The Fostoria Free Press

Free News For Free People

Fostoria News Patriotic vote banner with stars and stripes and a voting box.

Featured Story

Fostoria News Halloween-themed tower with glowing lights and a ghost, Fostoria skyline.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN #Fostoria! Did you know?

/
0 Comments
That stone tower is the old Fostoria Water Works standpipe…

Fostoria History Series

Fostoria News: Crew of the Cunningham and Co. Spoke and Bending Works posed with bent wagon rims and stacked lumber in Fostoria, Ohio, in 1884

FOSTORIA | Spokes, Bows and Bent Rims: The Fostoria Spoke and Bending Works

/
0 Comments
Before glass and cars, Fostoria made the wooden spokes, bent rims and buggy bows that kept America's wagons rolling. An 1884 photo of the Cunningham & Co. Spoke and Bending Works crew opens a look at the town's wagon-wood industry.
Fostoria News: 1903 newspaper clipping headlined HORRIBLE! Fostoria's Most Awful Tragedy, reporting eight bodies recovered after an explosion at a Fostoria cane factory

FOSTORIA | “Fostoria’s Most Awful Tragedy”: The 1903 Cane Factory Explosion

/
0 Comments
On Feb. 16, 1903, an explosion and fire destroyed a small South Main Street factory that made the explosive for the Fox Magazine Cane. Eight people died in what the local paper called "Fostoria's most awful tragedy."
Fostoria News: Printed illustration of the John B. Rogers Producing Co. building, a long brick building with the company name across the front, on West Center Street in Fostoria, Ohio

FOSTORIA | John B. Rogers Producing Co.: The Fostoria Firm That Staged Pageants Across America

/
0 Comments
From 1903 to 1977, the John B. Rogers Producing Co. sent directors, scripts and costumes from Fostoria to towns across America to stage home-talent shows and huge outdoor historical pageants. Here is the story of the firm and its West Center Street headquarters.
Fostoria News: Early 1900s postcard titled Panorama of Main St., Perry St. and Sandusky St., Fostoria, Ohio, showing brick buildings, an Oil Well Supply Co. sign, a mill and an unpaved street with rail tracks

FOSTORIA | Main, Perry and Sandusky: The City Mills and Downtown Fostoria at the Turn of the Century

/
0 Comments
Where Main, Perry and Sandusky streets meet, an old postcard shows a dirt street, rail tracks, an Oil Well Supply Co. sign and a flour mill. Here is the story of Times Square, the Franke brothers' Fostoria City Mills and the Sandusky Street mill around 1900.
Fostoria News: Real-photo postcard of the Independent Tack Co. factory in Fostoria, Ohio, with smokestacks, a water tower and a round pond in the foreground

FOSTORIA | Independent Tack Co. and Seneca Wire: When Fostoria Made Tacks and Roofing Nails

/
0 Comments
In 1905 Indiana machinist Emsley O. Grose brought his roofing-nail machine to Fostoria, where a 1908 history credits him with organizing Seneca Wire. His Independent Tack Co. later opened a Fostoria plant in 1915. Here is what the record shows, and what is still unknown.
Fostoria News: 1908 Halloween postcard showing two smiling jack-o-lanterns riding in the basket of a golden airship under a starry sky, with the greeting Wishing you a highly entertaining Halloween

FOSTORIA | Confetti, Not Cabbages: How Fostoria Pioneered the Municipal Halloween in 1915

/
0 Comments
In 1915 the Fostoria YMCA staged the city's first municipal Halloween celebration, with a King Corn costume review, membership prizes and confetti handed out in place of cabbages. The Exchange Club took it over in 1922.
Fostoria News: Full-page 1915 advertisement for the Fostoria Light Car from the Automobile Trade Journal, with specifications and the address Alabama Ave., Fostoria, Ohio

FOSTORIA | The Fostoria Light Car: The “Surprise Car of 1916”

/
0 Comments
In 1915 four Fostoria businessmen launched the Fostoria Light Car, a $675 touring car billed as "The Surprise Car of 1916." Bad engines sank it within about a year, but the company came back as the Seneca Motor Car Co. and shipped cars around the world until 1924.
Fostoria News: Period photo of a 1916 Allen Model 37 automobile

