Jerry City

How Jerry City began

Jerry City traces to pioneer Jonathan Stull's homestead, which survived the brutal winter of 1842-43 and gave the settlement its first name, Stulltown. Surveyed formally in 1861 and known for a time as Shiloh, it was replatted in January 1872 and renamed for Jerry Nestlerode, a Fostoria businessman. The village incorporated in September 1875, straddling the line between Bloom and Portage townships in southern Wood County.

Settled winter of 1842-43, when Jonathan Stull was already living on the site, platted November 6, 1861, surveyed by J. Hastings for John Smith; replatted January 18, 1872, incorporated village, September 8, 1875, on a petition of 43 residents filed June 8, 1875, by surveyed for John Smith; named for Jerry Nestlerode.

Where the name comes from

The village went through two earlier names in order -- first 'Stulltown,' honoring pioneer settler Jonathan Stull, then 'Shiloh' -- before the November 1861 survey and January 1872 replat fixed it as Jerry City, honoring Jerry Nestlerode of Fostoria, a businessman who had worked in the settlement and left his mark on it. The 1897 county history gives this order explicitly, resolving which name came first.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork or named Native village specific to Jerry City is recorded; the county's own 1897 history states that no such evidence exists anywhere in Wood County.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1842-43 (winter) — Jonathan Stull is already living on the future Jerry City site during the exceptionally hard winter of 1842-43, when settler Amos Deweese recalled Stull had lost all eight of his horses, 28 cattle and 260 hogs to cold and starvation.
2. 1861-11-06 — The site, known as 'Stulltown' after Jonathan Stull and later as 'Shiloh,' is surveyed by J. Hastings for John Smith.
3. 1872-01-18 — A new plat of the village is recorded and the settlement takes the name Jerry City, after Jerry Nestlerode of Fostoria.
4. 1872 — A post office has operated at Jerry City since this year, according to Wikipedia.
5. 1874 — Boyd Lodge (later Vitus Lodge) No. 602, I.O.O.F., is instituted on November 6; it has seventy-four members in 1895.
6. 1875-09-08 — Jerry City is incorporated as a village on a petition of 43 residents, over opposition described in the county history as fought 'at every point.'
7. 1876 — T. C. McEwen is the first mayor and L. D. Milbourn the first clerk of the new village.
8. 1878 — O. N. Bryant is appointed postmaster after two earlier appointments fall through; he serves until 1885.
9. 1881 — Bronson Post No. 85, G.A.R., is chartered on June 6 and named for Dr. Samuel Bronson of the 57th Ohio Infantry, who died at Jerry City on May 8, 1881.
10. 1882 — The German Evangelical Lutheran church is organized by Rev. John Snyder, worshipping in the former McEwen store; a $1,400 building on land given by Jacob Gobbel follows in 1883.
11. 1886 (approx.) — A gas well at Jerry City is producing about 8,640,000 cubic feet a day during the peak of Wood County's natural gas boom, one of the larger wells in the field.
12. 1889 — Rescue Lodge, Knights of Pythias, is instituted on May 29 and a Knights of the Maccabees tent follows on August 29, 1891.
13. 1890 — The population is 530, up from 224 in 1880, and peaks at 555 in 1900.
14. 1894 — A Christian Church society is founded, mostly from the Sugar Grove society; its building on Bronson Street costs $1,600, and the Radical United Brethren dedicate a $1,400 church on January 13, 1895.
15. 1970 — The population is 470 in 1970 and 512 in 1980.
16. 2020 — The census counts 454 residents; the village is in the Elmwood Local School District.

Stories

The hard winter of 1842-43

Before Jerry City had any name at all, Jonathan Stull was already carving a homestead out of the Black Swamp on the future townsite. A neighbor, Amos Deweese, later recalled passing Stull's cabin often during the brutally hard winter of 1842-43 and finding him broken by loss: all eight of his horses had died, along with 28 head of cattle and 260 hogs. Stull, married twelve years with ten children who had no full suit of clothes between them and no bed or window in their cabin, told Deweese he had one peck of corn left to grind by hand and feed his family, and did not know where the next food would come from. Deweese remembered passing other abandoned cabins nearby, their owners driven out by the same winter, with wild hogs that had crowded in for warmth found frozen dead in piles. The settlement Stull held onto through that winter was first called Stulltown in his honor, then Shiloh, before finally becoming Jerry City in 1872.

Three names and a fight over becoming a village

The crossroads in the Black Swamp that became Jerry City was first called Stulltown, in honor of Jonathan Stull, one of the first and best of the pioneers; then Shiloh; and finally, after the village had been surveyed for John Smith by J. Hastings on November 6, 1861 and replatted on January 18, 1872, it took the name of Jerry Nestlerode of Fostoria, who had been in business here and left his impress on the place. In 1875 forty-three residents petitioned on June 8 to incorporate. The 1897 county history says the proposal was fought at every point, but the majority won, and on September 8, 1875 the villagers of Jerry City became a municipal body. T. C. McEwen was elected the first mayor the next year, and the village soon had an Odd Fellows lodge, a G.A.R. post named for the army surgeon Samuel Bronson, who died there in 1881, and a gas well in the great boom of the 1880s.

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

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

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-05-27

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Jerry City, Wood County and its school district:

• Wood County: Renews a 1-mill property tax levy for the provide & maintain senior citizens services or facilities of Wood County for 5 years, beginning in 2026.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

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