Defiance is a city in Defiance County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 17,066 at the 2020 census. It is located at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers about 55 miles (89 km) southwest of Toledo and 47 miles (76 km) northeast of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in Ohio’s northwestern corner.
At a Glance
- County: Defiance County
- County seat of Defiance County
- State: Ohio
History of Defiance
The city contains the site of Fort Defiance, built by General "Mad" Anthony Wayne in August 1794 during the Northwest Indian War. Wayne surveyed the land and declared to General Charles Scott, "I defy the English, Indians, and all the devils of hell to take it." Using the fort as a base of operations, Wayne ordered his troops to destroy Native American crops and villages within a radius of 50 miles (80 km) around the fort. Today a pair of cannons outside the city library on the Maumee River overlook the confluence and mark the location of Fort Defiance, along with a mounded outline of the fort walls. The city was named after Fort Defiance.
From Fort Defiance, the U.S. forces moved northeast along the Maumee River to fight the decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers near the current town of Maumee, Ohio. This victory secured for the United States the Northwest Territory, now the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Fort Winchester was built on the same spot during the War of 1812, but it was a larger fort that extended southward somewhat along the Auglaize River. Historical plaques in the sidewalks mark the full extent of Fort Winchester.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Defiance, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.