FOSTORIA | From Peabody Buggies to Allen Motor Cars: When Fostoria Built Automobiles

/
0 Comments
The Allen brothers ran Fostoria's biggest buggy maker, the Peabody Buggy Co., then switched to automobiles in 1913. For six years Allen cars were built in four plants and tested on Wood Street. Here is the story, and what stands on those sites today.
Fostoria News: Illustration, with headline: A Brief History of Fostoria City Schools

A Brief History of Fostoria City Schools and Fostoria High School

/
0 Comments
Log schoolhouses in Rome and Risdon, a four-room brick school after the 1854 merger, the 18-room Central School on High Street and the new junior-senior high that opened in 2020: here is how Fostoria's schools grew.
Fostoria News Fostoria historic churches and cemetery scene during autumn.

Fostoria’s Historic Churches and Cemeteries

/
0 Comments
From a log Methodist church on Portage Creek in 1833 to St. Wendelin's first Mass in a log cabin and the fountains and Doughboy of Fountain Cemetery, here is how Fostoria's oldest congregations and burial grounds took shape.
Fostoria News: Illustration, with headline: Old Fostoria Businesses Remembered

Old Fostoria Businesses Remembered

/
0 Comments
Buggy makers, a carmaker, glass factories and the Main Street shops of the 1900s: here is a look back at some of the businesses that built Fostoria, from the Fostoria Area Historical Society's history columns.
Fostoria News: Early 1900s postcard of the Alcott Block, a three-story brick building with a corner turret at Main and Center streets in Fostoria, Ohio

FOSTORIA | The Alcott Block: Main and Center’s 1893 Landmark and the Fire of 1962

/
0 Comments
Capt. Roger Alcott, a militia captain and former telegrapher, built the turreted Alcott Block at Main and Center in 1893. It survived an 1897 explosion but not the 1962 fire that also took the Hays Hotel. Here is the building's story and what is on the corner now.
Fostoria News: Illustration, with headline: Historic Downtown Fostoria: The Old Buildings

Historic Downtown Fostoria: The Stories Behind the Old Buildings

/
0 Comments
The Alcott Block, the Hays Hotel, the Andes building and the shops in between: here are stories of downtown Fostoria's old buildings from the Fostoria Area Historical Society's columns, including the 1962 fire that changed Main Street.
Fostoria News: Illustration, with headline: The Interurbans That Connected Fostoria

The Interurban Lines That Once Connected Fostoria and Northwest Ohio

/
0 Comments
From 1898 to 1932, electric interurban cars ran from Fostoria to Tiffin, Findlay, Toledo and Fremont. Here is the story of the three lines that served the city and why they disappeared.
Fostoria News Nighttime oil and gas infrastructure in Fostoria with dramatic flame and smokestacks.

Fostoria and the Northwest Ohio Natural Gas Boom

/
0 Comments
In the 1880s, natural gas strikes in Findlay and near Fostoria set off a boom that filled the area with glass factories and new residents. Here is what happened, why it ended and what it left behind.
Fostoria News Railroad scene with old train station and freight trains at sunset.

How Railroads Shaped Fostoria, Ohio

/
0 Comments
Fostoria's first railroad arrived in the 1850s, and line after line followed until the city became one of the busiest rail crossings in Ohio. Here is how the railroads came, what became of them and where to see the history today.
Fostoria News Local history feature on Fostoria Glass Company with vintage glassware.

Fostoria’s Glass Industry: The Story of the Fostoria Glass Company

/
0 Comments
Natural gas brought more than a dozen glass companies to Fostoria between 1887 and 1920. The most famous, the Fostoria Glass Company, started here in 1887, moved to West Virginia in 1891 and kept the Fostoria name for nearly a century.
Fostoria News How Fostoria Got Its Name - Local history feature for The Fostoria Free Press.

How Fostoria Got Its Name: The Foster Family and the Town’s Founding

/
0 Comments
Fostoria was born in 1854 when the rival villages of Risdon and Rome joined and took the name of Charles W. Foster. Here is what the historical record says about the founding and the Foster family, including a governor and Treasury secretary.
Fostoria News Historic street in Fostoria with steam locomotive and era buildings.

