Glandorf

How Glandorf began

Glandorf was founded in 1833-34 by Johann Wilhelm Horstmann and six fellow German emigrants from the town of Glandorf, Germany, who sailed from Amsterdam on the ship Columbus in September 1833 and bought Putnam County land that December; more families, including Horstmann's wife, followed in 1834. Horstmann built a combined log church, school, and rectory the same year, dedicated to St. John the Baptist; the congregation's current Neo-Gothic church, consecrated December 15, 1878, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A Precious Blood Sisters convent operated in the village from 1849 to 1917.

Settled 1833 (land purchased December 1833), by Johann Wilhelm Horstmann and six fellow German emigrants from Glandorf, Germany.

Where the name comes from

Glandorf kept the name of the German town of Glandorf from which its founding families emigrated in 1833.

Before the town

No Native American site or village specific to Glandorf was located in the sources checked. Glandorf lies within Ottawa Township, near the eastern edge of the former Blanchard's Fork Ottawa Reserve.

Nations recorded here: Odawa (Ottawa).

Timeline

1. 1833-09-07 — Johann Wilhelm Horstmann and six fellow emigrants from Glandorf, Germany sail from Amsterdam on the ship Columbus.
2. 1833-11-06 — The group lands in New York.
3. 1833-12 — The settlers purchase Putnam County land.
4. 1834 — Horstmann builds a combined log church, school, and rectory dedicated to St. John the Baptist; wives and ten additional families join the settlement.
5. 1835 — A wooden church replaces the original log structure.
6. 1843 — Johann Wilhelm Horstmann dies; his land passes to the community.
7. 1846-1848 — A brick church building replaces the wooden church.
8. 1849 — A Precious Blood Sisters convent opens in Glandorf, operating until 1917.
9. 1878-12-15 — The current Neo-Gothic St. John the Baptist church is erected and consecrated.
10. 1977-06-17 — St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

A German Village Transplanted Whole

Glandorf is one of the more literal examples of chain migration in Putnam County's history: Johann Wilhelm Horstmann and six other men from the town of Glandorf in northwestern Germany sailed together from Amsterdam on the ship Columbus in September 1833, landed in New York that November, and by December had bought land in the recently opened Putnam County swampland -- naming their new settlement for the German town every one of them had left behind. They did not stay alone for long. Wives and ten more families followed within the year, and Horstmann's first act on the new ground was not a house but a single combined log building serving as church, school, and rectory at once, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. That congregation outgrew a wooden church by 1846 and a brick one by 1878, when the Neo-Gothic building that still stands today was consecrated -- a building substantial enough, in a farm village of German Catholic settlers, to anchor a Precious Blood Sisters convent from 1849 until 1917. Horstmann himself did not live to see the brick church: he died in 1843, leaving his land to the community he had founded less than a decade earlier.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Putnam County on the full map

Blanchard River (via intake reservoir) The water here

• Ottawa Village74% of residentsBlanchard River (via intake reservoir)
• Glandorf Village26% of residentsBlanchard River (via intake reservoir)

Dialysis centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 1 of 1 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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-30

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.

Cite this page