[4] The Ottawa tribe of Native Americans were the prevalent occupants of the region before Europeans arrived in North America following the 1492 expedition of Christopher Columbus.

By 1750, however, there were Miamis, Prankaahaws, Delawares, Shawnee, Kickapoos, Muscounteres, Huron, Weas, Wyandotts and Mohawks.

[5] Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Continental Congress opened what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin to settlement.

However, the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution in 1783 allowed the British to remain in the Northwest Territory until matters were resolved with the Indians.

In order to defend against Indian ambush, he cut a swath of woods a mile wide, known as the Wayne Trace.

His campaign culminated in a decisive 1794 victory by the Legion of the United States against Indians led by Chief Little Turtle of the nearby Maumee, Ohio in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, and signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.

[6] Paulding County was originally part of territory set aside for Ohio's Indian people by the Treaty of Greenville, though that did not last long.

Settlement of Paulding County was slow, due to the difficult living conditions.

George Washington had promoted the construction of canals to provide interior transportation for the fledgling nation.

The canal excitement was so great that people were leaving Fort Wayne, Indiana for Junction, feeling that it had a much brighter future.

The coming of the railroad quickly supplanted the canals as the primary means of long-haul travel.

One furnace remains, where it was allowed to cool without being emptied, there being no point in pouring iron that could not be shipped economically to market.

[7] In addition to the library, Andrew Carnegie matched local funds to install a pipe organ in what is now known as Paulding United Methodist Church.

In the early 20th century, Paulding had the highest unsolved murder rate of any county in the USA.

The Purple Gang was thought to be exporting the corpses of their victims to the rural countryside, where they could be dumped without being seen.

This level terrain resulted in Paulding County being entirely within the Great Black Swamp, unlike any other.

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 19,614 people, 7,769 households, and 5,467 families living in the county.

[21][22] In 1971, the Ohio Board of Education revoked the charters of Payne, Blue Creek, Grover Hill and Auglaize-Brown school districts.

The Paulding County motto of "No Compromise"[28] came from a banner carried by participants in the Reservoir War.

Carnegie also matched funds to purchase the pipe organ in the Paulding Methodist Church.