Delaware, Ohio , Birthplace of a President

Delaware, Ohio was founded in eighteen oh eight when settlers from Massachusetts filed the first town plat along the Olentangy River. The town grew as a county seat and became home to Ohio Wesleyan University in eighteen forty-two. But its most famous distinction is a birth: Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the nineteenth President of the United States, was born in Delaware on October fourth, eighteen twenty-two, the son of a farmer who died two months before his birth.

Hayes served as president from eighteen seventy-seven to eighteen eighty-one, his contested election resolved by the Compromise of eighteen seventy-seven, which effectively ended Reconstruction. A stone monument marks his East William Street birthplace today. During the War of eighteen twelve, Delaware also briefly served as the headquarters of General William Henry Harrison, before he became president himself.