Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. 7 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1909.
One of 25 National Register listings published here for Auglaize County · listed in 1979 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article
The chapter on Jackson Township in History of Western Ohio and Auglaize County, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers and Prominent Public Men, published 1905 names Minster. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The soil of the township is exceedingly fertile, from which bounteous crops spring with the regularity of the seasons. The Loramie Reservoir extends into the township in sections thirtyfive and thirty-six. The extension of the L. E. & W. R. R. in 1877 and the Western Ohio R. R. to Minster in 1903, created new life and activity in the township. The development, in the last few years of what is known as the Minster oil field has also been a source of benefit.
Passage source: History of Western Ohio and Auglaize County, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers and Prominent Public Men, published 1905.
The town was founded by Germans, and still preserves its nationality. It assumed considerable business importance after the construction of the Miami and Erie canal. The race connecting the northern extremity of the Loramie Reservoir with the canal in Minster was dug in the years 1847-8-9. Francis Sprehe built a frame grist mill near where the race crosses Frankfort street, which did a profitable business for many years. Thus the community flourished until 1849, when the cholera appeared, making such ravages that four hundred settlers of the town and township died of the dread disease. The people died so rapidly that immediate burial could not be given them. Theodore Dickman, then a lad of fourteen years, remembers counting twenty-six coffins sitting around in the hazel bushes in the cemetery south of the town, awaiting interment. Joseph Bussing from three miles west of Minster and a number of assistants, came once a week and buried the accumulation of caskets. They buried them in deep trenches four tiers deep. The epidemic continued three years, but was not so malignant the last two years. A remarkable feature of the epidemic was that its prevalence was confined to the village and township east of the canal. No case was reported west of that waterway. All forms of business were crippled by the great calamity. Several years elapsed before the town resumed anything of its former enterprise and social conditions. There was a slow but steady growth in the volume of business and public improvements of the town until 1877, when the Lake Erie and Western R. R. was extended from St. Mary's to Minster. roads.
Passage source: History of Western Ohio and Auglaize County, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers and Prominent Public Men, published 1905.
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 Jackson Township - 8,057 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 352 specimens collected within 10 miles of Minster Elementary School between 1800 and 1974: 313 Animalia, 38 Plantae, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by Albert Wetzstein, Ballenstedt, B., Baßmann 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.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dryopteris goldiana (Hook. ex Goldie) A.Gray | 1897 | Wetzstein, A. | St. Marys |
 | Osmunda regalis L. | 1897 | Wetzstein, A. | St. Marys. |
 | Dryopteris spinulosa (O.F.Müll.) Watt | 1898 | Wetzstein, A. | Rich woods. Minster, Ohio |
 | Mentha aquatica L. | 1800 | Ballenstedt, B. | Bremen: An der WÅmme in Oberneuland bei Bremen |
 | Geum urbanum L. | 1883 | Baßmann | Bremen: Vegesack, feuchtes, schattiges Gehîlz bei Holthorst, sehr selten |
 | Rubus idaeus L. | 1889 | Meyerholz | Bremen: auf Quellgrund, Torf u. Humus |
 | Lobelia dortmanna L. | 1892 | Wendelken | Bremen: Bremen-Lesum, Lesum |
 | Rubus condensatus P.J.Müll. | 1892 | Elmgoeth, Fr. | Niedersachsen: Soltau in der Lüneburger Heide |
 | Perca flavescens (Mitchill, 1814) | 1893 | PH Kirsch | St. Mary's River immediately above (S of) St. Mary's; Maumee River dr |
 | Equisetum arvense L. | 1898 | Wetzstein, A. | St. Marys. Along New Bremen railroad. |
 | Equisetum hyemale L. | 1899 | Wetzstein, A. | Along R.R. to N. Bremen, St. Marys. |
 | Athyrium pycnocarpon (Spreng.) Tidestr. | 1900 | Wetzstein, A. | Moist woods 2 miles S.E. of St. Marys. |
All 352 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Minster Elementary School: 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandwie Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Bandwie Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Fleckenstein Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Fleckenstein Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Minster, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 2002 and 2023: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2023 | Tornado (EF0) | Minster | $70,000 | The tornado initially touched down at 2345EST in Mercer County near the intersection of Indian Trail Road and State Route 716 and crossed into Auglaize County near the intersection of State Route 364 and Minster Egypt Pike at 2348EST. The tornado continued northeast and crossed through the north end of Minster before lifting near Bensman Road. Tree and structural damage was noted with some of the most significant structural damage done to barns near Egypt. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Minster | $5,000 | Numerous trees fell near Minster and to the south of Saint Marys. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Minster | $3,000 | A few trees were knocked down in the Minster area. |
| May 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Minster | $3,000 | Several 10-12 diameter trees were downed in Minster. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Minster | $3,000 | no account filed |
| December 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Minster | $1,000 | A large tree was downed due to thunderstorm winds. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Minster | $500 | A tree was downed. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Minster | $100 | A large limb fell onto a barn roof on Minster Egypt Pike. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Minster | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Minster | - | no account filed |
United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is, and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain. It is reproduced in full on its own page, word for word and never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s typewriter's.
The whole case file for this property - 644 words, 7 pages, reproduced complete.
Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 79002850, 7 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | St. Augustine Catholic Church | under 500 feet | 1979 |
 | Adolph Boesel House | 2.7 miles | 1979 |
 | Egypt Catholic Church and Rectory | 3.0 miles | 1979 |
| Egypt Catholic Church and Rectory | 3.0 miles | 1979 |
 | William Luelleman House | 3.0 miles | 1975 |
 | Julius Boesel House | 3.7 miles | 1978 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 79002850 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Auglaize County | All 25 listed properties in this county. |
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