Willard is a city in southwestern Huron County, Ohio, United States, approximately 14 miles (23 km) southwest of Norwalk. The population was 6,197 at the 2020 census.
At a Glance
- County: Huron County
- State: Ohio
History of Willard
The original name of Willard was Chicago, named for the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s line to Sandusky (the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad) and the branch west to Chicago (the Baltimore and Ohio and Chicago Railroad). Later the Akron and Chicago Junction Railroad was built east from the junction, providing a more direct route between the Northeastern United States and Chicago.
With the name "Chicago", passengers would mistake the community for Chicago, Illinois, so they changed the name to Chicago Junction, however, the word "junction" did not fit on boards at the time so it did not fix the problem. In 1917, to finally rectify the confusion, the town changed its name to Willard, after the then president of the B&O, Daniel Willard. Willard officially became a city in the year of 1960
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Willard, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.