Seneca County Courthouse
111 Madison Street
County Courthouse
Tiffin, OH 44883-0000

Seneca County, Ohio

We would like to thank the Seneca County Commissioners for allowing us to investigate this historic location and the members of there office for working with us to obtain the proper permits and information.

Quote to reflect upon:
"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."
-Robert F. Kennedy

Please stop at our guest book so we know you stopped in to say hello, thank you.

• Seneca County Courthouse Book (including floor plan) by Valerie R. Marvin
• Building a New Courthouse by Zig Zag January/February 2008 Issue #55
• The True Cost of the Courthouse by Zig Zag January/February 2008 Issue #55
• Looking For A Lady by Zig Zag January/February 2008 Issue #55

• 1803, March 1: Ohio became the first state to be admitted to the Union from the Northwest Territory
• 1813: construction of Fort Ball was started
• 1820: Josiah Hedges purchased a piece of land and named this village “Tiffin” in honor of Edward Tiffin, first governor of Ohio
• 1822: General William Gibson is born
• 1824, January 24: Tiffan became the county seat and was named after the Seneca, a tribe of Native Americans
• 1824, June 8: Judge Jacques Hubbard was allowed $6 for three days services as associate judge of Seneca County ($335.18 in 2009 dollars)
• 1828, March 4: Commissioners decided to build a court house
• 1828, April 11: Commissioners advertised for proposals to build court house
• 1830: Tiffin population of 5,159
• 1832, December 22: Elijah E. Myers was born
• 1834, January 17: board ordered advertisement for proposals to build a court house
• 1834, February 14: Commissioners entered into a contract with John Baugher to build a court house in the town of Tiffin, for $9,500 ($372,075.56 in 2009 dollars)
• 1835:, March 7: Tiffin was incorporated by an act of the Ohio Legislature
• 1836, August 19: the first county court house was completed
• 1841, March 18: the sheriff was authorized to give the use of the court house for religion; and political meetings, as he may deem proper
• 1841, May 24: courthouse was destroyed by fire
• 1841. July 23: John Baugher, under contract with the county, entered upon this work of rebuilding the court house. The walls of the old house, then standing, were used in the restored structure
• 1843: completion of the second court house
• 1847, March: H. T. Dewey was permitted to place a clock in the court house steeple which he should be allowed to remove at pleasure if the county or citizens did not doom it worthy of being paid for
• 1848, March: the council of Tiffin was authorized to build on the public square, in part occupied by the court house, and on the south side of the wine, along Market Street, a market house and engine house, and to have control of the same for twelve years after which the commissioners retained the privilege of disposing of the location while the council held that of disposing of the buildings
• 1830: Tiffin population of 27,104
• 1850: Heidelberg University was founded by the German Reformed Church
• 1852: The Octagon is an historic octagonal house built in 1852 by Dr. Jeremiah Good a professor of mathematics at Heidelberg College- it is the oldest building on campus
• 1861: the controversy between the corporation of Tiffin and the county commissioners, in respect to the title of the court house square, was amicably settled. The city agreed to pay all costs and waive claim to title, and to join the county in building a new engine house.
• 1882: courthouse was designed by Detroit architect Elijah E. Myers
• 1884, June 24: the corner-stone of this magnificent building was laid with appropriate ceremonies.
• 1884-1886: court house construction period
• 1885: Grover Cleveland is elected to his first of two presidential terms
• 1888: natural gas was discovered in the area
• 1894: General William Gibson dies
• 1940's: outer portion of the clock tower was removed, and although the original structure remains underneath, it was covered by a modern exterior
• 1979, February 12: the 'Octagon' house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
• 2000: Tiffin population of 18,135
• 2003, February, 10: Seneca County flag was designed by Tonia Hoffert featuring the Seneca County courthouse in the center
• 2003: courthouse vacated to allow for renovation
• 2006, August: County Commissioners voted to demolish and replace the structure, claiming that renovation costs would far outweigh the price to build a new courthouse
• 2007: Seneca County population of 56,705
• 2008, March 4: bond issue to have supported renovation of the courthouse failed
• 2008, June 5: 4:30pm- historic items from the court house were sold at auction for $28,910.50 (See article from the Toledo Blade)
  • antique chair sold for $30
  • a 10-foot, 19th century conference table sold for $800 that an antique dealer plans to sell for $1,400
  • cherry doors with etched glass panels for $750 because the purchaser hopes his county's historic courthouse might be saved and the doors returned to their original location
  • antique swivel office chair for $40
• 2008, June 10: Tiffin Design Review Board voted 5-0 to deny a certificate of appropriateness for demolition
• 2008, June 22: Heritage Ohio organized a “This Place Matters” rally on the courthouse lawn
• 2009, February 18: Gov. Ted Strickland said he expects $8.2 billion in federal stimulus money heading to Ohio and hopes some of that money would be used to restore historically significant buildings such as the Seneca County Courthouse

• Property of Fiege Bros $18,000.00
• Property of H. F. Fiege $6,900.00
• Property of William Lang $3,600.00
• Property of Vannest heirs $2,300.00
• Attorney's fee: N. L. Brewer $250.00
• Court costs $266.61
• Total $31,316 61

• Deduct amount received for the Fiege Buildings $665.00
• Engine House $100.00
• Fence around old grounds $455.00
• Total: $1,220 00

• Total addition to real estate $30,096.61
• M. E. Myers, architect for plans and specifications $4,500.00

