Allen County OHGenWeb

County Seat: Lima




Welcome to the Allen County OHGenWeb site, which is part of the OHGenWeb Project. The OHGenWeb Project is an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project which endeavors to provide free genealogy web sites for genealogical research in the United States.

My name is Lynn Tooley and I am the county coordinator for the Allen County, OHGenWeb.

Please note: Though the information on this web page is believed to be correct, the possibility of error remains. Please notify Lynn should an error be found.


History

Under the terms of the Treaty of Greenville signed in 1795, northwestern Ohio was reserved for Native Americans. Thus the area now comprising Allen County was off-limits to European settlement until the Treaty of Maumee Rapids in 1817. Under the terms of this treaty, the Shawnee tribe was assigned reservations at Wapakonetta and at their "Hog Creek" settlement along the Ottawa River which comprised most of what is the present-day Shawnee Township. The latter treaty opened the way for the Ohio Legislature on March 1, 1820, to create fourteen counties, including Allen, which was defined as Ranges 5 through 8 east and Towns 3 through 6 south.

The first permanent settlement within Allen County's present day bounds took place in 1824, when Christopher S. Wood and his family settled in section 7 of Bath Township. The organization of Bath Township predates that of Allen County, with its first township meeting held on March 2, 1829. On February 12, 1829, an act of the legislature set aside land for a "county town". Wood was appointed commissioner to determine the location of this "seat of justice" for Allen County. This was done on March 3, 1831, with Wood appointed as Town Director. He laid out plots of land to be sold in section 31 of Bath Township, and the plat was filed April 20, 1831, creating what was the beginning of the city of Lima.


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