Pemberville

How Pemberville began

Pemberville sits at the forks of the Portage River, ground General William Harrison's army camped on in January 1813 after the disaster at Frenchtown, before marching on to build Fort Meigs. The village itself came decades later, growing from a mill site claimed in 1833 by pioneer Asahel Powers's son-in-law Benjamin Waite, who died by his own hand before he could develop it; another son-in-law, James Pember, bought the land, built its early mills, and gave his name to the 26-lot town formally platted in 1854. It grew as a mill and market town, incorporated in 1876, survived repeated fires through the 1880s and 1890s, and was transformed by the arrival of oil development in 1887.

Platted May 24, 1854, surveyed by S. H. Bell for James Pember into 26 lots, incorporated village, ordered organized June 8, 1876, after a petition filed March 18, 1876 and a remonstrance against it, by named for James Pember, an early settler.

Where the name comes from

Pemberville was named for James Pember, one of the settlement's first settlers; the site was earlier known simply as The Forks, for the junction of the Portage River nearby. James Pember was one of two sons-in-law of pioneer Asahel Powers who first bought land on the site in the fall of 1833; the other, Benjamin Waite, cleared the ground and built the first house there before dying by his own hand later that year, after which Pember bought his 37 acres for $600.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork or named Native village specific to Pemberville was found in any source consulted; the county's own 1897 history states that no such evidence exists anywhere in Wood County.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1813-01-20 to 1813-01-22 — General William Henry Harrison's army camps below the forks of the Portage River, near the future site of Pemberville, after learning of the disaster at Frenchtown (the River Raisin massacre); the army soon marches on to build Fort Meigs.
2. 1833 (fall) — Benjamin Waite, son-in-law of pioneer Asahel Powers, buys 37 acres of the future townsite and builds the first house there, then dies by his own hand later that year; James Pember, another Powers son-in-law, buys the land from Waite's estate that fall for $600.
3. 1836 — A sawmill, the settlement's first industry, is operating at the site, built by Calkins and Banks or one of the Pembers.
4. 1841 — James Pember builds a gristmill at the junction of the Portage River's two branches.
5. 1854-05-24 — S. H. Bell surveys the original 26-lot town for James Pember, who gives the village his name.
6. 1867 — Hiram Pember is appointed the village's first postmaster; before this, residents had to collect mail from Woodville.
7. 1875 — The Toledo and Hocking Valley Railroad is completed through the village, reviving trade after the depression that began in 1873.
8. 1876-06-08 — Pemberville is ordered organized as an incorporated village, after a petition filed March 18 and an equally strong remonstrance against it; George M. Bell is elected the first mayor.
9. 1882 — The Dewey stave works ships 150 carloads (about 3,000,000 staves) in a single year, at the height of the village's wood-products boom; the shipment total is matched again in 1883.
10. 1883-09 — Fire destroys the Dewey stave factory's machinery, stock and buildings; it is rebuilt, then burns again more than once before the industry finally ends.
11. 1884-07-02 — A fire starting at Bahrenburg's place destroys every building fronting Main Street from Mrs. Sprague's millinery store to Grote's saloon.
12. 1887 — Oil development reaches Pemberville, transforming what had been a quiet mill town into what the county history calls 'a bustling hive of trade and manufactures.'
13. 1891-05-06 — Fire destroys Haskins & Co.'s stock and damages the building.

Stories

Harrison's camp at the forks

Decades before Pemberville existed, the ground it would be built on already had a place in Ohio's military history. In January 1813, General William Henry Harrison's relief column was struggling across the frozen Black Swamp toward Frenchtown, on the River Raisin, where an advance American force under General James Winchester was under attack. A January thaw slowed the march to a crawl, and by the time Harrison's men neared the Maumee, word reached them that Winchester's force had already been destroyed. The troops turned back, destroyed the temporary fortifications they had begun, and retreated behind the Portage River, camping below the forks of the river -- in what the county's own historian pinpoints as the northwest corner of Section 11, Freedom Township, almost exactly where Pemberville would rise forty years later. From that camp, reinforced by a Virginia brigade delayed by rain and impassable roads, Harrison advanced again on February 1 and began building Fort Meigs -- a fort, the historian notes, that might never have been needed at all had the January thaw not cost Winchester his army.

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

Village well field (8 municipal wells) feeding the single village treatment plant The water here

• Pemberville Village75% of residentsGroundwater wells (8 wells)
• Northwestern W and SD - Toledo Svc Area25% of residentsLake Erie

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Public libraries (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2024: 0 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-04

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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