COURT HOUSE BUILDING:

• Original contract price $145,778.00
• Extra work in foundation $1,355.90
• Repairing damage done by frost, etc $834.00
• Other extras to date $658.65
• Estimate of all future extras $500.00
• Total: $149,126 55

OTHER CONTRACTS LET:

• Sbaw, Kendall & Co., steam heating $7,950.00
• Contract price of boiler house $4.464.00
• Extra on boiler house, jail connection, etc $604.16
• Total: $5,068.76

• Estimate on furniture (order not yet completed) $8,000.00
• Tower and office clocks in place $1,990.00
• Tower bell in place $815.00

MISCELLANEOUS:

• Grading lot, paving walks and street estimated $2,000.00
• Gas or electric light fixtures $1,500.00
• R. G. Pennington, superintendent, May 1, 1883, to November 1, 1885 $3,175.32
• Rent for Probate office, three years $300.00
• Advertising for bids and other items $300.00

• Grand total for 1888 construction: $211,821.64 ($6,165,372.37 in 2009 dollars)

1940 Courthouse	Fort Ball	Edward Tiffin	1886 Courthouse
Gen. Wlm. Gibson	Oil Rig	Courthouse	Historic Marker

Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe

"Tiffin is a city of good homes and shady avenues; its downtown streets are narrow, and the stout stone and brick buildings stand close together.  Most of its larger factories are situated in the northwest corner of the city. Erastus Bowe saw the site during an expedition in the War of 1812, and returned in 1817 to build Pan Yan Tavern, which later because a stagecoach stop.  Around the Pan Yan a settlement called Oakley sprang up.  In 1820, Josiah Hedges purchased a section of land on the south side of the river opposite Oakley, and established a new settlement, calling it Tiffin, after Edward Tiffin, first governor of Ohio.  Until 1850, when the two villages were united, there was much rivalry between them.

Tiffin progressed indifferently.  The main traveled road ran through Oakley (called Fort Ball after 1824) and there was no connection bridge.  One was built in 1834, but a flood promptly carried it away.  In 1883 the natural gas was discovered in the vicinity in 1888 and Tiffin boomed, attracted new enterprises, and became the diversified industrial city it is today.  Glass tableware, sanitary pottery, abrasives, conveyors, transmission machinery, and machines for making nuts and bolts are the leading products." 

Did you know what else happened in 1885?

• Eastman Film Co manufactures 1st commercial motion picture film
• US Salvation Army officially organized
• Boston Pops Orchestra forms
• "Good Housekeeping" magazine is 1st published
• 11th Kentucky Derby: Babe Henderson aboard Joe Cotton wins in 2:37
• The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. on Mary Gartside
• L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster
• United States begins special-delivery mail service
• Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies. The patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog
• Jan Matzeliger begins 1st mass production of shoes
• 1st gasoline pump is delivered to a gasoline dealer (Ft Wayne, Ind)
• Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan
• Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time
• Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design
• Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle
• Boxing's 1st heavyweight title fight with 3-oz gloves & 3-minute rounds fought between John L Sullivan & Dominick McCaffrey
• John Matzeliger of Suriname patents shoe lacing machine
• US Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds
• Gilbert & Sullivan's opera "Mikado," premieres in London
• Congress passes Indian Appropriations Act (Indians wards of fed government)
• Samuel David Ferguson was consecrated as bishop (Saint John the Baptist's Feast Day), at Grace Church, New York, becoming the first Black member of the House of Bishops in the Episcopal Church
• Pope Leo XIII proclaims extraordinary jubilee
• William Perkins is awarded a patent for a "Writing-Machine for the Blind."
• William Seward Burroughs files a patent for the first practical adding machine.
• Alexander Graham Bell uses the design of Edison's phonograph to make sound recordings on a waxed cylinder. The original sound still can be heard from a tape: "Mary's little lamb...", the object is preserved in the Smithsonian's in Washington USA
• Earliest photograph of a meteor shower made
• First day Dr Pepper was served
• The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated
• The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor
• $100,000 raised in US for pedestal for Statue of Liberty ($2,997,934.57 in 2009 dollars)

• Doors closing
• Voices being heard
• Cold spots
• Feelings of being watched

• Two investigators were entering the court room on the third floor via access from the judge's chambers. Both investigators stopped in the door way. They both say what they described as a woman with a bun in her hair walking in front of the windows on the top level of were the jury box would have been. They tried to recreate the scene but were unable too.

The next image, is most likely an 'orb' created by a bug in the air.

The next pictures are actually a series of images. These images appear to show a shadow in the jury section of the court room. However, upon review of the DVR footage no supporting evidence could be found at the time of this event. Therefore, we feel that this shadow is actually 'IR wash' caused by the IR emitters in the room.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay updated with our latest videos.

• History of Seneca County
• Historical Markers : Seneca County
• Ohio County Courthouse Project
• Ohio's official list of historic properties in peril
• Ohio History Central
• Seneca County (OH) Courthouse, in Danger of Razing (You Tube)
• Seneca County Courthouse endures for the future (You Tube)
• Toledo Blade- Courthouse Decision

This can not be stressed enough, always, always get the proper permission before entering any location.  Not only is it a safety issue and the law, but paranormal investigators who trespass gives the entire paranormal community a bad reputation.  We have been denied access to very few places that we have asked for permission to investigate.  Many times we are told by the property owners that we are the only ones that have asked for permission.

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