Nevada

How Nevada began

Nevada was laid out in October 1852 by Jonathan Ayres and George Garrett, who had bought the land from William McKibben, the original purchaser from the government; J. H. Williams surveyed seventy-two lots on October 14. The 1884 county history says the name came from the state of Nevada, which was in the news in 1852, while Wikipedia (citing Overman's Ohio Town Names) says it was named for the Sierra Nevada. Built on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway in Antrim Township, it grew from three houses into a trading town with a grist mill, bank, hotels and churches by the 1880s. It remains a village in eastern Wyandot County.

Settled 1846-47 (first house on the site, Lair Miller's); the town dates from 1852, platted 1852-10-14, by Jonathan Ayres and George Garrett, on land bought from William McKibben of Ashland County; surveyed by J. H. Williams.

Where the name comes from

Two accounts. The 1884 county history says the village was named 'from the State bearing the same name and which was attracting considerable attention in the year 1852' (a phrasing that reads oddly, since the state of Nevada did not exist until 1864). Wikipedia, citing William Daniel Overman's Ohio Town Names (1958), says it was named for the Sierra Nevada, the California range then at the center of the Gold Rush.

Before the town

No Wyandot village, trail or burial site specific to Nevada is recorded in the sources checked. The 1884 county history notes only that George Garrett, one of the two founders, 'was of mixed blood -- Indian and white.' Antrim Township lay along the eastern edge of the Wyandot Reserve, whose boundary line crossed it; the Wyandots were removed in 1843.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1846 — Lair Miller builds a house about 1846-47 on the site that will become Nevada; it is one of only three dwellings standing when the town is surveyed.
2. 1852 — On October 14 J. H. Williams surveys the original plat of seventy-two lots, each 60 by 180 feet, for Jonathan Ayres and George Garrett; only the houses of Lair Miller, James McLaughlin (1850) and Samuel Ellison (1852) stand within it.
3. 1853 — William McJunkins, the pioneer merchant, opens the first store, a frame building holding about $2,000 of goods; he is also postmaster and railroad agent. The post office is dated 1854 by Wikipedia.
4. 1860 — William Welch's addition of twenty-four lots (May 16) is the first of fourteen additions recorded by 1881.
5. 1861 — A stock company headed by H. W. Williams builds Nevada's only grist mill at a cost of about $10,500; it runs two pairs of buhrs at first and later grinds 100 barrels a day.
6. 1862 — The Commercial Hotel is built by B. Hopp, and the Grand Lodge of Ohio charters Nevada Lodge No. 343, F. & A. M. at its October session.
7. 1863 — The American Bee-hive Company, a stock company with $6,000 capital, builds the first planing mill to manufacture a patent beehive; the mill burns in 1872 under a later owner.
8. 1872 — The Nevada Hook and Ladder Company is organized April 8 with a chemical engine, ladder trucks and fifty rubber buckets; the original McJunkins store burns the same year.
9. 1873 — The Nevada Deposit Bank is incorporated April 10 and opens May 5 with $52,000 capital; stockholders build a grain elevator the same year.
10. 1876 — A new brick village schoolhouse with six school rooms is completed after tax votes of $8,000 (1875) and $4,000 more (1876); it costs $14,500 in all.
11. 1878 — The Hook and Ladder Company takes second prize at the firemen's tournament in Bucyrus; the bank moves in 1879 into a new brick building described as the finest bank structure in the county.
12. 1882 — Robert Kerr builds the brick Kerr House hotel (twenty-five rooms, about $18,000 furnished), opened in 1883 and called the finest hotel in the county.
13. 1884 — The county history rates Nevada second to few country towns in central Ohio, with numerous stores, a bank, schools, churches, a mill and a tile factory.

Stories

Three houses and a railroad

When Jonathan Ayres and George Garrett chose the site for Nevada in 1852, the prospects were not bright: the land was covered in dense timber, and the old village of Wyandot nearby seemed the likelier winner. The 1884 county history says the new town had two things going for it, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago railway running through it and the rich farmland to the north and south. At survey time only three houses stood in the plat, those of Lair Miller, James McLaughlin and Samuel Ellison. The woods came down quickly and William McJunkins opened the first store in 1853, with a stock worth about $2,000. By 1884 the county historian counted Nevada second to but few country towns in central Ohio.

A fire company with a state reputation

Nevada's Hook and Ladder Company was organized April 8, 1872 with about fifteen members, a chemical engine, hook-and-ladder trucks and fifty rubber buckets. The engine was discarded in 1876, but the company kept competing at the firemen's tournaments of the day and by 1884 had about sixty members, counting retired ones. In 1878 it won second prize at the Bucyrus tournament, in a contest against the Norwalk company, which the county history says held the championship of the United States. The county historian added that the company had 'a State reputation for its skill and fleetness.' It also fought fires at home: four livery barns in the village burned between 1875 and 1883.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Nevada Village100% of residentsSandusky River (via Outhwaite & Riley up-ground reservoirs)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-17

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