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

Westminster, Ohio

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1913 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Auglaize Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45850. The Survey maps it on the Harrod quadrangle.

Westminster within Allen County

Then and now

1913 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 73 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Westminster, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Westminster, surveyed 1913

Topographic sheets covering this place

16 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

5,254 words on this township

History of Allen County, Ohio. Containing a History of the County, Its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of the Northwest Territory; History of Ohio; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc, published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Auglaize Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

During the winter of 1833-34, a subscription school was opened by John Shockey, son of Samuel Shockey, in a cabin which was built on Section 26. A short time after this, the commissioners* ordered that the district be organized. The growth of the school system within the last half century is told by the following statistics: The revenue for 1884 was ^$8,781.54; expenditures, $6,268. There are eleven school buildings, valued at $17,000, one of which was completed in 1884 at a cost of $3,554 The enrollment is 404 - 216 boys and 188 girls. Twenty teachers are employed. This does not include Westminster Special District, of which the following are the statistics: Eevenue in 1884 was $1,227.13; expenditure $642.55. The number of pupils enrolled, 101; 48 boys and 53 girls. One school building valued at $3,000. There were two teachers employed.

Passage source: History of Allen County, Ohio. Containing a History of the County, Its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of the Northwest Territory; History of Ohio; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc, published 1885.

From the earliest period of Rettlement, religious organization has existed in this division of the oonntj. To-day there are six ohnroh buildings. In 1881 Bev. Joseph Hill, Elder Chaffee, and a preacher named Waddle visited this district, and found a home and house of worship at the Stevenson house. About 1834 a house was erected near Westminster (which was devoted to religious uses), where now the First Methodist Church building standa The Protestant Methodist Church was subsequently established; the Baptist societies were also early organizations. In later years tbe United Brethren, Christian Brethren, German Beformed Lutheran and other societies were established. In 1880 Mrs. Behecca Creps erected the German Beformed Church of Westminster, in memory of Alex. Creps, the founder of the village, who settled here in 1832 and died in 1878. This house is built of brick, with stone facings, is supplied with bell and belfry, and dedicated to the use of all orthodox religions by the generous donor.

Westminster, platted by Alex. Creps in 1834, is located on the north bank of the Auglaize, Section 18, Auglaize Township. The streets run northeast and southeast at an angle of about 28^. The streets running northeast are named Franklin, Walnut and Mulberry - the others Main and Centre Streets. This is an ambitious business village and the center of 9 growing trade. The neighboring country is characterized by well cultivated farms and a progressive population.

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 Auglaize Township - it names this place 9 more 9 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 244 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 244 specimens collected within 10 miles of Westminster between 1893 and 1975: 225 Animalia, 18 Fungi, 1 Plantae. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Adler, K. K., Amstutz, K., Bezdek, H. 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
Procambarus blandingii (Harlan, 1830)	1940	R. Rhoades	Auglaize River, Union Township
Medicago sativa L.	1961	Robert H. Gray	1 mile west of Lafayette.
Etheostoma spectabile (Agassiz, 1854)	1893	PH Kirsch	Sugar Creek, 2 miles north of Lima; Maumee River dr.
Lepomis cyanellus Rafinesque, 1819	1893	P. Kirsch	Lost Creek, Lima, Ohio
Lithobates pipiens (Schreber, 1782)	1893	not recorded	Lima, Sugar Creek
Nerodia sipedon (Linnaeus, 1758)	1893	not recorded	Lima, Sugar Creek
Regina septemvittata (Say, 1825)	1893	not recorded	Lima, Sugar Creek
Thamnophis sirtalis (Linnaeus, 1758)	1893	not recorded	Lima, Sugar Creek
Amanita frostiana (Peck) Sacc.	1902	C. W. Dawson	Lima
Amanita rubescens Pers.	1902	C. W. Dawson	Lima
Amanita vaginata (Bull.) Lam.	1902	C. W. Dawson	Lima
Flammula sapinea (Fr.) P.Kumm.	1902	C. W. Dawson	Lima

All 244 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

3 since 2023

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Westminster in 3 storm reports between 2023 and 2023: 2 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
April 2023	Tornado (EF0)	Westminster	$20,000	A weak tornado destroyed a grain bin and carried the bin into a\|nearby field for about a half mile before dissipating. Maximum\|winds were 75 mph with a width of 50 yards.
April 2023	Tornado (EF0)	Westminster	$10,000	A tornado briefly touched down, damaging a barn and carrying the\|debris to the ENE. Maximum winds were around 75 mph with a width\|of 50 yards.
April 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Westminster	-	Large tree branches were downed.

Every storm recorded in Allen 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
Harrod	3.2 miles	16
South Warsaw	3.7 miles	15
Eastwood Estates	3.9 miles	15
Yoder	4.8 miles	15
Lafayette	4.9 miles	13
West Newton	5.4 miles	16
Shady Grove (historical)	5.8 miles	15
Rousculp	5.9 miles	15

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1061763. 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.

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.