{"id":141591,"date":"2021-04-01T22:20:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T03:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=141591"},"modified":"2021-04-01T22:21:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T03:21:22","slug":"county-kicks-off-bicentennial-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/04\/01\/county-kicks-off-bicentennial-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"County kicks off bicentennial celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of people, including U.S. Representative Bob Latta, County Commissioners Thad Lichtensteiger, Stan Owens, and Todd Wolfrum, several other county officials and downtown development representatives, kicked off this year\u2019s celebration of the county\u2019s 200th anniversary — albeit a year late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lichtensteiger noted that the state legislature had designated the County of Van Wert on April 1, 1820, in honor of Revolutionary War hero Isaac Van Wart, one of the three captors of British spy Major John Andre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A number of Van Wert County stakeholders, as well as U.S. Representative Bob Latta, were on hand Thursday to take a kick-off photo in connection with the county’s 200th anniversary celebration. Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose of you with even rudimentary math skills will be asking the question: \u2018Doesn\u2019t that make us 201?\u2019.\u201d Lichtensteiger said to laughs from the audience, but then noted that the county\u2019s sesquicentennial (150th) celebration was held in 1971, a year later than the founding date would suggest, while 2020\u2019s COVID-19 pandemic would have likely resulted in a large number of canceled events — something that hopefully will be avoided this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commissioner also talked about the strengths of the county: its agricultural roots, its industrial base, its excellent schools, its great churches and civic organizations, and its people, while also providing a brief history lesson on the founding of the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lichtensteiger noted that the first county seat was Willshire, with its location on the St. Marys River, before eventually relocating to Van Wert. While first giving a nod of gratitude to architect Thomas Tolan, who designed and built the county courthouse in the 1870s, the commissioner also lauded those \u201cwho stayed here in our county, worked and raised a family here while bright lights took others away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lichtensteiger also said he was also grateful to those who went away and later returned to the county: \u201cfor family, for quiet living, for country life, perhaps just back to where it all started for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The commissioner noted that there will be a number of articles written on county history during the coming year, as well as a number of events throughout the year on news sites and social media, as well as possibly some activities held downtown and during the Van Wert County Fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, happy 200th birthday to Van Wert County,\u201d Lichtensteiger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to taking a bicentennial kick-off photo, Latta provided the commissioners with a statement he had read into the U.S. Congressional Record honoring the county\u2019s 200th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is a great county, and you do so much here, and you have so much to be proud of,” Latta said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent\/submitted information A number of people, including U.S. Representative Bob Latta, County Commissioners Thad Lichtensteiger, Stan Owens, and Todd Wolfrum, several other county officials and downtown development representatives, kicked off this year\u2019s celebration of the county\u2019s 200th anniversary — albeit a year late. Lichtensteiger noted that the state legislature had designated the County of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-05 17:06:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}