[Photo:  Melrose (Ohio). 1890 circa. Center for Archival Collections, Bowling Green State University (OH). Ohio Memory Project.]

Statistics (from 1882)
The population of the county in 1830 was 161; in 1840, 1,034; in 1850, 1,766; in 1860, 4,945; in 1870, 8,544; in 1880, 13,489.  Number of acres of arable or plow land as returned in 1880, 47,199. Number of acres meadow or pasture land, 7,230. Number of acres timber land, 205,970. Total number of acres in county, 260,399.

Click on the following links to read more history:

Geographic Position

Introductory History

Early Settlers

Formation

Soil and Timber

Canals and Railroads

Manufacturing

Offices

County Officers

War Record

Press

Source:  History of Paulding County by Prof. Everett A. Budd as printed in the Historical Hand-Atlas:  History of Northwestern Ohio and History of Paulding County, Ohio. H. H. Hardesty & Co., Publishers:  Chicago and Toledo. 1882.

Other Helpful Links

Ohio Historical Society

Paulding County 
Genealogy Society

Ohio Memory Scrapbook

Paulding County 
Carnegie Library

The Early Settlers
As is the case with the first settlements of almost every country, the earliest settlers of Paulding county planted their homes along the banks of its streams.  On the rich bottom farms that lie along the "dark Auglaize" are yet to be found the sites where were built the cabins of the Careys, the Hudsons, the Shirleys, the Romines and the Shroufes.  Along the Maumee came the Banks and Reynolds families; also the Gordons the Runyans, the Murphys, the Applegates, and General H.N. Curtis. On the Little Auglaize the Harrells, the Mellingers, and the Curtises; on Blue Creek the Moss brothers, the Reeds, the Barnhills, and the family of Robert Hakes; while on Flat Rock or Crooked Creek, the Woodcocks, the Malotts, and the Wentworths, were the first to tread the forest paths, and to swing the "settlers' echoing ax."

The first white settlement made in Paulding county was on Section 19, in Auglaize township, by Isaac Carey, in the Autumn of 1819. He came from Miami county, Ohio, by the route which ha been opened by General Wayne to Defiance, thence up the Auglaize.  The farm upon which he settled is situated on the east side of the river, about a half a mile from the present site of the village of Junction, and is now owned by Jacob Davis. Upon this farm, January 21, 1826, was born David Clark Carey, who was the first white child to open its eyes within the limits of the county. He now resides at the village of Oakwood, a few miles south of his birth-place, and is a very worthy citizen, having held the office of Probate Judge, and other offices of public trust.

Shadrack Hudson improved his farm on the same section in the same year.  Nathan Shirley came in 1823, and Thomas Romine in 1825.

The settlements along the Maumee were begun in the year of 1825.  Denison Hughes, William Banks, David Applegate, William Gordon, Reason V. Spurrier, and General H.N. Curtis came to the county about that year, and may be regarded as the first settlers of its northern part.  Of these, the Banks and Gordon families came from Cincinnati; their route lay along the military roads that ran up the Miami to its head waters; then crossing over tot he head waters of the St. Mary's river, they loaded their household goods and wagons into piroques and came down that river to Ft. Wayne, thence down the Maumee to their respective places of landing, which will be fully described in the township histories of this work.  Their horses were unharnessed and driven across the country along the winding Indian trailers that were not sufficiently wide to permit the passage of vehicles.

Joseph Mellinger commenced the Little Auglaize settlement in the year of 1828, and was shortly after followed by William Harrell, Benjamin Kniss and Dimmit Mackrill.  These settlers reached the county from the southern Ohio settlements by crossing the water-shed which extends east and west through the State, and striking the head-waters of the Blanchard, thence down that stream to its confluence with the Big Auglaize.

In 1835, the Moss Brothers, natives of England, commenced improving farms on the banks of Blue Creek, while farther up that stream, about the same year, Robert Barnhill and Joseph Reed built their log cabins and commenced battling with the forest. 

In 1835 Thomas Wentworth began the Flat Rock settlement.  His nativity was the State of Maine, and with his family he left the pine-covered hills of that State to find a home in Paulding county.  He embarked upon a coasting vessel and sailed down the Atlantic to New York, and reached Buffalo by way of Hudson river and the New York and Erie canal, thence on lake to Toledo, and up the Maumee to New Rochester, near the present site of Cecil.  Here h e rested with his family for a year, then cut a road through the dark forest ten miles to the south and commenced the improvement of a farm near where stands the village of Malottville.

Thus we have shown our readers the route by which the first settlers reached the county; also their names, date of entry, and place of location. It now only remains for us to pay to them that tribute which is their due; and would that our unskillful pen was equal to such a task.  They were men of integrity, hardy and brave, and whether they were clearing away the forest, engaged in the hand-mill in procuring food for their families, or chasing the bounding deer for the same purpose, they showed a fortitude and determination of spirit which is worthy of imitation.  But they have passed away, and they who look upon their last resting places may say, here rest the great and good; here they repose after their generous toil.

A sacred band they were, and now they take their sleep together, while every new-born Spring that is ushered in, comes with its early flowers to deck their graves.  Theirs is no vulgar sepulchre -- although in some instances the green sod is their only monument; yet it tells a nobler history than pillared piles, or the eternal pyramids.

Their decedents belong to the first families of the county, and with sadness they tread the hallowed ground that holds the consecrated bones of their ancestors.  Touch not, then, the ancient elms that bend their shade over the lowly graves of the pioneers of Paulding county, for their shadows fall upon the resting places of those who need no columns pointing upward to tell us that heaven is their home.