Built in 1794. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. 6 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1907.
From the record
“The young man toiled vigorously at whatever he found to do, and at the age of thirty-six had accumulated a capital of about $1,500, the savings of his own labors. He received nothing from his father, as the fine landed estates on the Connecticut River had been lost to the family.”
History of Defiance County, Ohio (1883). Machine-read text.
One of 10 National Register listings published here for Defiance County · listed in 1980 · category: Site · built in 1794.
National Register reference number.80002989- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Then and now
1907 to 1986
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
79 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
19071986
The ground it stands on
75,327 words
The chapter on Defiance Township in History of Defiance County, Ohio, published 1883 names Defiance. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
EFIANCE was laid out in November, 1822, by Benjamin Leavell, of Piqua, and Horatio G. Phillips, of Dayton. The plat was acknowledged April 18, 1823, and reeorded April 28, 18238, by Thomas R.MeKnight, Recorder of Wood County. The original plat embraced 150 lots, and was located at the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize, with Jackson street on the west and Fourth street on the south. The square in which the court house now stands was reserved by the proprietors to be laid out into town lots, unless the town became a county seat, "and forever continue to be," when it was to be used for public buildings. 'The " Old Fort Grounds" was a public donation on the same condition. The square between Jackson and* Perry streets, and south of Fourth was a donation for a Methodist Church and burying-ground, and the square betweeu Washington street and the Auglaize River, and south of Fourth, for a Presbyterian Church. H. G. Phillips, one of the proprietors, never resided at Defiance. He was a son of a Revolutionary officer, and one of the earliest settlers of Dayton, Ohio, an extensive land-holder and & man of unblemished character. He died at his home in Dayton, November 10, 1859. Benjamin Leavell became a resident of Defiance, and wus its first innkeeper; he also kept the first store to supply white settlers. The store was located on the banks of the Maumee, at the foot of Jefferson street. His dwelliny, the first frame building in the village, was a one and a half story, erected in December, 1822, on the northwest corner of Water and Jefferson streets opposite the fort grounds. The lumber for it was sawed at the Brunersburg Mill, which had been built the winter previous. : Mr. Leavell's residence is still standing. In a few years, he sold his interest in the town to Curtis Holgate, of Utica, N. Y., and returned
Defiance was, before Gen. Wayne's time, and for some time after, a place for Indian consultations and payments, and was to them a place of great importance. It washeld by the British down nearly to the war of 1812, and it was here that they made much mischief by tampering with the semi-hostile tribes. It is stated that at one of the Indian gatherings, about 1810, as many as fifty traders were here, hav-
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 392 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Fort Defiance Park between 1858 and 1974: 379 Animalia, 9 Plantae, 4 Fungi.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by Angle, E. (Eric) & Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard), Angle, E. (Eric), Trautman, M. B. (Milton Bernard) & Hoschak, J. (John), Athearn, Herbert D. 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
1 working within 5 miles of Fort Defiance Park: 1 unknown.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Defiance, the town this property stands in, in 53 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 37 thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 1 flash flood.
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.
Emergency management officials reported several large trees were either uprooted or snapped in the city of Defiance. One of these trees fell onto a house on Washington Street, reportedly destroying the house. Another tree fell onto at least two parked car on Jefferson Avenue. No injuries were reported. Damage is estimated at $125,000.
A narrow band of thunderstorms continuously regenerated over parts of Defiance county during the morning. Estimates of 8 to 10 inches of rain fell in a 3 hour period. Emergency management reported flash flooding was most serious around Sherwood where roads were closed with 3 to 4 feet of water along Ohio Route 18 in and around Sherwood. Nearly 30 businesses and homes had some water into the first floor.
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 quoted below word for word, 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.
Description of the property
comprises what is historically known as the Grand Glaize, so named for the extensive mud flats along both rivers at the confluence. Check one yards from the fort which commands it.The fort commands every part memoir to his son after the campaign, and published in the American Pioneer in 1842.The upon their crest. There is a rising ground on the opposite side of the Manuee Riber 250 Note-The small marks on the line numbered 9. on the plat of the works foot apart and are all round the works except on the side next the Grand Glaize(Miami below the forks).Those pickets are 4 feet long and extend in part over the ditch. X altered Benjamin Van Cleve, a participant in the campaign, described the fort after Fallen Timbers in a at Fort Defiance.
Accordingly, vaults were dug to make the fort bomb-proof (able to withstand occupies is formed by the joining of the southern bank of the Maumee River with the western Maumee and Auglaize Rivers respectively, on the west by the Defiance Public Library, and on the south by a quiet residential area of late 19th and early 20th century private residences. Form No. 10-300a (Rev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RECEIVED JAN 2 9 1980 NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM ITEM NUMBER 7 Fig. 7 A solid body of earth 8 feet through A ditch 15 feet wide and 8 feet deep A body of earth 4 ft. wide left as a path to the water A kind of sand bar (See continuation sheet A.
for map.) a larger fort, named Fort Winchester, to the south of "Wayne's fort." In 1888 Colonel O. M.
(in one paragraph) The significance of Fort Defiance Park is threefold. First, it is the site of Fort Defiance, a in the Northwestern Territory until Ohio's statehood in 1803. Thirdly, it became a nucleus for a place to regroup, and as a point of possible counter-attack if his first encounter with the From August 28 to September 14, the army worked rapidly to make it strong enough to withstand not only Indian attacks, but also British assaults which might include artillery.
Upon completion of this work and after the threat of counter-attack had diminished, Wayne and After 1797 Fort Defiance was abandoned and the site and a square mile area around it was territory gradually shrunk as the pressures for more land, and the growth of American settlements developed around the fort site, leading to the establishment of the City of Defiance, with only to the people of Defiance as a park. Except for a number of small encroachments, this original park constitutes the land being nominated here as Fort Defiance Park. 1600-1699 1500-1599 economics 1400-1499 1800-1899 transportation education architecture archeology-historic humanitarian theater commerce art science 8.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 80002989, 60 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
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.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.
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