Ohio City

How Ohio City began

Ohio City began as Van Wert Junction, platted by Butler, Patterson & Company in 1876 at the point where two new rail lines crossed near the center of Liberty Township. Renamed Enterprise in 1882 and then Ohio City in 1890 -- both changes made to stop the postal service confusing it with identically named towns elsewhere -- it briefly became the center of a real oil boom after 1902, and by 1910 its Union Depot served three separate railroads. Liberty Township, which Wikipedia confirms still holds Ohio City in its center along with the unincorporated community of Dull to the southwest, borders eight other townships and communities across Van Wert and Mercer counties.

Platted March 4-8, 1876, as Van Wert Junction, by Butler, Patterson & Company.

Where the name comes from

Platted as Van Wert Junction in 1876; renamed Enterprise on June 1, 1882 by a 28-11 vote, then renamed a second time to Ohio City on June 1, 1890 on a motion by council member Lewis J. Kiggins, after mail and express packages were repeatedly missent to or from another Enterprise, Ohio.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty site specific to Ohio City was located in the sources consulted. The village's own documented history begins with its 1876 platting as a rail junction, more than half a century after the 1818 land cession.

Timeline

1. 1876-03 — Butler, Patterson & Company plat Van Wert Junction where two new rail lines cross near the center of Liberty Township.
2. 1878 — The Delphos & Kokomo narrow-gauge line, promoted by farmers meeting at the Center schoolhouse in Liberty Township, is built toward Willshire with $68,000 raised from farmers; the Toledo, St. Louis & Western ("Clover Leaf") line is the first of three railroads that cross at Ohio City.
3. 1882-06-01 — The town votes 28-11 to rename itself Enterprise.
4. 1890-06-01 — Town council adopts Lewis J. Kiggins's proposal to rename the town Ohio City, ending recurring mail confusion with another Enterprise, Ohio.
5. 1890 — Ohio City counts 666 residents in the 1890 census table.
6. 1891 — John William Lambert builds a working gasoline automobile and drives it on the streets of Ohio City.
7. 1900 — Ohio City records its historical peak population of 862.
8. 1902-02 — The first successful well of the Ohio City oil field is drilled nearby on the Exline family's land, touching off a boom that puts more than 200 wells into the surrounding township within a few years.
9. 1906 — The village, still commonly known by its earlier name Enterprise in casual use, supports one bank, two dry goods stores, three hotels, three restaurants, a Union Depot shared by three railroads, and nine churches across the surrounding township.
10. 1906 — Ohio City has a bank, three hotels, four saloons, a slack-barrel factory, a Union school, telephone service and three railroads sharing one Union Depot.
11. 2000 — The census counts 784 residents in Ohio City.
12. 2010 — The census counts 705 residents in Ohio City.
13. 2020 — The census counts 651 residents in Ohio City.

Stories

Two name changes to outrun the mail

Few Ohio villages have gone through as much trouble over their own name as this one. Platted in 1876 as the purely functional 'Van Wert Junction,' the town's residents voted in 1882, 28 to 11, to rename it Enterprise -- a far more hopeful, and far more common, choice, since dozens of small American towns picked exactly the same word in exactly this era. That was the problem: mail and express packages addressed to the wrong Enterprise, Ohio kept arriving at the wrong Enterprise, Ohio, a low-grade but constant nuisance for a rail town that depended on freight moving to the right place. In 1890 the town council took it up again, and Lewis J. Kiggins proposed something no other town in the state was likely to duplicate: Ohio City. The vote passed, and the name has stuck for well over a century since -- a settlement that spent its first fourteen years figuring out, twice, what NOT to be called before landing on a name distinctive enough to finally stop the confusion.

The railroad built on a snow road-bed

In the summer of 1878 farmers from Washington, Jennings, York, Liberty and Willshire townships met at the Center schoolhouse and agreed, at the urging of Dr. C. A. Evans of Delphos, to build and own a narrow-gauge railroad from Delphos to Willshire themselves. They raised $68,000 in notes payable January 1, 1879, on condition that the road be ready for a locomotive by then, so for the last mile or two near Willshire the crews laid ties and temporary rails on a snow road-bed. The officers then found themselves in a dilemma over the rails they had bought on a joint note, and Morgan H. Morgan went to Columbus to head off a scheme to sell the farmers' notes to the highest bidder. The line became part of the Clover Leaf route that crosses other railroads at Ohio City.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Ohio City Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public libraries (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 3 of 3 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 2025-08-26

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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