The City of Delphos

The City you know as Delphos was originally four little towns.  In the northwest was Howard, founded by Samuel Forrer and named to honor his wife’s family.  The east was called Section Ten, founded on a plat of land purchased from Christoph Moenning by Oramel Bliss, Benjamin Franklin Hillister and Samuel Pettit.  South of Howard was West Bredeick Street, established by the Ferdinand Bredeick family and east of that was East Bredeick, established by Fr. John Otto Bredeick. 

A fifth village, Marble Town, established by Col. John M.C. Marble, the city’s first millionaire, never achieved independent status and was part of the original city of Delphos.  The first settlers to Delphos were attracted by the work being done on the canal, and most of them were brought here as construction workers.  Behind them came the merchants and then the industrialists.  A settlement was established between 1836 an 1842.  Pioneers from Germany arrived between 1832 and 1846. 

In 1851 the four towns agreed to merge into a single town, which was called Delphos.  It was famous as a major port along the Miami and Erie Canal, with transshipment facilities for several major railroads.  By 1879, there were over a hundred factories churning our goods for the entire world, and even today the city enjoys an international reputation as a manufacturing center.  By 1912, the city as connected to the rest of the United States by the first transcontinental paved highway, the Lincoln Highway.