New Knoxville

How New Knoxville began

New Knoxville was platted in July 1836 as Knoxville by James Knox Lytle, who ran the mill on the Center Fork of the St. Marys River there, and named for his mother's family. German Reformed immigrants, many from Ladbergen in Prussia, settled the farmland around it soon after the Wapakoneta Shawnee left their reservation in 1832, and the village stayed heavily German, with a log church by 1840 and a pastor, F. H. W. Kuckherman, who served for forty years. It was renamed New Knoxville in 1858 to avoid a conflict with Knoxville in Jefferson County, was incorporated in 1874, and never had a railroad connection. Its Heritage Center is the H. E. Fledderjohann house of 1879, a National Register listing. The village counted 946 people in 2020.

Settled 1836, platted 1836 (plat filed with the Allen County recorder July 30, 1836), incorporated 1874, by James Knox Lytle.

Where the name comes from

Founder James Knox Lytle named the town Knoxville to honor his mother's family; it became New Knoxville in 1858 to distinguish it from an existing Knoxville post office in Jefferson County, Ohio.

Before the town

The land around New Knoxville was part of the Wapakoneta Shawnee country until 1832. A local history of 1923 says the Wapakoneta Indian reservation took in 'a little more than' the northeast quarter of Washington Township, so there was little white settlement until the Indians left in 1832, although a few land entries were made just below the reservation line in 1831. The village itself, founded four years later on the Center Fork of the St. Marys, lies outside the reserve. No mound, village or trail inside the village is documented in the sources consulted. The county's Native history includes the treaties of 1817, 1818 and 1831 and the 1832 removal.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Wapakoneta Shawnee reservation (northeast quarter of Washington Township) (other) — northeast of the village, in the northeast part of Washington Township, until the 1832 removal (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1831 — Shadrach Montgomery enters land between Clear Creek and Owl Creek, just below the Wapakoneta reservation line, and becomes the first permanent white settler in what is now Washington Township; he is later a member of Auglaize County's first board of commissioners.
2. 1832 — The Wapakoneta Shawnee leave their reservation, which had covered a little more than the northeast quarter of Washington Township, opening the land to settlement.
3. 1835 — Henry Fledderjohann and his family arrive from Ladbergen, Prussia, and enter land from the government in section 30, a mile west of the future New Knoxville.
4. 1836 — James Knox Lytle platts the village of Knoxville with 102 lots, naming it to honor his mother's family.
5. 1836-07-30 — James K. Lytle files the plat of Knoxville with the Allen County recorder; the plat has 102 lots, eleven full squares and three fractional squares, with the cemetery in the southwest corner.
6. 1836-12-01 — The Allen County commissioners erect Washington Township, with the first election set for December 20 at George Esperson's house.
7. 1838 — German Reformed immigrants, many from Ladbergen, Germany, organize what becomes the First Church of New Knoxville with 40 charter members.
8. 1840-01 — The congregation buys fifteen acres in the Knoxville settlement for $60 and builds a log church, a log parsonage and a cemetery.
9. 1841-12-12 — The congregation adopts a constitution, signed by Rev. J. H. Tanke and forty members, naming itself the First Reformed and Lutheran Church of New Knoxville.
10. 1849 — Henry Fledderjohann and his wife, early settlers west of town, die in the cholera epidemic that sweeps the region.
11. 1852 — F. H. W. Kuckherman, the village schoolmaster who had led lay services, is ordained and installed as pastor of the First Reformed church, a post he holds until 1890.
12. 1853 — The First Reformed congregation buys a new site and builds a frame church to replace the log one.
13. 1858 — The post office and town are renamed New Knoxville to resolve a naming conflict with Knoxville, Ohio, in Jefferson County.
14. 1874 — New Knoxville is incorporated as a village, and its First Reformed church affiliates with the Reformed Church in the United States and incorporates.
15. 1879 — The H. E. Fledderjohann house is built at 107 East German Street; it is now the home of the New Knoxville Historical Society.
16. 1910 — The Peoples Savings Bank of New Knoxville is organized.
17. 1920 — The census counts 537 residents, with no railway connection to the village.
18. 1922 — Ceremonies are held in the summer for the corner stone of an extensive addition to the First Reformed church.
19. 1993 — The Fledderjohann house, doctor's office and summer kitchen are listed on the National Register as the H. E. Fledderjohann property.
20. 2020 — The census counts 946 residents in New Knoxville.

Stories

A German town with an outsider's name

A town so thoroughly German in character was founded and named by a man who was not part of its German settlement. James Knox Lytle, a cousin of James K. Polk, bought land in Washington Township after the Shawnee were removed, platted the town in 1836 and named it Knoxville to honor his mother's family. Almost immediately, though, German immigrants, many from the village of Ladbergen, began taking up the farmland around the new town, and by 1838 they had organized a German Reformed congregation with 40 charter members. Until 1850, the marker says, every settler in Knoxville was from Ladbergen.

From Ladbergen to the Canal Locks

Herman Henry Fledderjohann, called Henry, was born at Ladbergen, Prussia, on January 16, 1816, and came to Ohio in 1835 with his parents, who entered land in what the next year became Washington Township. When work began on the Miami and Erie Canal he was twenty years old and a trained carpenter, and he rose to foreman of lock construction on the canal's difficult 'divide.' After the canal opened he built a sawmill at Lock 6 south of St. Marys and ran it for forty years, selling lumber to the canal trade. His parents had both died in the cholera epidemic of 1849; he died on July 25, 1904, at eighty-eight. His son Henry E., born on the family farm west of New Knoxville on November 12, 1855, taught district school, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania medical college in 1886, practiced eighteen months in St. Marys, and then opened an office in New Knoxville, where he was among the oldest physicians in the county by 1923. His house, built in 1879 at 107 East German Street, is the village's Heritage Center, listed on the National Register in 1993.

The Schoolmaster Who Became the Pastor

The first church in Washington Township was built by German Reformed settlers in the Knoxville neighborhood in 1838 or soon after. A 1922 review prepared for the cornerstone of its enlargement admitted that 'by whom and just when this congregation was organized cannot definitely be determined.' The congregation bought fifteen acres for $60 in 1840, built a log church and parsonage and laid out a cemetery, and in December 1841 adopted a constitution calling itself the First Reformed and Lutheran Church. Within a few years doctrinal quarrels drove out its first pastor, J. H. Tanke, and for some time the congregation was served only by visiting ministers and by lay services led by the village schoolmaster, F. H. W. Kuckherman. His neighbors persuaded him to study for the ministry in Cincinnati; he was licensed in 1847, ordained in 1852, and served the New Knoxville church for forty years, until failing health ended his pastorate in 1890. He died in the village on March 29, 1914, and his funeral was said to be one of the largest ever held in Auglaize County.

Photographs

Local history sources: nkhistory.org · nkhistory.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · commons.wikimedia.org · nkhistory.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org · postalhistory.com · migrationmemorials.trinity.duke.edu

Every historic place in Auglaize County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• New Knoxville Village90% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• The Way International10% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (2)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-01-20

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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