Ridgeville Township, Henry County

How Ridgeville Township, Henry County began

Ridgeville Township, in Henry County's northwest corner, takes its name from the Belmore Ridge, a glacial rise, three to ten feet above the surrounding country and strewn with boulders along its upper reaches, that runs through it from north to south. Barton Palmer, who kept a tavern where several roads converged, laid out the hamlet of Ridgeville Corners in the township's southeast; the township was home to a large Mennonite community by the late 1880s and, in 1881, the site of an accidental natural-gas discovery that briefly terrified the crew drilling for water. Part of the township was detached to help form Defiance County in 1845.

Settled by 1836 (George Tubbs and family), platted Ridgeville Corners laid out by Barton Palmer at an uncertain early date, by Barton Palmer.

Where the name comes from

The township and its hamlet, Ridgeville Corners, are named for the Belmore Ridge, a glacial ridge three to ten feet above the surrounding country that runs through the township from near Lake Ridge, Michigan, south through Henry and neighboring counties; large boulders along its upper reaches were believed, per the geological theory of the day, to have been deposited by icebergs when the area lay under an ancient lake.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty site specific to Ridgeville Township is recorded. Henry County's documented native-history sites include Girty's Point and the Washington Township Ottawa reservation, both well to the east of this township.

Timeline

1. 1836 — George Tubbs and his wife move to the township, among its earliest documented settlers; visitors from near Wauseon reach them by riding the still-unbuilt Ridge Road as a bridle path.
2. before 1840 — Ridgeville Township is organized; the record was lost in the courthouse fire of 1847.
3. 1841 — A post office opens at Ridgeville Corners.
4. 1845 — Part of Ridgeville Township's territory is detached to help form the new Defiance County, leaving some of the township's oldest settlers living, without having moved, in a different county.
5. 1846 — A Congregationalist church, the township's first, is established at Ridgeville Corners.
6. 1847 — The oldest surviving tax duplicate lists George and John Tubbs, Joseph Bear, J. Fenton, George Harmon, Adam Rowe, Lorenzo Higby and Barton Palmer as the township's oldest settlers.
7. 1870 — Ridgeville Township's population reaches 764.
8. 1880 — The township's population reaches 1,119, up from 424 in 1860.
9. 1881 (summer) — Herman A. Meyerholtz, drilling a water well on his farm near Ridgeville Corners, strikes natural gas at about 100 feet, sending a 20-foot flame into the air and frightening the crew before the well is filled back in.
10. 1887 — Ridgeville Corners has about 150 people, a graded school, Methodist and Congregational churches and a tile yard; a post office named Tubbsville, kept by William B. Tubbs, serves the Pettisville road.
11. 1904 — The Tubbsville post office, open since 1887, closes.
12. 2020 — The census counts 1,096 people in Ridgeville Township.

Stories

Fire from the well

In the summer of 1881, Herman A. Meyerholtz set out to drill an ordinary water well on his farm near Ridgeville Corners. About a hundred feet down, the crew struck a vein of gas powerful enough to blow the drilling tools clear out of the hole; when someone touched a flame to the escaping gas, it shot twenty feet into the air. The county historian records that the workers, 'ignorant and superstitious,' were so frightened by what they took to be a trespass on 'the domain of the prince of darkness' that Meyerholtz had considerable difficulty getting anyone to help him fill the well back in. Several more wells nearby turned up the same result in the years that followed, strong enough surface indications of natural gas, the 1888 history notes, that they justified more investigation than the township had yet given them -- though no gas boom like Findlay's ever came to Ridgeville.

A township of Mennonites

By the late 1880s Ridgeville Township was home to a large community of Mennonites, followers of the sixteenth-century reformer Menno Simons, whom the county historian describes with evident respect: they held that the New Testament alone was the rule of faith, opposed infant baptism, and refused on religious grounds to swear oaths, hold public office or use physical force, which meant they took no part in elections or politics at all. He calls them 'distinguished for their sterling honesty and fair dealing,' frugal and industrious, settling their affairs internally through a chosen leader rather than through litigation with their neighbors -- a description of a community that, in his words, remained exclusive but was, 'as a rule, good citizens.'

The tavern keeper who made the roads meet

Barton Palmer laid out Ridgeville Corners at an early, uncertain date, and kept the only tavern for miles. His idea, the county history says, was to make every road in the neighborhood meet at his door, where earlier there were only bridle paths, and he set about building them. The Napoleon pike, which follows the Belmore Ridge north, was one of his; before it, travel from Napoleon to the northwest went up the bed of Gilson's Creek. By 1887 Ridgeville Corners was one of the main road centers of Henry County, a village of about 150 people receiving its mail by a daily overland carrier.

Photographs

Local history sources: archive.org · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · postalhistory.com

Mostly private wells The water here

• Archbold Village61% of residentsTiffin River (plus Brush Creek), stored in two reservoirs
• Napoleon City29% of residentsMaumee River (with Wauseon reservoirs as backup/blend storage)
• Stryker Village5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Brunersburg Wd - Evansport3% of residentsTiffin River (plus Brush Creek), stored in two reservoirs
• Northwestern W and SD - Sr 1081% of residentsMaumee River (with Wauseon reservoirs as backup/blend storage)
• Florida Village1% of residentsMaumee River (with Wauseon reservoirs as backup/blend storage)
• Northwestern W and SD - Co. Rd P1% of residentsMaumee River (with Wauseon reservoirs as backup/blend storage)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Colleges (2)

Public schools (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Public EV charging (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (3)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-17: 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-01-20

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