Wauseon, Ohio: A Railroad Town Steals the County Seat

Wauseon, Ohio carries the name of a Native American chief and owes its existence to a decision made by railroad engineers. When Fulton County was organized in eighteen fifty, the county seat went to Ottokee, placed there for being geographically central. But in eighteen fifty-three the Michigan Southern railroad laid its tracks south of Ottokee, bypassing the county seat entirely.

Wauseon sprang up along the line soon after. Commerce followed the rails. Within a few years the new railroad town had eclipsed the old county seat, and in eighteen seventy-one citizens voted to move the seat of Fulton County government to Wauseon.

A courthouse went up the following year. The name Wauseon was chosen in honor of the chief whose people had lived in this part of northwestern Ohio before American settlement arrived. Wauseon incorporated as a village in eighteen fifty-nine and today serves as the commercial center of Fulton County.