Napoleon is a city in and the county seat of Henry County, Ohio, United States, along the Maumee River 44 miles (71 km) southwest of Toledo. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 8,862.
At a Glance
- County: Henry County
- County seat of Henry County
- State: Ohio
History of Napoleon
The area around the town was once known as "the Great Black Swamp". This area was opened to European settlement following the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, which took place about 26 miles to the east.
The City of Napoleon was founded in 1832 and named for French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The Miami and Erie Canal was finished in 1843, bringing German immigrants to the area. By the 1880s, the town had more than 3,000 residents; the population growth due in part to the town’s location on the Miami and Erie Canal and two separate railroad lines. At the time, most employment existed through businesses which made products for farmers in the surrounding countryside.
Four buildings in Napoleon are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the county courthouse, the sheriff’s house and jail, First Presbyterian Church, and St. Augustine’s Catholic Church.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Napoleon, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.