Search across every item in the archive, or narrow by type and era.
An ongoing local-history feed from West Bend News, a community newspaper based in Antwerp, Ohio, covering Paulding, Antwerp, Oakwood, Payne, and Grover Hill directly — includes Melinda Krick's "Years Ago in Paulding County" column.
A large crowd, including many children, posed on and alongside a steam locomotive and passenger cars for an unidentified occasion.
Spencer Lighthill (b. 1836) recalls settling in Brown Township as a boy in the 1850s — earning his first half-dollar at age seven, tracking game for pelts to pay taxes, discovering a skeleton with a suspected bullet hole while helping cut Oakwood's first street, and Civil War service in the 38th and 100th O.V.I.
A railroad depot scene with figures standing near the tracks and depot building, credited to "Winters Bro's, Artists, Paulding, Ohio."
A colorized postcard-style image of the Perry Street truss bridge at night, shown beneath a full moon.
A bustling downtown Paulding street scene with early automobiles, pedestrians, and storefronts including a market.
An early photograph of the Paulding County Courthouse, hand-labeled "Court House Paulding Co.," showing the courthouse square bandstand and period automobiles and carriages.
A postcard view of the Paulding County Courthouse, labeled "Paulding County Court House, Paulding, Ohio," showing period automobiles and a traffic light at the square.
A straight-on front view of the Paulding County Courthouse with a small group of men standing at the entrance.
A locally-produced booklet reprinting the Paulding County chapter of Henry Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio (1907 Centennial Edition, beginning around page 374), plus material from other sources.
An alphabetical name index to Paulding County will records from 1852-1873, microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1973.
A county history overview covering the Great Black Swamp, Celeron De Bienville's 1749 expedition, the War of 1812, early settlement, the county's formation and county seats, the canal era, and the 1887 'Reservoir War' that gave the county its motto, 'No Compromise.'
An undated, unsigned typewritten county history found in a library history file — covers pre-history and Indian settlement, early township settlement, the county seat's moves from New Rochester to Charloe to Paulding, courthouse construction, the 1887 Reservoir War ('Camp Dynamite'), the Civil War, and a full lineage of the county's newspapers.
A full scan documenting Paulding County's ghost towns and vanished settlements, including plat maps from an 1917 Atlas of Paulding County by Geo. A. Ogle & Co. and other period maps — useful for tracing communities that didn't survive into the present.
An alphabetical index to Paulding County Probate Court naturalization case records, copied in 1987 by Barbara J. Rohrs.
A studio-style group photograph of a brass and drum band posed outside a brick storefront, instruments in hand; a young girl holding a doll sits among the musicians.
A front-alphabet name index (A-L) to Paulding County Probate Court ministers' license records, spanning January 1874 to November 1957.
A back-alphabet name index to Paulding County Probate Court ministers' license records, spanning November 1873 to March 1951.
An index to Paulding County Probate Court medical certificate records — physicians' diploma and examination certificates (1865-1948), and midwives' certificates (1938-1945).
A listing of funerals conducted by undertaker J.A. Sheets of Latty, Ohio, from April 1896 through August 1897, giving the deceased's name, age, and date of death.
An overview of the Indigenous peoples with historical ties to Paulding County — early post-glacial hunters, then successive Huron/Wyandot, Ottawa, Miami, Mingo, Delaware, Shawnee, Kickapoo, and Mascouten presence through the 1830s — combining a 1993 historian's account with a modern native-land.ca lookup.
A 94-page historical atlas of Paulding County compiled by Oliver Morrow and Frederick William Bashore, originally published in 1892 — township-by-township plat maps and landowner listings.
A short excerpt (a single chapter) from a Grover Hill local history book, tracing the Zion Methodist Episcopal Church from a pre-Civil War circuit-rider class through its 1913 cornerstone and 1913 dedication.
A township-by-township name list of Paulding County's first settlers, from a Paulding County Fair Centennial booklet (1872-1972).
A farm scene showing a family group at a barn door alongside horses and a wagon or sledge, credited to photographer Dean Lighthill (spelling approximate).
An unidentified family group photographed outside a log or wood-frame house. No caption or names on the print.
How settlers cleared and drained the heavily forested Great Black Swamp, turning present-day Paulding County into some of Ohio's most fertile farmland.
A large crowd gathered at the Paulding County Courthouse square for an unidentified civic event, with an "Up To Date Shoes" sign visible among the vendors.
A postcard of the newly-built Busby Block commercial building in Antwerp, Ohio, with storefronts and awnings, and a group of people gathered on the sidewalk.
