[10] Developed along the Sandusky River, Tiffin is located about 55 miles (89 km) southeast of Toledo.

The National Arbor Day Foundation has designated Tiffin as a Tree City USA.

The bronze statue of "The Indian Maiden" on Frost Parkway near Miami Street, marks the site of Fort Ball, a military depot of the War of 1812.

During a fighting engagement of that war, Erastus Bowe sighted the location where Tiffin later developed.

In 1817, he returned to the site and built the Pan Yan Tavern on the North Sandusky River.

Early homesteaders followed soon after Bowe, and the settlement of Oakley sprang up around the Pan Yan on the north side of the river.

The chief road of the area followed the path of the stagecoaches through Oakley, which was called Fort Ball after 1824.

In 1821, Josiah Hedges purchased a piece of land on the south bank of the river opposite Oakley and founded another settlement.

The county was named after the Seneca people, the westernmost of the Iroquois League of Six Nations who dominated the territory for centuries.

The discovery of natural gas in the vicinity in 1888 gave new momentum to the city's industrial development.

Now known as Tiffin Parts, it has been operating at the same site since the 1920s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[12] In the spring of 1913, the Upper Mississippi and Ohio River valleys were ravaged by Great Flood of 1913.

[14][15] Tiffin is the home of the historic Ritz Theatre, built in 1928 as a vaudeville house; it is in the Italian Renaissance style.

On November 10, 2002, an F3 tornado hit southeast Tiffin, destroying several homes outside city limits.

[17] She decided not to seek another term as mayor, and was succeeded by small business owner and former educator Lee Wilkinson, also a Democrat, who defeated Republican John Spahr in the 2023 general election.

The Saints and IBL, which initially began with six teams, folded before the end of the inaugural season due to financial woes and controversy over whether or not the players were paid.

The Adrian Pioneers beat the Ohio Travelers to win the shortened IBL season.

It is also home to the Tiffin Academy of Hair Design, Vanguard Sentinel Career and Technology Center( a vocational school), and formerly of the American Institute of Massotherapy.