Tag: Local Government
From makeshift courtrooms to $5 tax contracts, Mercer and Auglaize counties built civil government from the ground up. This article traces the counties’ earliest officials, records, and courts—showing how law and order took root in Ohio’s former Indian lands.
In 1843, Mercer County settlers rose up against the State of Ohio, cutting the Miami & Erie Canal reservoir to reclaim flooded farms. This dramatic act of defiance—now known as the Reservoir War—reveals how frontier justice collided with state power in early canal-era Ohio.
The creation of Auglaize County in 1848 was not a straightforward process but rather a contentious event that revealed the complexities of Ohio’s mid-19th-century political landscape. The new county, directly and indirectly carved from portions of Allen, Mercer, and Putnam counties, sparked heated debates and strong opinions both in the Ohio General Assembly and among […]
