Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.
The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 45 newspaper titles published in Ottawa County, Ohio, with the earliest starting in 1800. 2 of these titles have digitized pages on Chronicling America. The National Register of Historic Places includes 32 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1966; 2 are also National Historic Landmarks. Most listings are in or near Port Clinton, Middle Bass Island, Put-in-Bay.
Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.
| Title | Place | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Ottawa County Union | Port Clinton | 1800–1899 |
| The Lakeside Advocate | Lakeside | 1800–1899 |
| The Lakeside News | Lakeside | 1800–1999 |
| Weekly Ottawa County Democrat | Port Clinton | 1800–1899 |
| Ottawa Democrat | Port Clinton | 1857–1899 |
| The Ottawa Journal | Port Clinton | 1857–1899 |
| Ottawa County News | Port Clinton | 1865–1895 |
| The Exponent | Oak Harbor | 1871–1880 |
| The Genoa Enterprise | Genoa | 1871–1873 |
| Ottawa County Reporter | Port Clinton | 1874–1899 |
| Genoa Register | Genoa | 1877–1899 |
| The Ottawa County Exponent | Oak Harbor | 1881–1991 |
| Chautauqua Camp and Fireside | Cincinnati, Lakeside, De Funiak Springs | 1887–1999 |
| Ottawa County Republican | Port Clinton | 1887–1925 |
| Elmore Independent | Elmore | 1888–1999 |
| The Lakeside Daily News | Lakeside | 1890–1896 |
| The Cornerstone | Wheeling, Columbus, St. Paris | 1893–1908 |
| Ottawa County News Democrat | Port Clinton | 1895–1931 |
| The Genoa Times | Genoa | 1897–1919 |
| The Herald | Put-In-Bay | 1898–1899 |
| Lakeside Courier | Lakeside | 1900–1999 |
| The Elmore Tribune | Elmore | 1900–1954 |
| The Lakeside Bulletin | Lakeside | 1900–1999 |
| The Lakeside Summer Bulletin | Lakeside | 1900–1999 |
| Ottawa County Herald | Port Clinton | 1902–1925 |
| The Peninsular News | Marblehead | 1916–1990 |
| Port Clinton, Ohio Progressive Times | Port Clinton | 1917–1929 |
| The Genoa Gazette | Genoa | 1922–1966 |
| The Republican-Herald | Port Clinton | 1925–1936 |
| Progressive Times | Port Clinton | 1929–1931 |
| Ottawa County News Digitized | Port Clinton | 1931–1956 |
| Ottawa County News Digitized | Port Clinton | 1931–? |
| Lake Front News | Port Clinton | 1933–? |
| Port Clinton Herald and Republican | Port Clinton | 1936–1968 |
| Put in Bay Gazette | Put-In-Bay | 1936–1999 |
| The Daily News | Port Clinton | 1956–1969 |
| Hayseed | Elmore | 1960–1999 |
| Port Clinton Herald | Port Clinton | 1968–1969 |
| News Herald | Port Clinton, Oak Harbor | 1969–? |
| The Suburban Press | Genoa, Millbury | 1972–? |
| Port Clinton Press | Port Clinton | 1976–1989 |
| The Put-In-Bay Gazette | Put-In-Bay | 1980–? |
| The Beacon | Port Clinton | 1983–? |
| Metro Press | Genoa, Millbury | 1984–? |
| The Peninsula News | Marblehead, Lakeside-Marblehead | 1990–? |
Source: Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory. “Digitized” links lead to page images on Chronicling America.
Each bar is one title’s publication span. brown = digitized on Chronicling America Open-ended runs extend to today.
Digitized page-1 issues from papers published in Ottawa. Thumbnails link to the Library of Congress.
“BERT KLEIN PC MERCHANT DIES SUDDENLY Often we talk about the Christmas Spirit but sel dom do we stop to think what it really is It isnt giving or receiving gifts It isnt beautiful Christmas music and…”
View at Library of Congress
“Camp Perry Gets Soldiers This Summer Approximately men will be at Camp Perry during training period extending from July Other directors reelected are Andrew Lausten Alma Goss Scott Matthews and Zeis…”
View at Library of Congress
“Weeded Blood Sbenotd JH Appointment cards are in the mail for the February Red Cross Blood collection at the Elks Lodge Hall on West Perry street from am to five pm Recipients of the cards are asked…”
View at Library of Congress
“Career Of Louis Warner Newspaperman Death wrote the news paper symbol for the end of the story to the life of beloved Louis Warner dean of the Ottawa county newspaper profession Jan at am in Magruder…”
View at Library of CongressCourtesy Library of Congress, Chronicling America. Page images are hotlinked from loc.gov; generally public domain / no known restrictions (U.S. papers older than 95 years are public domain in their entirety; newer issues may contain some copyrighted third-party material). Rights & access.
No digitized front pages for Ottawa were found on today’s month/day in the sampled years. Try the sample front pages above, or browse Chronicling America.
20 of 32 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.
Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.
Ottawa was formed in 1840 (1840-03-06) from Erie, Lucas, Sandusky.
OTTAWA created from ERIE, LUCAS, and SANDUSKY.
Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
Ottawa County population from 1840 to 2020 (Census historical series).
| 1840 | 1860 | 1880 | 1900 | 1920 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1980 | 2000 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,248 | 7,016 | 19,762 | 22,213 | 22,193 | 24,360 | 29,469 | 35,323 | 40,076 | 40,985 | 40,364 |
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.
Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).
| Site | Type | Dist. |
|---|---|---|
| pevi | Park unit | 20.5 km |
Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.
34 cemeteries and 5 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.
| Name |
|---|
| Allen Cemetery |
| Allen Township Cemetery |
| Catawba Island Cemetery |
| Christy Chapel Cemetery |
| Clay Cemetery |
| Clemons Cemetery |
| Confederate Stockade Cemetery |
| Crown Hill Cemetery |
| Dewelle Cemetery |
| Elliston Cemetery |
| K'burg Cemetery |
| Lacarpe Cemetery |
| Lakeview Cemetery |
| Limestone Cemetery |
| Lockwood Cemetery |
| Locust Point Cemetery |
| Maple Leaf Cemetery |
| Middle Bass Island Cemetery |
| North Bass Island Cemetery |
| Rice Cemetery |
| Riverview Cemetery |
| Roose Cemetery |
| Rusha Cemetery |
| Russian Cemetery |
| Sackett Cemetery |
| Saint Joseph Cemetery |
| Saint Joseph Cemetery |
| Saint Marys Byzantine Catholic Cemetery |
| Saint Pauls Lutheran Cemetery |
| Shook Cemetery |
| Union Cemetery |
| Union Cemetery |
| Veterans Memorial Cemetery |
| Woolcot Cemetery |
| Name |
|---|
| Maple Grove |
| Middleton |
| Piccola |
| Sheldon |
| Violet |
Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.
Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.
Search HMdb for Ottawa County, Ohio
Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.