The Many Names Given to Paulding County

Before it was Paulding County, this land carried a string of larger claims: the French called northwestern Ohio “the Black Swamp” and grouped it into “New France”; the English crown’s colonial charters stretched some of the original colonies’ claims across it too (putting the area nominally in both Connecticut and Virginia at different points); after the Northwest Ordinance it became part of the Northwest Territory, then Wayne County (Ohio’s first, covering 26 later counties), then Defiance County territory administratively from 1824-1839.

Paulding County organized its own government in 1839, with county offices at New Rochester on the Maumee — “the largest village in the county at that time.” The seat moved to Charloe in 1841 (“on the promise of a big new courthouse”), then to Paulding in 1855, “largely because it was more centrally located.” In 1845 Williams County’s seat moved to Bryan, and Paulding County gave up half of Auglaize Township (18 sections) to help settle unrest there, receiving four sections of Emerald Township from Defiance County in exchange — leaving ten of the county’s twelve townships at the standard 36 sections.

This covers much the same ground (formation, county-seat succession) as this archive’s unattributed county history typescript and the county engineer’s overview, but from a different angle — the larger territorial claims layered over the land before the county existed.

Note the exact year the seat moved to Paulding varies by source: this piece says 1855, the typescript says 1851, an Antwerp compilation elsewhere in this archive says 1852, and Mrs. Pursel’s 1924 narrative implies 1850. None of these is treated as authoritative here — read them together.

See the full PDF for the complete article, including a photo of “The Old Brick,” the oldest standing home in Paulding County (built 1832 by John Hudson).