Galena, Ohio
Near Columbus, Ohio
Galena, Ohio, got its name by lottery. The Delaware County village was platted in eighteen sixteen as a milling settlement, originally called Zoar. By eighteen thirty-four another Ohio town had already claimed the name Zoar, and a post office required a new one.
Three committee members gathered in front of a resident's house, each wrote a name on a slip of paper, placed the slips in a hat, and had a passing stranger, blindfolded, draw one. The name drawn was Galena. Nobody recorded what the other two names were.
Galena is a lead-sulfide mineral and a common name in mid-nineteenth-century America, suggesting wealth and industry, though no lead was ever mined here. The village sits where Big Walnut Creek and Little Walnut Creek come close together, still a quiet spot just north of Columbus's suburban sprawl.