A postcard street view of Oakwood, Ohio, captioned "Band Stand, Oakwood, O.," showing storefronts, a porch, and American flags on display.
A compilation of early Antwerp history: Dr. John Lincoln's 1899-published history of the town's Methodist Episcopal church (1842-1871), a 1907 pioneer letter from T.W. Lincoln recalling 1840s Carryall Township settlers, and a short unattributed "Early History of Paulding and Paulding County" summary.
A crowd gathered at the Antwerp railroad depot, captioned "Antwerp, O." on the print.
A full index of 54 historical markers and monuments in Paulding County cataloged by the Historical Marker Database (HMdb.org), organized by town, with erection years, sponsoring organizations, and direct links to each marker's full text and photos.
Newsletter covering the completed kitchen remodel and its dedication to Les and Sandy Weidenhamer, the annual Quilt Show, a new parade float, the 25th annual ATHS Vintage Truck Show, and a tribute to longtime volunteer Elizabeth Miller.
Newsletter covering the museum's kitchen remodel, an upcoming Ohio Local History Alliance Region 1 meeting, the 2025 Festival of Trees results, and the remarkable story of Jesse B. Jackson, a Paulding native who as U.S. Consul in Aleppo helped save thousands of Armenian lives during WWI.
Newsletter detailing the 2025 Festival of Trees ('Sparkle & Shine') schedule, an upcoming Ohio Local History Alliance regional meeting hosted by the museum, a visit from a descendant of museum founder Dr. George Phillips, and the 2025 Truck Show results.
Newsletter covering a new Antique Farm Equipment Show fundraiser replacing the annual Chicken BBQ, a change in museum leadership, the Celebration of Arts and Artists show, the Quilt Show and Spring Tea, and a Young Woodworkers' showcase.
Quarterly newsletter covering the Festival of Trees results, the Crane Township bicentennial flag and a nationally ranked bur oak tree, plus short historical reminiscences reprinted from 1888 and 1919 newspapers.
Quarterly newsletter announcing the historical society's rebranding to Paulding County History Museum, coverage of the Festival of Trees, a Canal Society of Indiana tour, and a reprint of an 1886 newspaper account of the village of Cecil.
Quarterly newsletter covering the Spring Tea and vintage clothing exhibit, the Arts & Artists show, the 1984 museum's 40th anniversary, and two substantial historical reprints: an 1922 newspaper account of the county's canal towns and a 1970 history of Crane Township.
A book by Jeanne Bennett Calvert summarizing murders and other unlawful deaths across Paulding County, Ohio, over the decades, and their outcomes.
Jerett W. Godeke's history of the 1887 destruction of the Six Mile Reservoir near Antwerp, Ohio, by local 'Dynamiters' — the event behind Paulding County's motto, 'No Compromise.'
The third volume of a major community pictorial history of Paulding County, a bicentennial edition covering 1820-2020, sponsored by the John Paulding Historical Society.
A 160-page compiled local history of Oakwood, Ohio, from the Oakwood Library Association.
Alice L. Gerber's scrapbook-style history of a group of Paulding County artists and their painting circle, self-published in 2013.
Gloria (Mohr) Fast's obituary index for Paulding County, Ohio — Volume 2, 2008.
Mark J. Camp's photographic history of railroad depots across northwest Ohio, part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of Rail series — likely covers depots in Paulding, Antwerp, Payne, and other county towns.
A county map marking photograph locations documenting June 15, 2004 flooding along Flat Rock Creek, prepared by then-County Engineer Mark R. Stockman.
Dorothy (Font) Hasselschwert's compilation of Paulding County, Ohio birth records, published as an Ohio Bicentennial project in 2003.
An institutional history of the Paulding County Sheriff's Office, established 1837, including the office's legal duties, jail construction history, a complete list of sheriffs from 1837 to 1992, and several notable episodes — a Civil War sheriff killed in action, a contested 1899 election, and the 1894 Charles Hart execution record.
A 22-page compilation of historical feature articles and vintage photographs reprinted from the Paulding County Progress newspaper, published January 2000 as the first in a planned series.
The second volume of a major community pictorial history of Paulding County, compiled by the Paulding Chamber of Commerce and Volume 2 History Book Committee, covering the early 1800s through 1970.
Three short nostalgic newspaper pieces: an undated ad-essay by hardware store owner John P. Crain recalling how much Paulding had changed in his lifetime, and Norm Rulman's 1998 'Remember When' column on early-1900s small-town life.
The story of the black salts (potash) industry, a pioneer sideline that turned wood ash from land-clearing into a saleable commodity, plus a centennial poem about the founding of Payne.
