Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Ottoville, Ohio

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1911 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Monterey Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45876. The Survey maps it on the Ottoville quadrangle. 966 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 738 feet above sea level.

Ottoville within Putnam County

Population over time

2 figures

Ottoville fell from 976 to 966 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	976
2020	966	-10 (-1%)

Then and now

1911 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 75 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Ottoville, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Ottoville, surveyed 1911

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

1,297 words on this township

History of Putnam County, Ohio : Its Peoples, Industries, and Institutions, published 1915 names this settlement in its chapter on Monterey Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

There is only one town in Monterey township, Ottoville. The platting of Ottoville has had some marked and varied changes, as shown by the records for those acts. In 1845, Elias Everett, county surveyor, platted for John Otto Bredeick a parcel of land in the northeast corner of section 30. This survey was abandoned, however, and the land was again surveyed by Charles Wannemacher in 1873.

Passage source: History of Putnam County, Ohio : Its Peoples, Industries, and Institutions, published 1915.

In 1863 Samuel Parker, county surveyor, laid out that part of the original town plot lying in section 19 for Christ Martin. This survey has been changed somewhat since that time. In 1865 F. J. Lye, with the services of George Skinner, surveyor, laid out an addition west of the canal in section 30. In 1874 Peter Wannemacher laid out an addition to Ottoville in section 25 and in 1883 Aaron Overbeck, surveyor, at the instance of Richard Gilmour, bishop of Cleveland, Ohio, resurveyed all that part of the town originally laid out in section 19. The same survey platted an addition in section 19 for Max Winkleman during the year 1892. In 1894 Peter Wannemacher had another addition platted by D. W. Seitz, surveyor.

Passage source: History of Putnam County, Ohio : Its Peoples, Industries, and Institutions, published 1915.

In the fall of 1914, the town of Ottoville completed arrangements with the Electric Light and Power Company, of Delphos, Ohio, whereby the latter company agreed to furnish electric current for Ottoville at a definite rate. Delphos brought the current to the corporation line of Ottoville and then the latter wired it to its consumers in the town. The town has spent five thousand dollars in wiring, poles, meters, transformers, etc., and, although the first year has not yet passed, Ottoville already has one hundred and one consumers of light service and two consumers of power. The town operates twenty-five incandescent street lights, ranging in power from one hundred to two hundred and fifty kilowatts.

Passage source: History of Putnam County, Ohio : Its Peoples, Industries, and Institutions, published 1915.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Monterey Township - it names this place 3 more 3 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 86 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 86 specimens collected within 10 miles of Ottoville between 1893 and 1969: 86 Animalia. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by P. Kirsch, Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, R. Rhoades & C. Clark and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Lampsilis ventricosa (Barnes, 1823)	1893	not recorded	Blanchard River
Cambarus rusticus Girard, 1852	1893	P. Kirsch	Sugar Creek, Cloverdale
Lithobates pipiens (Schreber, 1782)	1893	not recorded	Cloverdale, Auglaize River
Noturus flavus Rafinesque, 1818	1893	P. Kirsch	Auglaize River, Cloverdale, Ohio
Orconectes rusticus (Girard, 1852)	1939	R. Rhoades & C. Clark	Jennings Creek on SR 116
Fundulus notatus (Rafinesque, 1820)	1940	Rhoades, R. (Randall)	Little Auglaize River, within Paulding Co, Paulding County, township n/a
Orconectes immunis (Hagen, 1870)	1940	R. Rhoades & C. Clark	Little Auglaize River, 2 miles South of Mandale
Ambloplites rupestris (Rafinesque, 1817)	1941	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Wascko, H. L. (Harold L.)	Auglaize River, Sec 21 of Perry township, ~1.1 mi E of Cloverdale, Perry township
Campostoma anomalum pullum (Agassiz, 1854)	1941	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Wascko, H. L. (Harold L.)	Auglaize River, Sec 21 of Perry township, ~1.1 mi E of Cloverdale, Perry township
Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758	1941	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Wascko, H. L. (Harold L.)	Auglaize River, Sec 21 of Perry township, ~1.1 mi E of Cloverdale, Perry township
Dorosoma cepedianum (Lesueur, 1818)	1941	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Wascko, H. L. (Harold L.)	Auglaize River, Sec 21 of Perry township, ~1.1 mi E of Cloverdale, Perry township
Etheostoma blennioides blennioides Rafinesque, 1819	1941	Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Wascko, H. L. (Harold L.)	Auglaize River, Sec 21 of Perry township, ~1.1 mi E of Cloverdale, Perry township

All 86 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Ottoville: 1 past producer, 1 plant. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Miller Brothers Clay Pit	Clay	Past Producer	Sedimentary
	Miller Brothers Clay Works	Clay	Plant

Every working recorded in Putnam County

Storms near this place

10 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ottoville in 10 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 5 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Ottoville	$100,000	60 MPH WIND GUSTS REPORTED ACROSS COUNTY. NUMEROUS LARGE TREES AND LIMBS WERE BLOWN DOWN WITH DAMAGE TO VEHICLES AND HOUSES.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Ottoville	$20,000	Part of a barn was reported in the roadway on SR 66 south of Ottoville.
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Ottoville	$10,000	Trees and power lines were reported in Ottoville.
May 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Ottoville	$7,500	Metal grain bin rolled and wrapped around a pole.
March 2024	Hail	Ottoville	$1,000	no account filed
April 2025	Tornado (EF1)	Ottoville	-	A tornado touched down on the south side of Van Wert, OH where a barn was destroyed on US 127 south of Peter Collins Rd. The tornado continued to the northeast through open fields. Tree and shingle damage was then noted on Middle Point Rd near the intersection with SR 116 where the tornado completely destroyed a two-story barn structure. The tornado might have briefly skipped as it traversed to the northeast before causing noticeable damage on Lincoln Hwy. The tornado then caused some minor damage to a deer farm before destroying a pole barn. After crossing into Putnam county north of the intersection of US 224 and Bockey Rd. the last noticeable damage occurred just northwest of Ottoville. As this tornado dissipated, another tornado formed off just to its north. The total track across the two counties was 15.6 miles with maximum winds of 95 mph.
March 2009	Hail	Ottoville	-	The Ottoville Fire Department reported penny size hail covering the ground.
May 2013	Hail	Ottoville	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Ottoville	-	no account filed
October 2001	Hail	Ottoville	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Putnam County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Country Manor Estates	1.9 miles	13
Douglas	2.1 miles	13
Fort Jennings	2.9 miles	13
Montana (historical)	3.0 miles	13
Muntanna	3.6 miles	13
Huntstown (historical)	5.4 miles	12
Rushmore	6.1 miles	14
East Mandale	6.3 miles	12

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Ottoville	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2672557	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1070885. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.