Avery, Ohio

Avery is an unincorporated community in western Milan Township, Erie County, Ohio, United States. Avery is located along US Route 250 near that road's interchange with Interstate 80 and Interstate 90, the Ohio Turnpike. The area is characterized by hotels and some industry. It once had a post office, but is now included in the Milan, Ohio postal zone (44846).

History

Avery was an early name given to the location of the current community and became the first county seat of Huron County in 1815. Confusingly, when the plat of the proposed town was recorded by David Abbott and Kneeland Townsend at Cleveland on June 14 1811, they named it Huron; and a copy of the plat map is to be seen at the Huron County Recorders Office {O.S. Vol. 1. Page 279] . The name had been changed to Avery by 1815. Avery/Huron was located 2 miles/3.2 kilometers east of the current location of Avery, on the east bank of the Huron River. An early landowner, Mr. F.W. Fowler, was elected first constable of Huron County, and his log cabin served as the county courthouse and jail shortly afterward. In response to increasing hostilities with the United Kingdom and their allies among the Native Americans in the area, culminating with the War of 1812, a stockade fort called "Camp Avery" or "Fort Avery" was also constructed at this location. The "old county seat" was abandoned in 1818 when the county seat was moved to Norwalk.

Huron County was established by the Ohio General Assembly on February 7, 1809 but it was administered in succession by Portage, Geauga, and Cuyahoga Counties until by act of the Legislature, passed January 31 1815 Huron County became self- administered [reference: History of Erie County by Lewis Aldrich, page 52.] and, at the time, comprised present-day Erie County, Huron County, Ruggles Township in Ashland County, and Danbury Township in Ottawa County. This region is also known as the Firelands.

The area currently known as Avery was the name given to a depot built in 1882 by the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad where it crossed the Norwalk-Sandusky road that became US Route 250. In 1893, it became a stop on the Sandusky, Milan and Norwalk interurban railroad, later becoming the Lake Shore Electric Railway. ["Milan and the Milan Canal", by Charles E. Frohman, c.1976, pp. 16-17, 28, 57.]

References