AuGlaize Village & Farm Museum

The Defiance County Historical Society founded AuGlaize Village in 1966. The historic village preserves the history of the men and women who carved a community out of the Great Black Swamp. The society received 40 acres and the extensive red barn in 1966 from the Mansfield family which started the village. An additional 80 acres was later added and also another 31 buildings and have been donated from people far and wide also even the state. The village is meant to be set in the mid to late 1800s and will have event that surround the village and the style of the 1900s. Most of the buildings have been restored with having around four farms, a military museum, a natural history museum, and model railroad museum. In 1975, the society decided it best to turn over the museum complex to the people of Defiance in hopes that the county commissioners would be able to get grants and assistance. The Defiance County Historical Society operates the Auglaize Village through a Maintenance & Use Agreement for the Defiance County Commissioners.

The Great Black Swamp in Northwest Ohio and northeastern Indiana formed as a result of the Wisconsin Glacier. It left a flattened surface covered with impermeable clay. Letters and journals of settlers traveling through Ohio in the early 1800s talk about how they traveled on the fringes of the swamp, or went completely out of their way to avoid going through it. Sooner or later the people would settle and establish their villages along the edges of the swamp, but used the swamp as a very fertile hunting ground. When the treaty was signed on August 3, 1795, the government promised this land to the Natives in perpetuity, because they could not foresee the area ever being inhabitable by potential settlers from Europe.

The Village lived as a keepsake for the Defiance County Historical Society until 1966 when it became an open attraction to the public. Throughout a massive community effort and kind donations AuGlaize Village was born and kept growing throughout time with donations like a barn and land from the Mansfield family that really started it all. AuGlaize Village is now owned by the Defiance County Commissioners and operated by the Defiance County Historical Society and its volunteers. Take an opportunity to stroll through the 22 new or restored buildings, four farm museums, military museum, natural history museum, and model railroad museum. AuGlaize Village also holds public events each summer and fall. After a long 55 plus years, AuGlaize Village is still going strong drawing people from the tri-state area for its activities and festivals. But our world has changed. People are busier than ever and volunteers are hard to recruit for them. The locally owned factories are a thing of the past in Defiance and so AuGlaize Village must change with the times. Auglaize Village is always looking for Tuesday volunteers and people willing to work in the office with the collection as well as Event Volunteers.

AuGlaize Village is forever repairing and fixing the Village however they can and there are always events going on throughout the year that would really be a thrill to someone who would be interested in seeing how some of the past would operate.

Defiance County Historical Society, AuGlaize Village and Farm Museum. Accessed March 15th 2022. https://sites.google.com/site/auglaizevillagemuseum.

Riverview Memory Gardens. AuGlaize Village Tour, Accessed March 14th 2022. https://pocketsights.com/tours/tour/Defiance-AuGlaize-Village-Tour-1491.

The Great Black Swamp. Great Black Swamp History at Sauder Village. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://saudervillage.org/field-trips/school-field-trips/curriculum-resources/the-great-Black-swamp 

Welcome to AuGlaize Village, AuGlaize Village. Accessed March 15th 2022. https://ohio.org/things-to-do/destinations/auglaize-village.