HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF PANDORA AND RILEY TOWNSHIP:

In August of 1982 Riley Township (along with the Village of Pandora) celebrated 150 years for the Riley Township Sesquicentennial, and in 2007, 175 years were celebrated for the Terquasquicentennial. We know that James Watson Riley came to Ohio when he was only 19 years old. His father, Captain James Riley had been contracted to survey the northwestern section of Ohio. James Watson Riley worked in the county between the years of 1818 and 1822. During this time the company called the stream going through the area “Riley Creek”. In 1832, a man named Thomas Gray was the first settler in Riley Township and he built a log cabin in the southern portion of the township. Gray was joined by other settlers after he homesteaded in Riley Township in 1832.

In 1833 Michael Neuenschwander who migrated from Switzerland by way of France settled in Riley Township and got word back to his friends and relatives in Wayne County, Ohio and in Switzerland that he had found a farming utopia. The soil was fertile and land was available from the government for $125 per acre. The Pandora area still has very rich fertile farm ground and is currently called “The Garden Spot of Ohio” by many.

STATE ROUTE 12:

The main highway currently going through Pandora is State Route 12 or as it was known in earlier days as the “Ridge Road”. According to “The History of Putnam County, 1880” the following information is recorded. “Land was cheap and settlers few, and the ridge was the only dry ground. The viewers started out in the forest, one of them carrying a large cow-bell, and, having determined, as near as they could the center of the ridge, would leave one of their number with the bell, which he was to ring.” “The surveyor would then take the course and steer the bell. On arriving at the station, the bell carrier would make another advance in the forest and repeat as before; in this way the best and most crooked road in the county was run.”

PANDORA NAMED:

It was 1837, when the town of Columbia was to be platted into lots by John Stout, later (between 1846 and 1848) its name would be changed to Pendleton, and still later to Pandora. Since there was another town in Ohio with the name of Pendleton, the Putnam County Pendleton’s name was to be changed. According to news reports the town of Pandora was named by a postal worker, Pierce DeWolf of Findlay. Postal clerk DeWolf was making up the mail for Pendleton when the name Pandora came to his mind. He communicated the name to postal authorities who adopted the new name.

According to the Centennial History of Putnam County 1834-1934, Pandora was first incorporated in 1897. “On September 6, 1897, E.J. Deck, P.P. Welty and A.G. Anderson presented the petition for the incorporation of Pandora. This petition was granted November 5, 1897.

The first set of council minutes that the village has in the archives are dated May 2, 1898: