Haskins

How Haskins began

Haskins sits in Middleton Township, southeast of Bowling Green. William King had it surveyed in July 1862 as a shipping and church center for the surrounding farm district, with a post office the year before, and by the end of 1863 it had already overtaken the older hamlet of Hull Prairie. It incorporated in 1869 and, decades later, rode a mid-1890s boom when the nearby Sucker-rod oil field was developed.

Platted July 23, 1862, surveyed by D. D. Ames for William King, a few years after the railroad reached the site, incorporated village, January 1, 1869, by William King.

Where the name comes from

No source we found states for whom Haskins was named. The 1897 county history says Collister Haskins, 'at Portage', was the only settler between Findlay and the Maumee before 1828 and mentions a Haskins road at Bowling Green, but it does not connect him to the village, which William King laid out in 1862 and which Wikipedia says was platted when the railroad was extended there.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork or named Native village specific to Haskins was found in any source consulted; the county's own 1897 history states that no such evidence exists anywhere in Wood County.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1861 — A post office is established at the future site of Haskins, with William King commissioned as its first postmaster.
2. 1862 or 1863 — Before the village existed, Hull Prairie is the postal village for the district; the Baptist and Methodist societies are already organized at Haskins and by the close of 1863 it has eclipsed Hull Prairie.
3. 1862 — The Methodist Episcopal society is organized by Rev. Thomas N. Barkdull; its church is not completed until 1872.
4. 1862-02-08 — The Baptist Society, the first religious denomination to establish itself at the site, organizes as a branch of the Perrysburg Society; on May 12, 1866, it becomes independent and adopts the name 'Haskins Church.'
5. 1862-07-23 — Haskins is surveyed by D. D. Ames for William King, who intends it as the shipping point, post-office village and church center of the surrounding farm district; by the close of 1863 it has already eclipsed the older hamlet of Hull Prairie.
6. 1867-12-11 — German Reformed Emanuel Congregation is organized with Anthony Opperman, Jacob Dauer and Philip Meyer as trustees.
7. 1868 — St. Paul's German Lutheran Church is organized by Rev. C. F. Kaeding.
8. 1869-01-01 — Haskins is incorporated as a village, on the petition of residents including Jonathan Ames, D. D. Ames, Howard Piper and others.
9. 1869-07-25 — The First Presbyterian Church is organized; its building is dedicated January 14, 1872.
10. 1870 — The village counts 243 residents in its first federal census after incorporation.
11. 1872-11-07 — Roche de Boeuf Lodge of the Odd Fellows is instituted, chartered in May under the Indian-style name Rush-ta-boo.
12. 1875-12 — The council orders a calaboose 16 by 24 feet built; it is finished in March 1876.
13. 1876-02 — The Baptist church, 30 by 55 feet with a basement, is completed.
14. 1880 — The census counts 381 residents.
15. 1881-04-16 — Harry Carter Post No. 56, G.A.R., is chartered, named for a soldier of the 21st and 67th Ohio Infantry who died in service.
16. 1893-07-29 — Charles S. Woodford is commissioned postmaster.
17. 1895 (spring-summer) — The village booms as the nearby Sucker-rod oil field, discovered after a 1,125-foot well was drilled at Waterville in 1889, is actively developed; the county history calls it 'a golden one in its history' for trade and population growth.
18. 1895-04 — Seventy women vote for school directors in the village.
19. 1895-09-25 — A fire starting in the Burleigh cottage spreads to a doctor's office, a dwelling, and westward to the meat market and blacksmith and wagon shops, destroying them; the village's bucket brigade, its only fire department, cannot stop it.
20. 2010 — The census counts 1,188 residents, nearly double the 638 of 2000; it counts 1,245 in 2020.

Stories

The fire of September 25, 1895

Haskins had escaped serious fire loss until the evening of September 25, 1895, when a blaze started in the Burleigh cottage. It spread to Dr. Greenfield's office, then to P. G. Garrett's dwelling, and westward to the meat market and the blacksmith and wagon shops, all of which were destroyed. The village had no fire department beyond a bucket brigade, which could not check it. The fire came in the middle of the best year Haskins had known: in the spring and summer of 1895 the Sucker-rod oil field, opened after the Waterville well of 1889, made the village one of the busiest spots in the oil region, bringing trade, imports and exports, and new residents.

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

No water-system data is linked to Haskins's ZIP codes yet.

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Police stations (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 2 of 2 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 2 of 2.

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 2026-05-14

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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