City of Lima
The pioneer Allen County Commissioner, James Daniel, built his cabin in 1828. This cabin was the first seat of government where meetings of the Bath Township Trustees were held in 1829 and the first meeting of the Allen County Commissioners on June 6, 1831. In addition, this was the location of the meeting at which the name "Lima" was selected. The Ohio Legislature directed that a county seat for Allen County be established, and this was done April 20, 1831. The town was named for Lima, Peru, the source of the "quinine bark" used for the treatment of "swamp fever" or malaria in pioneer days.
In the 1840's and 50's, several commercial outlets to the outside world were opened, including the Miami and Erie Canal through Delphos, Jacob Bogart's stage line to Wapakoneta, and the Ohio and Indiana Railroad (now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad).
By the 1860's the cutting and marketing of timber was a major industry in Allen County. The Shaw Locomotive, first built in Lima in 1880, played an important part in the development of the lumbering and mining industry in the U. S. during the last two decades of the 19th Century. One of these locomotives is on display at the Allen County Historical Society Museum.
Oil was discovered in 1885 in a gas well being drilled at Benjamin C. Faurot's paper mill. Lima Field was developed and was ,fora time, the largest in the nation.
In 1885 Benjamin C. Faurot developed Ohio's first successful electric street car system when he purchased Lima's horse drawn railway and converted it to electric power; it was one of the first in the United States. The Western Ohio Railway company, which linked Lima to Piqua and later to Dayton, became the first of the electric interurban lines that would make Lima an interurban center. At the peak of its development it was possible to travel almost entirely by interurban cars from New York City to Chicago by way of Lima, Ohio.
In 1918, B.A. Graham designed and built the famous Liberty Motor Truck in Lima which "put the American Army on wheels" in World War I. The first radio station was opened in 1936, and motor buses replaced the electric street cars in 1939. During World War II, Lima industry ranked high in the production of transportation equipment such as locomotives and Army and Navy vehicles, General Sherman tanks, power shovels and cranes, electric motors and engines, steel aircraft, marine diesel engines and steel castings. One of the nation's three modifications for tanks and motorized military vehicles was built here and was operated on a peacetime basis with the Lima Ordinance Depot.
In the 1960's, Lima added a new Lima Senior High School, a Lima Public Library, a Lima Campus Branch of Ohio State University, Ferguson Lake reservoir, Allen County Airport, a hospital expansion program and many other municipal facilities.
The pioneer Allen County Commissioner, James Daniel, built his cabin in 1828. This cabin was the first seat of government where meetings of the Bath Township Trustees were held in 1829 and the first meeting of the Allen County Commissioners on June 6, 1831. In addition, this was the location of the meeting at which the name "Lima" was selected. The Ohio Legislature directed that a county seat for Allen County be established, and this was done April 20, 1831. The town was named for Lima, Peru, the source of the "quinine bark" used for the treatment of "swamp fever" or malaria in pioneer days.
In the 1840's and 50's, several commercial outlets to the outside world were opened, including the Miami and Erie Canal through Delphos, Jacob Bogart's stage line to Wapakoneta, and the Ohio and Indiana Railroad (now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad).
By the 1860's the cutting and marketing of timber was a major industry in Allen County. The Shaw Locomotive, first built in Lima in 1880, played an important part in the development of the lumbering and mining industry in the U. S. during the last two decades of the 19th Century. One of these locomotives is on display at the Allen County Historical Society Museum.
Oil was discovered in 1885 in a gas well being drilled at Benjamin C. Faurot's paper mill. Lima Field was developed and was ,fora time, the largest in the nation.
In 1885 Benjamin C. Faurot developed Ohio's first successful electric street car system when he purchased Lima's horse drawn railway and converted it to electric power; it was one of the first in the United States. The Western Ohio Railway company, which linked Lima to Piqua and later to Dayton, became the first of the electric interurban lines that would make Lima an interurban center. At the peak of its development it was possible to travel almost entirely by interurban cars from New York City to Chicago by way of Lima, Ohio.
In 1918, B.A. Graham designed and built the famous Liberty Motor Truck in Lima which "put the American Army on wheels" in World War I. The first radio station was opened in 1936, and motor buses replaced the electric street cars in 1939. During World War II, Lima industry ranked high in the production of transportation equipment such as locomotives and Army and Navy vehicles, General Sherman tanks, power shovels and cranes, electric motors and engines, steel aircraft, marine diesel engines and steel castings. One of the nation's three modifications for tanks and motorized military vehicles was built here and was operated on a peacetime basis with the Lima Ordinance Depot.
In the 1960's, Lima added a new Lima Senior High School, a Lima Public Library, a Lima Campus Branch of Ohio State University, Ferguson Lake reservoir, Allen County Airport, a hospital expansion program and many other municipal facilities.