Way Library

Perrysburg was named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry who secured a victory against the British on Lake Erie in 1813. It was expected that boats could make it to this point in the river thereby creating a bustling business center. Indeed for some years there were many mills, baskets, barrel staves, bricks, lumber, leather goods, and even boats produced on the waterfront and shipped out in schooners.

The county seat was also in Perrysburg until being moved to Bowling Green in 1870.  There was a railroad bridge as well as a toll bridge to Maumee. Later an electric trolley went to Toledo daily. Houses grew up, many self sufficient, with their own livestock and large gardens. The corner of Indiana and Louisiana was a common used to pasture cows. Later an ordinance was passed to prohibit pigs from wandering freely in the town.  As more houses were built out more and more toward the country, farms were pushed farther out into Wood County.

Today Perrysburg is a thriving suburb of Toledo with pleasure boats at the river docks, a school where cows used to graze, and a library where circus tents used to stand.