Waldo

• Delaware LakeBuilt 1951 · 1,300 acres

How Waldo began

Waldo is a village in Waldo Township, Marion County, laid out by Milo D. Pettibone, who owned 900 acres nearby, and named for his son Waldo. The 1883 county history dates the laying out to 1831 and Wikipedia to 1833. The Legislature incorporated it by special act in the winter of 1844-45, when it still lay in Delaware County, and the post office opened on November 26, 1847. The first white settlers of what became Marion County, Nathaniel Brundige and Nathaniel Wyatt, took up land in the surrounding township in 1806. The village is known for the G&R Tavern's fried bologna sandwich and for Groll's Fine Furniture, which closed in 2008 after 113 years, and had 326 residents in 2020.

Platted 1831 (1883 county history); 1833 (Wikipedia), incorporated 1845 (special act, winter of 1844-45), by Milo D. Pettibone.

Where the name comes from

The 1883 county history says Waldo was laid out by Milo D. Pettibone and named after his son Waldo.

Before the town

No Native village, mound, or trail specific to Waldo itself is recorded. Waldo Township, however, was one of the two townships (with Prospect) that lay south of the 1795 Greenville Treaty line and so was among the first parts of Marion County open to legal settlement, decades before the rest of the county opened around 1819; the 1883 county history frames the treaty line as running close to this area. Fort Morrow, a War of 1812-era site, stands within the township north of Norton, though its Native American context specifically was not confirmed.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Fort Morrow (other) — north of Norton, Waldo Township, Marion County, War of 1812 era (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1806 — Nathaniel Brundige and Nathaniel Wyatt Sr. settled in the future Waldo Township in February, the first white settlers of what became Marion County, and cut the first road in the county.
2. c. 1812 — Fort Morrow, a picketed enclosure of split slabs of up to three-quarters of an acre with two blockhouses and a cannon, was built by Capt. Taylor on Wyatt's land, around Wyatt's tavern, to shelter settlers during Indian alarms.
3. 1831 — Milo D. Pettibone laid out the village of Waldo, named for his son, according to the 1883 county history (Wikipedia gives 1833); he owned 900 acres nearby and built several small houses and a double hewed-log tavern.
4. 1845-05 — The first village election, held in May at William W. Burroughs's house after the special act of incorporation, elected Judson A. Bebe mayor by 20 votes to Andrew Stroub's 18; the village then lay in Delaware County.
5. 1847 — A post office was established at Waldo on November 26, 1847, through M. R. Payne, with Andrew Straub as first postmaster.
6. 1848-03 — The Marion County commissioners erected Waldo Township after Morrow County was created, from the part of Marlborough and Radnor townships that had come to Marion from Delaware County.
7. 1880 — The census counted 248 residents.
8. 1895 — Groll's Fine Furniture opened in Waldo, selling both furniture and caskets.
9. 1962 — The G&R Tavern was founded in Waldo; its fried bologna sandwich, topped with mustard, pickles, onions and cheese, became a locally famous specialty.
10. 1970 — The census counted 428 residents, the highest since 1850.
11. 2008 — Groll's Fine Furniture closed after 113 years in business.
12. 2020 — The census counted 326 residents.

Stories

A land deal with Colonel Kilbourne

In February 1806 Nathaniel Brundige came to what is now Waldo Township with his wife and nine children and found Col. James Kilbourne laying out the town of Norton. Kilbourne said he had a piece of land he would sell for $400. Brundige paid, and Kilbourne went back to the land office at Chillicothe and entered the land in Brundige's name, clearing $200 on a tract he had never even located. It became the farm of John Brundige. Brundige built an 18-by-20-foot log cabin, later a hewed-log house raised by neighbors from Radnor, and he and Nathaniel Wyatt were the first white settlers in what is now Marion County. They cut out the first road in the county, there being only half-beaten Indian paths before.

Fort Morrow

During the War of 1812 settlers in the Waldo neighborhood had a place to go when an Indian alarm came. Fort Morrow was an enclosure of split-slab pickets, three inches thick and five to six feet high, around Nathaniel Wyatt's brick tavern, covering up to three-quarters of an acre. Blockhouses stood at the southwest and northeast corners, one of round logs and one of hewn logs, each with a full upper story jutting out about four feet over a six-foot basement and pierced with portholes. One cannon was kept there. On the top log of the hewn one was painted Fort Morrow, Built by Capt. Taylor. The fort stood for many years, and Wyatt's brick hotel, 20 by 36 feet, ran until about 1830.

Groll's Fine Furniture

Groll's Fine Furniture opened in Waldo in 1895 and sold both furniture and caskets. It closed in 2008 after 113 years in business.

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

Olentangy River intake at Del-Co's plant on Olentangy River Rd, Liberty Twp, south of the city of Delaware The water here

• Del-co Water Company, Inc.100% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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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