The following are excerpts from Delta, Ohio Area History.
The Black Swamp
The area in which Delta established was known as the “Six Mile Woods”. The “woods” was an area some six miles wide and 20 miles long where huge oak, walnut and sycamore trees were four feet in diameter. On its borders were strips of land known as “the openings or the oak openings”. This is an area where only scrub oak grew, thus openings in the dark forest. Parts of this region were known as the “Black Swamp”.
Early Settlers
It is generally conceded that the first settler here, or what was then called the ” Six Mile Woods” was a Mr. Meeker, who hewed away a place for his residence of what became the S. H. Cately place, Swancreek Township. This was in the fall of 1833. In the spring of 1834 he was followed by others; Mr. William Fewlas and his brother, hailing from Long Island, New York, took up residence here. James McQuillin was the first to settle on the site where the village of Delta now stands, in 1834. His cabin stood near where the Presbyterian Church now stands, also erected a saw mill on the creek.
Early Growth
The growth of the village was rather slow, as the country was new, and roads were bad until about the year 1850, when a plank road was laid from Delta to Toledo.
A town of Many Names
Delta had many names, Tadmore, Tadpole, Greensprings, Fingerville and Slab Shanty. No one seems to know for sure where the name Delta originated. It is thought that the town was eventually named Delta because some discerning person observed that the Bad Creek formed that Greek letter as it meandered about the town. There is another thought on the origin of the name of the community. There was a post office named Delta established by William Meeker on his property in Swancreek Township in 1838. In 1842 he moved the post office into the present Delta, hence its name.
Delta Incorporates
On a petition of sixty residents of Delta, the village was incorporated, August 3, 1863. There were 34 votes cast. At the election the following officers were elected: Mayor, William Critzer; Clerk, Chas. Cullen; Members of Council, D. H. Pettys, J. T. Gates, A. M. Carpenter, O. T. Clark, and Simon Zimmerman.
