Perrysburg is a city in Wood County, Ohio, United States. The population was 25,041 at the 2020 census. The city is along the south side of the Maumee River about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Toledo and is part of the Toledo metropolitan area.
Perrysburg was surveyed and platted by a federal survey team in the summer of 1816. It served as the county seat from 1822 to 1868. A local legend has held that it was designed by noted architect Charles Pierre L’Enfant, after he planned Washington, DC, but this has not been supported by fact.
At a Glance
- County: Wood County
- State: Ohio
History of Perrysburg
Perrysburg lies near the center of the Twelve Mile Square Reservation, a tract of land ceded in 1795 to the United States by the Odawa people following their defeat in the Northwest Indian Wars. They had occupied this territory since the turn of the 18th century, after having settled in the region of the French trading post at Fort Detroit. Also known as the Ottawa, they had controlled much of the territory along the Maumee River in present day northwestern Ohio.
In 1810, early European American settlers here were Major Amos Spafford (1753 to 1818), his wife Olive (1756 to 1823), and their four children. In 1796, Spafford, a native of Connecticut, was a surveyor for the Connecticut Land Company. He drew the first map laying out Cleveland and named the city. He left there in 1810 following appointment as US Customs Collector and postmaster for the new port at the Foot of the Rapids of the Miami of the Lake Maumee River. Two years later, 67 families lived in the area, but most fled at the outbreak of the War of 1812.
When the War of 1812 progressed toward Northwest Ohio, General William Henry Harrison ordered the construction of the fort, beginning in February 1813. Harrison was General Anthony Wayne’s former aide de camp. Later he was elected as the country’s ninth president. The installation was named Fort Meigs in honor of Ohio’s fourth governor, Return Jonathan Meigs. Fort Meigs was constructed on a bluff above the Maumee River, and built from a design by army engineer Captain Eleazer D. Wood, for whom the county would be named. Two critical battles with the British were fought at the fort during the War of 1812.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Perrysburg, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.