlin in favor of Fort Loramie, honoring the site's earlier trading-post and fort history.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · hmdb.org

Every historic place in Shelby County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Fort Loramie Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (2)

Public libraries (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (2)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-07

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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