Fredericksburg

How Fredericksburg began

Fredericksburg was platted in 1824 by Jacob Frederick and named for him. The village peaked early, with 573 residents recorded in the 1850 census, and has declined gradually since, standing at 409 by 2020. It has a substantial Amish presence today, evident in businesses serving both buggies and automobiles, and is home to Mrs. Miller's Homemade Noodles, a nationally distributed pasta maker, and Robin Industries, an automotive-parts manufacturer. The village's Wikipedia article also credits it, without corroboration in Isaac Singer's own biography, as a place where Singer briefly worked before founding the Singer Sewing Machine Company.

Platted 1824-11-27, by Jacob Frederick.

Where the name comes from

Fredericksburg was named in honor of its founder, Jacob Frederick, who served as one of Wayne County's Associate Judges beginning in 1826.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, mound or treaty event specific to Fredericksburg was found in the sources checked.

Timeline

1. 1824 — Jacob Frederick plats the village and it is named for him.
2. 1850 — Population recorded at 573, an early peak.
3. 1891 — The old Fredericksburg School is built.
4. 1955 — Local school consolidation creates the Waynedale Local School District, ending the old Fredericksburg School's independent operation.
5. 2020 — Population recorded at 409.
6. 1813 — William Searight builds the first sawmill on Salt Creek, four rods above the Gilbert Searight residence, the earliest mill recorded in what became Saltcreek Township.
7. 1824 — Jacob Frederick lays out Fredericksburg, November 27; the plat and certificate are recorded two days later, in Volume 3, page 450, of the county recorder's office. James Russell, a blacksmith, builds the first house in the town; Samuel Miller keeps the first hotel; Cornelius Dorling and Mr. Frederick keep the first store, in the old still-house.
8. 1828 — The first schoolhouse in Fredericksburg is built, where Andrew Knox's blacksmith shop later stands; John C. Taylor is the first teacher there, though C. P. Tennant had already taught a select school in the township twelve years earlier.
9. 1876 — Judge Frederick's second grist mill, built in 1836 with a capacity of 200 barrels a day and later run by Joseph Firestone, John Miller and Jacob Frederick, is destroyed by fire.

Stories

Two brothers, philosophy on both sides of the same argument

Fredericksburg produced brothers Brand Blanshard and Paul Blanshard, who each built substantial public careers but pointed them in different directions. Brand Blanshard became an American philosopher known for his defense of reason and rationalist epistemology. Paul Blanshard became a lawyer, author and prominent secular humanist, serving as an assistant editor of The Nation and writing influential, sharply critical books about the political power of organized religion in American life. That a single small Wayne County village, platted by Jacob Frederick in 1824 and never home to more than a few hundred people, produced two brothers who each left a mark on American thought about reason, belief and public life is one of Fredericksburg's more notable claims.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Fredericksburg Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-09
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-06

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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