[Photo:  Melrose (Ohio). 1890 circa. Center for Archival Collections, Bowling Green State University (OH). Ohio Memory Project.]

Statistics (from 1882)
The population of the county in 1830 was 161; in 1840, 1,034; in 1850, 1,766; in 1860, 4,945; in 1870, 8,544; in 1880, 13,489.  Number of acres of arable or plow land as returned in 1880, 47,199. Number of acres meadow or pasture land, 7,230. Number of acres timber land, 205,970. Total number of acres in county, 260,399.

Paulding County Seal

Geographic Position
Of the seven physical regions of Ohio, the Maumee Valley is one.  It is situated in the northwest part of the State and embraces eighteen counties; of these Paulding county holds a position in the western part, and is bounded by Defiance, Putnam and Van Wert counties, Ohio; and Allen county, Indiana.  It's south line is the forty-first parallel of north latitude and the meridian of eighty-four degrees and thirty minutes crosses the county near its eastern boundary.

Introductory History
The following scraps of general history will be of great aid and interest to the reader, in showing him the channels of civilization and the paths of immigration that were trodden ere the county was wrested from the dominion of the red men, and its dark forests entered by the hardy and fearless pioneer.

The discovery of San Salvador, in 1492, by Christopher Columbus, was an event which may be said to mark the starting point of him who attempts to write a history of America or any potion of it.  When that great and good man made his triumphant entry into Madrid, surrounded with the trophies and curiosities of the New World, he fired the European heart with a spirit of nautical adventure, and soon the ships of every maritime nation were turning their prows westward; and from that time to the present, "westward the star of empire has taken its way."

When the period of voyage and discovery ceased, it was found that the French had planted permanent colonies around the shores of the gulf, and along the banks of the river St. Lawrence; the English had gained strong footholds farther down the Atlantic coast, and the flag of Spain waved over the settlements of that nation in Florida.

The right to the soil upon which these various colonies were founded, was based upon the right of discovery, and their possessions were held by charters granted them by the sovereigns of their mother countries. The boundaries of these possessions were often irregular and indefinite, and gave rise to disputed territory.  The French settlers, ascending the St. Lawrence, laid claim to the great lake region and all north and west of the Ohio river.  Their Jesuit Priests entered the pathless wilds of the Indian country, and established a line of missionary posts from the lakes westward across what are now the States of Indiana and Illinois.  Some of these posts were established as early as 1680, and it is not improbable, but highly presumable, that about this time one of these daring priests, wandering up the romantic banks of the beautiful Maumee, to some post on the Wabash, was the first white man to set foot upon that portion of earth, which, "in the course of human events," became the northern part of Paulding county.  But his name and the spot where his adventuresome bones moldered back to their native clay, must alike remain unknown to the present or future historian.  Yet, this we do know, that long years afterward, in the foot-prints of this wanderer came the hardy pioneers who made permanent settlements and battled with the dark forests which once covered the now broad and fertile fiends of Crane and Carryall townships.

The English, extending their possessions westward, also laid claim to the Ohio country.  This led to cruel and bloody wars, in which the echoing whoop of the savage oft resounded; but, at last, on the fall of Quebec and the treaty of Paris, in 1763, the French possessions east of the Mississippi fell into the hands of the English.

Immediately following this treaty, the King of England issued a proclamation, forbidding his governors in America to grant any warrants of survey, or patents for any lands beyond the source of any of the rivers that fall into the Atlantic ocean from the west or northwest; or upon any lands not ceded by the Indians.  The effect of this proclamation was to prevent all attempts to settle any part of what is now the State of Ohio.  In this manner its soil remained wholly untouched by Europeans until the Revolution; and during that struggle it was preserved from settlement by the contest which arose among the different States; with reference to the vacant lands. 

Thus it seems that the great State, of which Paulding county forms a part, was reserved until all was ripe to try within its limits the experiment of a Republican form of government; and the men who had fought the battles of the Revolution -- had stood side by side with the immortal Washington -- were the first to tread her soil as citizens.

In 1787, the "North-West Territory" was formed, and along its eastern and southern borders came the heroes we have mentioned.  On the pleasant banks of the Ohio they settled, and lured by the rich bottoms of the Muskingum, Scioto and Miami, they extended their settlements along these streams, even to their headwaters, and at every advance neared the "Black Swamp" region.

Owing to encroachments of the Northwest Indians upon the Ohio settlers, which at times would break out in murderous warfare, and after the armies of General Harmar and St. Clair had sustained disastrous defeats, in 1794, an army, commanded by "Mad Anthony Wayne," left the headwaters of the Miami with the determined purpose of subduing these aboriginal raiders.

He cut a road and passed down the west side of the Auglaize river to where now stands the flourishing city of Defiance; thence, after totally defeating the Indians at the battle of "Fallen Timber," near the present site of Maumee City, he retraced his steps up the river to Fort Wayne, laying waste to everything before him, and making desolate the whole Maumee country.

The bright rays of civilization pierced the smoke of this desolation, and served as beacon lights to attract the attention and guide the daring frontiersman into the country, and the military roads of this conquering army became the routes and highways over which came the early settlers.

Click on the following links to read more history:

Source:  History of Paulding County by Prof. Everett A. Budd as printed in the Historical Hand-Atlas:  History of Northwestern Ohio and History of Paulding County, Ohio. H. H. Hardesty & Co., Publishers:  Chicago and Toledo. 1882.

Other Helpful Links

Ohio Historical Society

Paulding County 
Genealogy Society

Ohio Memory Scrapbook

Paulding County 
Carnegie Library