WATERVILLE INCORPORATED
We have pointed out in our earlier 250 articles about the founding of Waterville, how John Pray engineered the creation of Waterville Township in 1831 before he filed the fifty lot plat for his village at the Wood County Court in Perrysburg. This was, apparently, his plan as Waterville Village became the seat of government for Waterville Twp. and the more learned men cycled through the township offices doing their civic duty and new-comers were welcomed in. The two entities co-existed in this manner for the next fifty years.
Fifty years is a long time and many changes occurred in our young township in that time, some of which we have recorded here. The canal came through bringing a period of rapid growth and increased prosperity. The great Pekin Mill made Waterville one of, if not the grain center of Ohio. The population of village and township increased dramatically. Then the railroads arrived creating, among other things, a new village in the township as Whitehouse was established in 1864. All of this growth made the duties of our township officers more difficult, especially the school district officers, the constables and the Justices of the Peace. At some point in time most of the Township offices were in Whithouse rather than Waterville.
By 1880 the residents of the village were finding that a community of some 400 to 450 people had more needs than the Township Government could address. Historian Midge Campbell, who researched this bit of our history extensively, suggested one of our problems was the fact that Waterville had, at that time, three churches and 13 saloons. Midge writes that on January 22, 1882 a petition signed by over 50 of our most prominent citizens (named in her writing) was presented to the Lucas County Board of Commissioners requesting that the area within the existing town limits be incorporated as the Village of Waterville according to the statutes of the State of Ohio. The petition was read on March 21, came up for hearing on May 9 (record on pp 629 and 630, Commissioner’s Journal No 4) The petition was granted at this hearing and filed for record August 7, 1882. Copies of the incorporation documents can be found in the Wakeman Archives
So an unincorporated village of fifty one years suddenly became the incorporated village of Waterville and the difference was huge. We needed a Mayor and a Village Council, Clerk, Treasurer, Marshal and other officers as required by state law for a village to manage its own affairs. We have not found, as of this writing, a record of that first election but we know that Joseph Emmons Hall was elected our first Mayor. He is best known as proprietor of the J.E. Hall Canal Store but was many other things as well.
It is important to note that incorporation did not separate us from the Township and Waterville residents could (and did) run for and hold township offices. Our new government could create ordinances and regulations for the village, tax and borrow money, etc. as County and State laws allowed. This power was most important as we shall see in future articles.
In 1885 our Village Council appropriated money, after a vote by the residents, to have a council room and jail constructed at 16 N. Second Street and received five bids for the construction of a 40 x20 foot building with 10-foot ceiling and two 9-foot square jail cells in the rear. William K. Meyers submitted the winning big of $561.00. The work was completed by the December 1 deadline set by council in October and an extra $9 was appropriated for extra work billed by Meyers. This building served until 1984 when our new municipal building was finished and is now occupied by the Chamber of Commerce who had it moved around the corner to face Farnsworth Road.