St. John The Baptist Roman Catholic Church · Photo: Nyttend · Public domain

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History · Glandorf

Glandorf’s post office opened in 1877, and 25% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the St. John The Baptist Roman Catholic Church. Below: maps from 1908 on and the census since 1890.

1877first post office

1on the National Register

25%homes built before 1940

1famous people

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Quick answers

How Glandorf began

When was Glandorf founded?

1877

The Glandorf post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 571 in 18902020 census: 969149 years

Founding year: the first Glandorf post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Glandorf’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Glandorf are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1900 and 1930, then more than doubled.On the map since 19083 editions of the USGS map, 1908 to 1973. Watch Glandorf change.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Glandorf’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Glandorf’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

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People over time

Glandorf, census by census

Lost a third of its people between 1900 and 1930, then more than doubled.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Glandorf’s Wikipedia page.

On the map

Glandorf on the map, 1908 to 1973

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Glandorf. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1908Ottawa sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Glandorf.

The story

How Glandorf came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Glandorf.

Read it all →

Glandorf was founded by Johann Wilhelm Horstmann and six other men from Glandorf, Germany in 1834. They embarked on the ship Columbus on September 7, 1833, in Amsterdam, landed November 6, 1833, in New York, and purchased some land in Putnam County in December. Members of this group were Johann F. Kahle, Wilhelm Gülker, Christian Strop, F. Wischmann, Friedrich Bredeick and Mathias and Friedrich Bockrath. Kahle bought land at Greensburg approximately 5 miles to the west of Glandorf and named it "Maria Camp". Horstmann's land was named Glandorf. Their wives and ten other families from Glandorf followed in 1834. This was just the beginning of further emigration from Germany to Ohio and other US states. After his death on February 21, 1843, Horstmann left his land to the community.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Glandorf, 1880–1915

Passages that mention Glandorf, cut from the printed page as they were published.

low Ottawa, in 1832. James Adgate built the first saw mill on Blanchard river, near Ottawa, and afterwards added to it a corn-cracker; the date of building this mill cannot be exactly given. The village of Glandorf, in this township, and being within two miles of Ottawa, seems to have been first se… — **History of Putnam County Ohio**1880 · page 33Read the page →
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low Ottawa, in 1832. James Adgate built the first saw mill on Blanchard river, near Ottawa, and afterwards added to it a corn-cracker; the date of building this mill cannot be exactly given. The village of Glandorf, in this township, and being within two miles of Ottawa, seems to have been first settled by a Catholic priest, late having been a professor of college in Glandorf, Germany, He was known in early times as Father John W. Horstman, but in the Catholic records of Glandorf, his name
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

both were born and raised in the town of Glandorf. When Henry J. Unterbrink was four years of age, the parents decided to leave the old country,, and after their arrival in America, settled on a forty-acre farm in Greensburg township, near the town of Glandorf, Putnam county, Ohio. This, farm was t… — **History of Putnam County, Ohio**1915Read the page →
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both were born and raised in the town of Glandorf. When Henry J. Unterbrink was four years of age, the parents decided to leave the old country,, and after their arrival in America, settled on a forty-acre farm in Greensburg township, near the town of Glandorf, Putnam county, Ohio. This, farm was thickly wooded and required a great deal of clearing, so it was.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

**History of Putnam County, Ohio**1915 · page 796Read the page →
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The earliest representatives of the Hoffman family in America came from the village of Glandorf, in the Province of Hanover, Germany, and settled near Glandorf, Putnam county, about one year after the arrival of Father Horstman and his colony, who founded Glandorf, Putnam county.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Glandorf, 1877 to 2010

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

19th century
1877Post officeThe Glandorf post office opens
20th century
1908On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
21st century
2010CensusPopulation peaks at 1,001

By decade

Glandorf, decade by decade

Today4 recent

United States Post Office (Glandorf, Ohio) - sign painted in the window

2019United States Post Office (Glandorf, Ohio) - sign pai…

Map of Putnam County Ohio Highlighting Glandorf Village

2015Map of Putnam County Ohio Highlighting Glandorf Villa…Map

2010Glandorf municipal building

2004OHMap-doton-Glandorf

On the National Register

1 historic place in Glandorf

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1977

St. John The Baptist Roman Catholic Church

Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Victorian1

Gothic1

St. John The Baptist Roman Catholic ChurchVictorian

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Ottawa3 historic placesB

Questions about Glandorf’s history

What year was Glandorf founded?

The Glandorf post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Glandorf?

One place: the St. John The Baptist Roman Catholic Church (listed 1977).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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