Mccomb

How Mccomb began

McComb was laid out by Benjamin Todd as Pleasantville, eighteen lots in Section 26 of Pleasant Township (the 1886 county history gives Section 20), its plat acknowledged on August 18, 1847. The village's own history says the settlement was known locally as Todd Town, and nicknamed 'Toad Town' for the frogs croaking in its ponds. On incorporation in 1858 the name was changed from Pleasantville to McComb, which the village history says honors Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb, the War of 1812 hero and later U.S. Army commanding general; a Scottish veteran who had served under Macomb spelled it 'McComb' in the Scottish manner, and that spelling stuck. The village grew through the Rawson, Dimm Town, Fishell, Rotz, Ewing, Anderson, and Allgire additions and briefly boomed after 1887 when Van Buren's natural gas reached McComb, before supplies ran out around 1892-93.

Platted August 18, 1847 (acknowledged; recorded September 4, 1847), by Benjamin Todd, as Pleasantville, 18 lots in Section 26, Pleasant Township (the 1886 county history gives Section 20), incorporated 1858, by Benjamin Todd (platting); renamed and incorporated as McComb in 1858, first mayor William Chapman.

Where the name comes from

Benjamin Todd laid the town out as Pleasantville in 1847, and the name was changed to McComb when the village incorporated in 1858. The village's own history adds that the settlement was known locally as Todd Town and nicknamed 'Toad Town' for the frogs in its ponds, and that the new name honored Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb, who defended Plattsburgh, NY in the War of 1812 and later commanded the U.S. Army; early settler Elisha Fout, a Scottish veteran who had served under Macomb, spelled the name 'McComb' in the Scottish manner, and the spelling was adopted for the village.

Before the town

No Native American site, village, trail, or documented encounter specific to McComb or the surrounding area of Pleasant Township is recorded. McComb lies within the large tract ceded to the United States under the 1817 Treaty of the Maumee Rapids; nothing found ties it directly to the McComb town site. Spayth's 1903 county history, citing the Ohio Archaeological Society, lists one mound in Pleasant Township without saying where in the township it stood.

Timeline

1. 1847 — Benjamin Todd lays out 18 lots as Pleasantville (plat acknowledged August 18, recorded September 4), the origin of McComb, in Section 26 of Pleasant Township (the 1886 county history gives Section 20).
2. 1848 — A post office is established at the new village with William Mitchell, the first shoemaker, as postmaster.
3. 1850 — S. H. Fairchild builds a small grist-mill, which runs about eight years, and Tipton & Porter put up a steam saw-mill in the village.
4. 1857 — Isaac Cusac builds a steam flouring-mill (in 1857 or 1858); remodelled in 1884 with the roller process, it is counted among the finest mills in Hancock County.
5. 1858 — The village incorporates and its name is changed from Pleasantville to McComb; William Chapman becomes first mayor.
6. 1859 — McComb Lodge No. 354, I.O.O.F., is instituted on July 29 with six charter members.
7. 1862 — William Bensinger and John Reed Porter, two of the first recipients of the Medal of Honor for the Great Locomotive Chase of April 1862, are later buried in McComb.
8. 1872 — McComb has grown to 350-400 inhabitants.
9. 1880 — The McComb, Deshler & Toledo Railroad, 8.75 miles long, is finished from McComb to Deshler by the end of November and links the village to the Baltimore & Ohio.
10. 1881 — The McComb Herald is first issued on February 10 by G. A. Darke, and the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway is completed through the county that summer.
11. 1883 — A brick schoolhouse costing about $20,000 is built; five teachers are employed in 1886.
12. 1884 — The McComb Fire Department is organized in the fall with a Remington hand engine and forty volunteers.
13. 1887 — Natural gas piped from Van Buren reaches McComb, providing cheap utilities and spurring growth.
14. 1892-1893 — McComb's natural gas supply runs out, ending the boom.
15. 1900 — McComb's population is 1,195, up from 417 in 1880 and 1,030 in 1890.
16. 2020 — The census counts 1,558 residents; the McComb Local School District serves the village.

Stories

From Pleasantville to McComb

McComb went through more than one name before it was ten years old. Benjamin Todd laid out eighteen lots in 1847 and called the town Pleasantville, and both county histories say it kept that name until it incorporated in 1858 and became McComb. The village's own history remembers less official names as well: Todd Town, after its founder, and 'Toad Town,' for the frogs croaking in the many ponds around it. The new name honored, by the same account, Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb, the War of 1812 commander who had defended Plattsburgh, New York, and later led the entire U.S. Army. The spelling that stuck, McComb rather than Macomb, is credited to Elisha Fout, a Scottish-born veteran who had served under Macomb and rendered the general's name the way his own accent shaped it.

The railroad McComb built for itself

The old Continental Railroad was graded through Pleasant Township in 1872 and 1873, and that was as far as the scheme went; the people of McComb waited years for a line that did not come. In 1879 the more enterprising citizens decided that without a railroad McComb would remain a crossroads village, and they conceived a short line of their own to Deshler, where the Baltimore & Ohio crossed the Dayton & Michigan. A company, the McComb, Deshler & Toledo, was formed, the line surveyed and the work pushed, and by the end of November 1880 it was in full operation over eight and three-quarter miles. Soon afterward the unfinished Continental line passed to the New York, Chicago & St. Louis, which finished it through the county in the summer of 1881. The 1886 county history says the connection gave McComb a business boom and that the town grew rapidly; it was by then the largest town in Hancock County apart from Findlay.

Local history sources: archive.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · villageofmccomb.com · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org

Rocky Ford Creek, pumped into two off-stream reservoirs that supply the plant. The water here

• Northwestern W and SD - Mccomb100% of residentsRocky Ford Creek (via North Baltimore upground reservoirs)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (2)

Public schools (3)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026 edition (Directory of Officials): county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 2 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-10

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