County Past
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Williams County, Ohio

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

36newspaper titles
0digitized titles
7historic places
1838earliest paper
1820formed
37,102pop. 2020
51cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory lists 36 newspaper titles published in Williams County, Ohio, with the earliest starting in 1838. None of these titles are currently digitized on Chronicling America. The National Register of Historic Places includes 7 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1973. Most listings are in or near Bryan, Montpelier, Kunkle.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers published in Williams

Library of Congress
36 newspaper titles
TitlePlaceYears
Defiance BannerDefiance, Defiance1838–1839
Equal RightsWest Unity, Bryan1840–1999
Defiance DemocratDefiance, Defiance1844–1920
The North-WesternBryan1845–1899
The Spirit of the AgeBryan1848–1849
The Weekly Family VisitorBryan1850–1899
Williams DemocratWest Unity1852–1899
Republican StandardBryan1855–1857
Political AbolitionistBryan1856–1857
Williams County GazetteBryan1857–1859
Williams County LeaderBryan1859–1862
The Press and LeaderBryan1862–1863
Union PressBryan1862–1862
The Bryan Union PressBryan1863–1869
The Weekly Bryan DemocratBryan1863–1865
The Bryan DemocratBryan1865–1949
Bryan PressBryan1869–1949
The ACORNBucyrus1869–1899
Fountain City ArgusBryan1876–1879
Unity EagleWest Unity1878–1880
Buckeye VidetteBryan, Columbus, Salem1880–1888
Montpelier EnterpriseMontpelier1880–1923
West Unity EagleWest Unity1880–1885
The Edgerton EarthEdgerton1882–?
Tri-State AlliancePioneer1882–1974
The EagleWest Unity1885–1885
West Unity ChiefWest Unity1885–1890
The Montpelier LeaderMontpelier1887–1923
West Unity ReporterWest Unity1890–1976
The Telephone-NewsHillsdale, Reading, Pioneer1893–1999
The Edon IndependentEdon1895–1906
The Stryker AdvanceStryker1900–1976
Edon CommercialEdon1906–?
The Leader EnterpriseMontpelier1923–?
The CountylineMontpelier1967–?
The Advance ReporterStryker1976–?

Source: Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory. “Digitized” links lead to page images on Chronicling America.

Coverage timeline

Newspapers

Each bar is one title’s publication span. brown = digitized on Chronicling America Open-ended runs extend to today.

18301879192819772026

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

4 of 7 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

7 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Bryan Downtown Historic DistrictBryanDistrict1983
Fountain City Historic DistrictBryanDistrict1990
Hill, James Delos, HouseMontpelierBuilding1997
Kunkle Log HouseKunkleBuilding1976
Nettle Lake Mound GroupNettle LakeStructure1974
Stryker DepotStrykerBuilding1989
Williams County CourthouseBryanBuilding1973

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Williams was formed in 1820 (1820-04-01) from unknown / original county.

WILLIAMS created from Non-County Area 6 attached to DARKE and Non-County Area 7 attached to SHELBY; WILLIAMS overlapped part of the area disputed with Michigan Territory since 1805 that was actually under Michigan control.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Williams County population from 1830 to 2020 (Census historical series).

39k20k38718301840188019201930196020002020
183018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
3874,46516,63323,82124,95324,62725,51026,20229,96836,36939,18837,102

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

51 cemeteries and 5 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 51 of 51 listed
NameLatLon
Barrett Cemetery41.6295-84.49606
Beaver Creek Cemetery41.48088-84.48578
Beaver Creek Cemetery41.60112-84.47323
Bethel Cemetery41.47088-84.63261
Billingstown Cemetery41.68963-84.79722
Boisher Cemetery41.60055-84.78149
Boynton Cemetery41.4786-84.43717
Brown Cemetery41.48227-84.59356
Clarksville Cemetery41.42811-84.76774
Cogswell Cemetery41.64172-84.60245
Columbia Cemetery41.62921-84.78801
Eagle Creek Cemetery41.62116-84.66134
Edon Cemetery41.55199-84.76801
Ely Cemetery41.6081-84.39606
Farnham Cemetery41.45354-84.79608
Fetters Cemetery41.45255-84.61579
Floral Grove Cemetery41.57088-84.41578
Floral Grove Cemetery41.66505-84.54606
Fountain Grove Cemetery41.45727-84.54801
French Cemetery41.5039-84.4485
Gardner Cemetery41.67938-84.67953
Hepker Cemetery41.51366-84.67079
Heritage Cemetery41.62115-84.66044
Kunkle Cemetery41.62561-84.49495
Lash Cemetery41.587-84.55967
Lick Creek Cemetery41.51366-84.59273
Ligett Cemetery41.6101-84.78448
Lockport Cemetery41.54671-84.39273
Louden Cemetery41.5759-84.60047
Malcom Cemetery41.63727-84.74634
Maple Grove Cemetery41.44366-84.75218
Nettle Lake Cemetery41.68505-84.71357
Oakwood Cemetery41.49837-84.42967
Old Pulaski Cemetery41.5137-84.51163
Olive Branch Cemetery41.65283-84.40884
Pease Cemetery41.69482-84.60171
Primrose Cemetery41.68005-84.44245
Quaker Cemetery41.61559-84.38331
Ring Cemetery41.59283-84.42868
Riverside Cemetery41.58381-84.61799
Rogers Cemetery41.64962-84.79207
Saint Joseph Cemetery41.53477-84.72996
Shiffler Cemetery41.53255-84.50634
Thomas Cemetery41.46588-84.71523
Union Chapel Cemetery41.54243-84.65659
Walnut Grove Cemetery41.67588-84.43662
West Bethesda Cemetery41.54227-84.59412
West Buffalo Cemetery41.51366-84.69551
West Jefferson Cemetery41.57644-84.55634
Williams Center Cemetery41.42894-84.61245
Zion Cemetery41.44172-84.36273
Historical populated places — 5 of 5
NameLatLon
Baldwin41.58311-84.49717
Deer Lick41.61755-84.5744
Denmark41.48838-84.7294
Freedom41.42783-84.55551
West Buffalo41.51588-84.69412

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

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 Williams County, Ohio

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.