Paulding Township, Paulding County

How Paulding Township, Paulding County began

Paulding Township, the only township of its name in Ohio, sits at the geographic center of Paulding County and holds most of the village of Paulding, the county seat, in its northeast, plus the small village of Latty in its southeast. As late as 1837 the wider Emerald-Paulding-Blue Creek territory held only two settler families. By 1888 the county seat itself was a raw, forest-ringed railroad town of hoop and stave factories, wagon shops, two banks, two newspapers, and three churches, described in detail by traveling writer Henry Howe. Along with neighboring Jackson Township, it is one of only two townships in the county that does not touch another county's border.

Settled 1837.

Where the name comes from

Named for the county seat, Paulding village, which sits mostly within its boundaries; the village and county both take their name from Revolutionary War militiaman John Paulding (1758-1818), one of three New York militiamen who captured British Major John Andre in 1780 and exposed Benedict Arnold's treason. It is the only Paulding Township in Ohio.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound, or treaty site specific to Paulding Township is documented in the sources checked. The county's wider Native history includes the Ottawa Oquanoxa Reserve to the east in Brown Township.

Nations recorded here: Odawa (Ottawa).

Timeline

1. 1837 — Per Judge A. S. Latty's 1886 account to Henry Howe, only two settler families -- John Musselman and George Platter -- live across the entire territory that will become Emerald, Paulding, and Blue Creek townships, a combined 108 square miles.
2. 1848 — Paulding village, occupying most of the township's northeast, is platted at the county's geographic center.
3. 1851 — The Paulding County seat moves to Paulding village.
4. 1882 — Latty village, in the township's southeast, gets a post office, named for early settler Judge A. S. Latty.
5. 1886-12-08 — Henry Howe arrives in Paulding village by rail from Cecil and describes it as "emerging from the forest" with "a very primitive, woodsy look," surrounded by the grand primitive forest of the Black Swamp, its scattered surviving trees like "sentinels on duty."
6. 1888 — Howe records Paulding's county officers (Auditor R. D. Webster, Clerk Thomas J. Champion, Sheriff Edward C. Swain, and others), two newspapers (the Democratic Democrat and the Republican Paulding County Republican), three churches (Methodist, United Brethren, and Presbyterian), and two banks (Paulding Deposit and Potter's). Its industries include two hoop-and-stave factories, a hub-and-buggy-spoke factory using elm hubs and hickory spokes, two sawmills, two wagon-and-buggy shops, and a planing mill; population in 1880 was 454, school census in 1888 was 606, capital invested in manufacturing was $93,500, and annual product was valued at $218,000. Census in 1890 reaches 1,879.
7. 1889-04-10 — Calvin L. Noble, known locally as "The Judge," dies at Paulding village, where he had lived since 1858. Born in Trumbull County in 1813, he founded a Democratic newspaper in Cleveland and, needing to shorten a headline, changed the city's spelling from "Cleaveland" to "Cleveland" -- a change the public then adopted. He later worked as a fur trader for the American Fur Company at Fort Defiance, helped lay out Bryan, Ohio, served in the Ohio Legislature, and held office as Williams County recorder and commissioner, Defiance County's first sheriff, and Paulding County probate judge.
8. 1962 — Paulding village places a 250,000-gallon water tower into service on Grant Street, part of the water system serving much of the township.
9. 1964 — The Paulding County Reservoir is built on Flat Rock Creek to supply the county seat's water system.

Stories

The Man Who Renamed a City by Accident

Calvin L. Noble, who died at Paulding village on April 10, 1889, after living there since 1858, had one of the more improbable footnotes in Ohio newspaper history. As a young printer in Cleveland, Noble founded a Democratic newspaper, but found that the city's own spelling, "Cleaveland," was one letter too wide for the type he wanted to use in his display headline. Rather than resize the type, he simply dropped the first "a," printing "Cleveland" instead -- and the public liked the shorter spelling well enough that it stuck, becoming the city's permanent name. Noble himself moved on to the northwestern Ohio frontier, reaching Fort Defiance in September 1833 when, in Henry Howe's words, "all the Northwestern Territory was a howling wilderness inhabited by Indians." There he became a fur trader for the American Fur Company and an agent for the American Land Company, helped superintend the laying out of Bryan, Ohio, served in the Ohio Legislature, and held office as recorder and commissioner of Williams County, first sheriff of Defiance County, probate judge of Paulding County, and, for twelve years, collector of leases on the Miami and Erie Canal. Howe called him "one of the most widely known and respected of the pioneers of Northwestern Ohio."

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

Paulding Reservoir, fed by Flat Rock Creek The water here

• Paulding Village91% of residentsPaulding Reservoir, fed by Flat Rock Creek
• Payne Village9% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-18: county board of elections.

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 2025-12-30

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