A look at the still-intact 1880s Latty village jail, with anecdotes of turn-of-the-century small-town law enforcement and fines for offenses like public intoxication and profane language.
The 1832 Hudson House near Charloe, built by early settler Isaac Carey for his brother-in-law John Hudson, is one of the county's oldest standing buildings and a Johnny Appleseed waypoint.
An account of Clark Cemetery near Antwerp, the burial ground of Canadian and French laborers who felled the county's giant white oaks in the mid-1800s and died in an ague/fever epidemic in their work camp.
A crop circle discovered near Paulding in July 1996 drew regional media attention and became a local sensation, covered in a series of Crescent-News articles.
Gloria (Mohr) Fast's obituary index for Paulding County, Ohio — Volume 1, 1996.
Ray Keck's index to the early federal census records for Paulding County, Ohio, covering 1830 through 1860.
A Fort Wayne Journal Gazette feature on the John Paulding Historical Society Museum, its all-volunteer origins, and its collection — from a hand-woven blanket to a 1928 Farmall tractor.
A 1994 compilation of military veterans records from Paulding County, Ohio, compiler unknown.
A report on a talk by Defiance College history professor Randy Buchman tracing the successive Indigenous peoples of Paulding County from the earliest post-glacial hunters through the Delaware, Ottawa, Miami, and Shawnee, and their displacement through the early 1830s.
Mrs. Isaac Thomas traces the layers of nominal claims over what became Paulding County — New France, Connecticut, Virginia, the Northwest Territory, Wayne County — before its 1820 formation and later county-seat moves.
The first volume of a major community pictorial history of Paulding County, sponsored by the John Paulding Historical Society, published by Turner Publishing Company.
Ray E. Keck's compilation of mortality/death records for Paulding County, Ohio, through 1993.
A 1992 compilation by Marjean Holmes Workman reprinting pages 179-239 of the 1882 Historical Hand-Atlas — Everett A. Budd's county history essay (already transcribed elsewhere in this archive) plus township and personal histories of Paulding County that this archive is still missing.
A 329-page illustrated local history of the Melrose area of Paulding County.
A Paulding Progress feature on Worstville, a near-ghost-town on the Nickel Plate Railroad near Payne and Briceton, including longtime resident Charlie Cline's memory of a grain-elevator fire he watched as a boy.
Melinda Huseby Krick's centennial history of Paulding County's three county seats (New Rochester, Charloe, Paulding) and their courthouses, published for the June 20-21, 1986 Courthouse Centennial celebration.
A 1986 compilation of cemetery inscriptions from Paulding County, Ohio, compiler unknown.
A 1985 compilation of early birth records from Paulding County, Ohio — Volume 2, compiler unknown.
A 1978 Paulding Progress feature on the county's railroad history, from the failed 1870s attempts through the Nickel Plate's completion in 1881, told partly through Payne station agent Keith McCullough.
The story of Paulding County's drainage tile industry — elevation surveys, the county's 18 tile mills, and the two brick yards that supplied most of the brick buildings around the Paulding square.
A 15-part newspaper column series by local historian Don H. Price, published in the Paulding Progress's 1976 Bicentennial Section and early 1977, covering turn-of-the-century farm life, industry, and small-town customs across the county.
A history of the village of Junction, which briefly aspired to become a great city at the meeting point of the Wabash & Erie and Miami & Erie canals, and declined as the canals were abandoned.
A pictorial history of Charloe, Paulding County's second county seat (1841-1850), 'in memory of the last Indian chief in northwestern Ohio' — Charloe Peter. Also includes the program from a May 27, 1962 historical marker dedication ceremony.
Don H. Price's full-length history of Paulding, Ohio, covering the town's builders from 1880 to 1920 — likely the earlier work he references in his 1976 Paulding Progress column series.
A reference map of the Maumee River watershed showing Indian towns and trails, military roads, forts, and battle sites of the French, British, and American expeditions through the region, including the Black Swamp and Paulding County.
A 393-page history of Grover Hill, covering Latty and Washington Townships of Paulding County.
A history of Crane Township and the village of Cecil, covering the canals, railroads, the Paulding Iron Company furnace, telephone companies, and local businesses, written for the county's 1970 Sesquicentennial.
A 1966 Ohio State University study proposing organizational changes for Paulding County's public schools and the Paulding Exempted Village Schools.
An unsolved 1960 abduction and murder of a 14-year-old Paulding girl that remains a live cold case — a running list of reporting and other sources on the crime, not a full account.
