Genoa, Ohio

History

In 1835, Timothy and Cinderella Sherman, with their two-year-old son Phillip, became the first people of European descent to settle in what is now Clay Township. Other settlers sprinkled into the Great Black Swamp and the area became known as Stony Ridge, likely due to the limestone bedrock sticking out of the ground and swamp.

Ultimately the town owes its existence to a cost-saving decision by the executives of the Toledo, Norwalk, and Cleveland Railroad. In an effort to eliminate eleven miles from the planned railroad line that was to connect Toledo and Cleveland, the railroad opted not to connect Woodville and Perrysburg on the line but instead to proceed in a straight line from Fremont to Toledo. The farmers around Stony Ridge happened to fall on this line. In 1851 work began on the line running through Stony Ridge. During the fall of 1852, iron imported from England was laid down and on December 22, 1852, the first passenger train rolled through a swampy wilderness. Stony Ridge began to develop immediately; within two years there was a saw mill, post office, hotel, and other businesses. Settlers from the East Coast and Europe began to arrive immediately, and churches were founded. Genoa quickly became a prominent source of limestone and with its position on a railroad the area quarries began distributing "Genoa White Lime" across the region.

From the History section of Genoa, Ohio on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.