A Short History of Fostoria, Ohio

/
0 Comments
From two rival villages platted in 1832 to a railroad crossroads, a natural gas boomtown and a manufacturing city, here is a short, sourced history of Fostoria, Ohio.
Fostoria News: 1890s photo of the A. Weaver Dry Goods store on North Main Street in Fostoria, Ohio, with the Weaver family and employees on the front steps

FOSTORIA | A. Weaver & Sons to Ahlenius Co.: A Century of Dry Goods on North Main Street

/
0 Comments
Alpheus Weaver's dry goods business opened on North Main Street in 1875, survived a suspicious 1892 fire, moved three times in one block and gave way to Kiebel and Wilson and finally the Ahlenius Co. Here is a century of dry goods in downtown Fostoria.
Fostoria News: 1880s photo of the G.F. Weaver drug and book store on North Main Street in Fostoria, Ohio, with three men standing out front under striped awnings

FOSTORIA | Soda Fountains and Tinctures: A Look Back at Fostoria’s Old Drugstores

/
0 Comments
From the G.F. Weaver Drug and Book Store of the 1880s to the soda fountain at Edison Cut Rate Drugs and Whitney Drugs on Elm Street, here is a look back at the drugstores that served Fostoria for more than a century, and what fills those storefronts today.
Fostoria News: Early 1900s photo of a steam train at the wooden Lake Erie and Western depot on North Street in Fostoria, Ohio

FOSTORIA | The LE&W Depot, the Iron Triangle and the Union Stock Yards: How Railroads Built Fostoria

/
0 Comments
A little wooden depot built in 1878 on West North Street, a web of crossing rail lines and a livestock yard on South Poplar Street helped make Fostoria the Iron Triangle. Here is how the railroads built the town, and what stands on those sites today.
Fostoria News: Color postcard from about 1912 of St. Wendelin's Catholic School and Church on Wood Street in Fostoria, Ohio

FOSTORIA | St. Wendelin: 175 Years of Church and School at Wood and North Streets

/
0 Comments
From a log cabin Mass in 1844 and a gift of land from Charles W. Foster to the 1909 school, the Countyline high school and the closings of 2017 and 2019, here is the story of St. Wendelin parish and school, and what stands on those sites today.
Fostoria News Historic brick school building in Fostoria with large windows and greenery.

HISTORY | A Post looking back at the memories Fostoria Field School

/
0 Comments
Source: Hometown History "Field Elementary School was…
PreviousNext

Developing Stories

Fostoria News Lucas County, OH: fatal accident on Hill Ave and Wenz Rd.

TOLEDO | 3 Killed, 3 Hurt in Head-On Crash at Hill Avenue and Wenz Road

Spirit Halloween storefront with a Breaking News banner reading Man Shot and Killed at Spirit Halloween Store in Michigan

BREAKING NEWS | Man Shot and Killed at Spirit Halloween Store in Michigan

ADVERTISE HERE!
50K+ Monthly Web Visitors
2.2M+ Monthly Facebook Views

REQUEST OUR MEDIA KIT
Fostoria News How to get a marriage license in Seneca County image.

How to Get a Marriage License in Seneca County, Ohio

/
0 Comments
A Seneca County marriage license costs $70, is good for 60 days and requires both people to appear in person at Probate Court. Here is what to bring, how to apply online first, and who can perform the ceremony.
Read more
Fostoria News How to get a birth or death certificate in Seneca County - Fostoria Free Press.

How to Get a Copy of a Birth or Death Certificate in Seneca County

/
0 Comments
Certified birth and death certificates in Seneca County cost $25 each through the health district, and in-person requests are usually filled in about 15 minutes. Here is how to order in person, online, by phone or by mail, and where to find older records.
Read more
Fostoria News breaking news graphic: 12 hurt in shooting near FAMU stadium in Tallahassee after homecoming game

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. | 12 Hurt, Including 6 Juveniles, in Shooting Near FAMU Stadium After Homecoming Game

/
0 Comments
Twelve people, six of them juveniles, were hurt in a shooting near FAMU's Bragg Memorial Stadium in Tallahassee Saturday night after the homecoming game. Police say a fight came before the gunfire, and no one has been arrested.
Read more
Fostoria News How to report a code violation or tall grass in Fostoria.

