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21-87 Fort Meigs Union Cemetery
The village of Perrysburg was founded in 1816 and Wood County in 1820. In 1822 the town established a village cemetery and located it on the southwest corner of West Indiana at Cherry Streets. By 1848 it was full and a new one was created on West Boundary and Indiana Avenue. The first burial was […]
20-87 Perrysburg / Perrysburg Plat Map
Following the War of 1812, settlers reestablished the 1810 Maumee River town, Port Miami of Lake Erie, on the land below the deserted Fort Meigs. The inhabitants nicknamed the new town “Orleans of the North” in honor of New Orleans in the Louisiana Territory. Orleans was destroyed twice by the river’s spring ice floes. Consequently, […]
19-87 Custer Homestead
Near this site stood the former Custer Homestead of Emanuel and Maria Custer from 1856-1865. For two years it was the boyhood home of Captain Tom Custer, younger brother of famed General George Armstrong Custer. At age 16, Tom misled a recruiter in neighboring Gilead, Ohio about his age and enlisted in the Civil War. […]
17-87 17th Infantry Regiment
The 17th Infantry, created by Congress in 1812 and formed with personnel from western states, was the only Regular Army regiment in General James Winchester’s column of the Army of the Northwest’s campaign to regain Detroit. During the War of 1812, the 17th fought at Frenchtown, Fort Meigs, Fort Stephenson, and Thames River. In 1815, […]
16-87 John A. Wilson
Born July 25, 1832, near Worthington, Ohio, John Alf Wilson lived at this site. At the age of 29, he enlisted in C. Company, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry under General O.M. Mitchell. General Mitchell consented to a dangerous mission led by John Andrews to cripple Confederate supply lines. Alf Wilson was one of 22 men […]
15-87 William Henry Harrison’s Encampment
During the War of 1812, Northwestern Army Commander General William Henry Harrison led troops through northwest Ohio on the way to Detroit and Ft. Malden in Michigan. After the decimation of General James Winchester’s division at Frenchtown (Monroe, Michigan) by British and Indian forces, Harrison retreated and led his troops southward to the Portage River. […]
14-87 Amos Spafford
In 1810, early settlers here were Major Amos Spafford (1753-1818), his wife Olive (1756-1823), and their children Samuel, Aurora , Chloe (Mrs. Almon Gibbs), and Anna (Mrs. Richard Craw). In 1796, Spafford, a native of Connecticut, was a surveyor for the Connecticut Land Company. He drew the first map laying out Cleveland and named the […]
13-87 The Maumee and Western Reserve Road / Turnpike Milestones
Sandusky Street (U.S. Highway 20) is the former Maumee and Western Reserve Turnpike. Native American tribes northwest of the Ohio River ceded the right of way for this 46-mile road to the federal government in the Treaty of Brownstown in 1808. This narrow strip ran in a nearly straight line from the lower Maumee River […]
12-87 Pemberville Town Hall and Opera House
Completed in 1892 at the height of the region’s oil boom, the Pemberville Town Hall followed a late-1800s municipal trend to house many civic functions under one roof. The fire station, jail, and council chambers occupied the ground level, while the entire second floor hosted a public auditorium, or “opera house,” that seated 250. The […]
11-87 Wood County Infirmary, 1889-1971
The Infirmary, also known as the poorhouse or simply “The Home,” is one of the last county poorhouse sites in Ohio where nearly all of the original structures still stand. The main building, constructed in 1868 with outbuildings added over the years, served as home for the county’s poor, sick, orphaned, elderly, and mentally ill. […]