West Millgrove

How West Millgrove began

West Millgrove, in Perry Township in southeastern Wood County, was surveyed for James and Rachel McCormick in November 1835 as Millgrove, one of the earliest platted village sites in the county's interior; John G. Willard, who came to the district in September 1835 and moved into Millgrove in 1836 or 1837, opened its first store and became its first postmaster once a weekly Perrysburg-to-Bucyrus mail route reached the settlement. A post office followed in 1837 under the name West Mill Grove, and the village incorporated in September 1874 over a resident remonstrance; an 1882 fire later destroyed its early records. The spelling settled into its modern one-word form, West Millgrove, in 1895.

Platted November 1835, surveyed by Hiram Davis for James and Rachel McCormick, as Millgrove, incorporated village, ordered September 4, 1874, on a petition of 49 residents presented March 3, 1874, over a remonstrance, by James and Rachel McCormick.

Where the name comes from

The 1897 county history does not state why the village was called Millgrove. It was platted in 1835 by James and Rachel McCormick, and James McCormick had built the first gristmill in the south part of the county in 1834-35, which suggests but does not prove a mill-and-grove name. 'West' was added later; the post office was 'West Mill Grove' until 1895.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork or named Native village specific to West Millgrove 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. 1834-35 — James McCormick builds a hewn-log gristmill using a raccoon buhr; completed in 1835, it is the first gristmill in the south part of the county and is later a steam sawmill and then a woolen factory (the history places it at the village site without giving the lot).
2. 1835-09 — John G. Willard moves from Ashtabula County and settles nearby, becoming a resident of Millgrove the following year and opening the town's -- and the township's -- first store, hauling goods by wagon from Lower Sandusky after buying them in Buffalo.
3. 1835-11 — Millgrove is surveyed by Hiram Davis for James and Rachel McCormick.
4. 1836 or 1837 — John G. Willard is appointed the settlement's postmaster once a mail route between Perrysburg and Bucyrus is established, with the carrier making the trip once a week; postage on a letter under 300 miles then costs 25 cents.
5. 1837 — A post office opens under the name West Mill Grove.
6. 1849 — William Bradner opens a store in the village with his son John A. in charge; he does a large trade until 1858 or 1859.
7. 1851 — Dr. Ranger holds the post office; A. G. McClellan holds it from 1857 to 1862 in R. W. Kelly's store.
8. 1872-03-16 — D. D. Ames surveys East Millgrove Station for William McCormick.
9. 1874-02-24 — A petition for incorporation, signed by 49 residents, is presented, but a remonstrance from others who felt the township government already served the community well follows.
10. 1874-03-03 — The incorporation petition is re-presented, asking that Section 4 land within the town plat be made a village; the commissioners order it September 4 and it is recorded September 30.
11. 1874-09-04 — The order incorporating the village is made (recorded September 30); J. H. Moffett becomes the first mayor, serving until 1885.
12. 1880 — The village's population is recorded at 222 residents.
13. 1882 — A fire destroys the village's and post office's record books, leaving later historians dependent on old settlers' recollections and newspaper notices for the village's earlier history.
14. 1884-03 — The village has a gristmill, two hardware stores, a drug store, a grocery, a general store, a hotel and two physicians.
15. 1889-11-23 — Lafayette Frontz is stabbed to death by a man named Gardner, one of the very few tragedies charged to the village.
16. 1890 — The census counts 207 residents.
17. 1895 — The post office spelling is standardized from 'West Mill Grove' to the single word 'West Millgrove.'
18. 1920 — The census counts 132 residents, down from 236 in 1900; 78 in 2000; 131 in 2020.

Stories

The first gristmill in the south of Wood County

James McCormick had milled near Gallipolis and brought his raccoon buhr with him; in the fall of 1834 he built a hewn-log gristmill in Perry Township, his son Robert, a blacksmith, making the ironwork under the direction of the millwright Benjamin Brown. When the mill was raised in 1835, every able-bodied man in the township and many from others turned out, with John A. Kelly as boss, and a settler named Isaac brought the first grist of corn. Until then settlers went to Lower Sandusky or Fort Ball, a trip that took two days to a week, and even afterwards, when the water was low, they had to go to Tiffin or Fremont. James died in 1839. Robert, in 1884 a hale man of seventy-two living in West Millgrove, worked as the village blacksmith until 1854; the old raccoon buhr was by then a doorstep. The mill site later held a steam sawmill and then a woolen factory, and the McCormicks laid out the village of Millgrove in 1835.

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

No water-system data is linked to West Millgrove's ZIP codes yet.

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 0 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Auditor of State record

• Fiscal emergency: declared 1996-12-02, released 2000-06-01. source
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-10-14

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for West Millgrove, Wood County and its school district:

• Wood County: Renews a 1-mill property tax levy for the provide & maintain senior citizens services or facilities of Wood County for 5 years, beginning in 2026.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

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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