How to Report a Code Violation or Tall Grass Complaint in Fostoria

/
0 Comments
Grass over 6 inches, junk piles, unlicensed cars or a run-down vacant house? Here is how to report a property maintenance or zoning concern to the City of Fostoria, what to include, and what happens next.
Read more
Fostoria News: Illustration, with headline: How to Register to Vote and Find Your Polling Place

How to Register to Vote and Find Your Polling Place in Seneca County

/
0 Comments
Check your registration, find your precinct and polling place, and learn the early voting hours, ID rules and absentee options for Seneca County voters ahead of the Nov. 3, 2026 general election.
Read more
Fostoria News Seneca County Museum expansion rendering with autumn trees.

TIFFIN | Seneca County Museum Unveils 5,900-Square-Foot Expansion Plan; $2.5 Million Campaign Is Halfway There

/
0 Comments
The Seneca County Museum in Tiffin has unveiled plans for a 5,900-square-foot addition with accessible entry and restrooms, a firehouse exhibit and climate-controlled archive storage. The $2.5 million capital campaign has raised about $1.2 million, and groundbreaking could come as early as spring 2027.
Read more
Fostoria News Elections building evacuated in Norwood, Ohio over suspicious mailed substance.

BREAKING | Hamilton County elections building evacuated after suspicious substance found in mail

/
0 Comments
The Hamilton County Board of Elections administrative building in Norwood was evacuated Saturday morning after a suspicious substance arrived in the mail. Hazmat crews cleared it for re-entry, and early voting was not affected.
Read more
Fostoria News: BGSU Technology Building, with headline: BGSU Earns Gold Star for Training Ohio Manufacturing Workers

BOWLING GREEN | BGSU Earns Gold Star in Ohio Manufacturers Association’s First Workforce Training Directory

/
0 Comments
Bowling Green State University received a Gold Star designation in the Ohio Manufacturers' Association's first Workforce Training Directory, one of seven institutions and three public universities statewide to earn the top tier.
Read more
Fostoria News Bob Evans and Agave and Rye close at Levis Commons in Perrysburg.

PERRYSBURG | Bob Evans and Agave and Rye Close at Levis Commons

/
0 Comments
Two chain restaurants at Perrysburg's Levis Commons have closed. Agave and Rye shut down Oct. 21, with its owner citing circumstances with the landlord, and the Bob Evans there has removed its signs and posted a closed notice.
Read more
Fostoria News Historical painting of ships at sea for The Fostoria Free Press article.

HOLIDAYS | From Trafalgar to Your Eggnog: The Surprising History of Admiral Nelson’s Spiced Rum

/
0 Comments
Admiral Nelson's Spiced Rum started in St. Louis in the late 1990s and now belongs to Kentucky's Heaven Hill. Its namesake died at Trafalgar in 1805 and left behind the "Nelson's Blood" legend. Here is what is fact, what is folklore, and three easy holiday drinks for adults 21 and older.
Read more
Fostoria News: Early 1900s photo of a steam train at the wooden Lake Erie and Western depot on North Street in Fostoria, Ohio

FOSTORIA | The LE&W Depot, the Iron Triangle and the Union Stock Yards: How Railroads Built Fostoria

/
0 Comments
A little wooden depot built in 1878 on West North Street, a web of crossing rail lines and a livestock yard on South Poplar Street helped make Fostoria the Iron Triangle. Here is how the railroads built the town, and what stands on those sites today.
Read more
Fostoria News Ohio voter photo ID amendment explained by The Fostoria Free Press.

COLUMBUS | Issue 3 Explained: What Ohio’s Photo ID Amendment Would Do, and What Each Side Says

/
0 Comments
Issue 3, the only statewide question on the Nov. 3 ballot, would write a voter photo ID requirement into the Ohio Constitution and list the IDs that count. Here is what the ballot says, what would change and the official arguments for and against.
Read more
© Copyright - The Fostoria Free Press LTD.
Ads Blocker Image Powered by Code Help Pro

Ads Blocker Detected.

We have detected that you are using extensions to block ads. Please support us by disabling these ads blocker.
_

__

___

 

Powered By
Best Wordpress Adblock Detecting Plugin | CHP Adblock
error: Content is protected !!