A 1954 digest of the Paulding County Regional Planning Commission's comprehensive plan, prepared by planning consultant Carroll V. Hill.
A 1926 profile of Lewis Beck, a Blue Creek Township pioneer who built his log cabin in 1874 at age 27 and was still living in it at 78, recorded by an unnamed hardware store owner and later donated to Bowling Green State University's archives.
Mrs. A.M. Pursel's reminiscence of arriving in Paulding as a young girl in 1850, when the county seat was moved from Charloe, originally printed in the March 27, 1924 Paulding Democrat.
A 1922 newspaper account of the towns along the Wabash & Erie and Miami & Erie canals in Paulding County, the county's iron furnaces, and the 1887 'Reservoir War.' Part three of a series; parts one and two are not yet in this archive.
A photograph of the East Jackson Street truss bridge in Paulding, captioned "E. Jackson St. Bridge, Paulding O. 10-30-21," with three people standing on the bridge deck.
R. H. Blosser's research bulletin on the economics of farming Paulding County's soil, published by the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station.
A group photograph of schoolchildren posed outside a frame schoolhouse, with a chalkboard held by one student bearing a partially legible inscription including "1919" and a section/district number.
The July 24, 1917 roster of Company B, 2nd Ohio Infantry — Paulding County's World War I company — plus a list of men who enlisted elsewhere from Payne, Harrison, and Benton Townships.
Nevin O. Winter's narrative history of northwest Ohio's development, from the first European exploration of the Maumee onward — broader regional context for Paulding County's history. Volume I; long in the public domain.
A history of the Paulding County Carnegie Library, from Andrew Carnegie's initial refusal and eventual $40,000 grant, through construction (1914-1916) and opening, to its later expansions.
The third annual report on the Paulding County Experiment Farm, covering 1913, published by the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station in 1914.
Charles McIntire's second annual report on the Paulding County Experiment Farm, an Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station research bulletin.
A photograph of the Paulding sugar factory captioned "Moon-light View, Sugar Factory, Paulding, O., First Night Run, 10-18-10" — October 18, 1910.
Jesse B. Jackson, born in Paulding, Ohio in 1871, was appointed American Consul in Aleppo, Syria in 1908 and is credited with saving thousands of Armenian lives during the Armenian Genocide of WWI. This entry also recounts how his family's letters and artifacts were reunited with the museum in 2025-2026.
Henry Howe's two-volume county-by-county encyclopedia of Ohio, first written in 1846-47 and repeatedly expanded; the 1907 Centennial Edition includes a Paulding County chapter. Long in the public domain and freely available online.
A 1906 letter to the editor, written from Oklahoma on hearing of her mother's death, recalling the hardships of settling Paulding County around 1852 — no roads, digging the first ditch from Payne to Antwerp, and a barrel of Christmas goods that nearly cost her mother her feet to frostbite.
Letters concerning an unwanted pregnancy and abortion in the Paulding, Ohio area, 1906-1907. Identifying names have been edited out by the original compiler.
A photograph of a man in a horse-drawn carriage in front of a frame house, with a faint handwritten caption possibly reading a location near Cecil, Ohio.
A local-news column from the Latty Herald's November 8, 1901 issue — visits, moves, farewells, and small-town happenings around Latty, Ohio.
An account of the Wabash & Erie and Miami canals' survey and construction, excerpted from O. Morrow and F. W. Bashore's 1892 Historical Atlas of Paulding County, which itself quotes an 1881 county history. Closely parallels this archive's 1882 Historical Hand-Atlas transcription, but adds detail on the canal packet boat and mail lines.
Two short historical newspaper excerpts: an 1888 tribute to the county's early women settlers, and a 1919 'Do You Remember' column recalling the county's early infrastructure and county seats.
A newspaper account of the village of Cecil in 1886, describing its stave factory, stores, churches, hotel, school, and businesses, twenty years after the surrounding forest was cleared.
Prof. Everett A. Budd's county history essay from the 1882 Historical Hand-Atlas, covering county statistics, geography, formation and county seats, early settlers, soil and timber, newspaper history, manufacturing industries, county officers, streams, Civil War military service, and the canals and railroads that shaped the county's development.
A list of delinquent lands, lots, and taxes owed across Paulding County towns (Andrews, Newberg, Melrose, Junction, Paulding, and others), published in the Paulding Independent's January 1, 1863 delinquent tax sale notice.
Construction of the Wabash & Erie and Miami canals through Paulding County in the mid-1840s, and how their meeting point at Junction briefly rivaled Fort Wayne as a center of commerce.