Friday, September 30, 2005

Because of My Defiance, Ohio Connection...

...I'm looking forward to this new movie with Julianne Moore and Buddy Harrelson. For six years, my family and I lived in Defiance County, on the county line road between it and Henry County, in rural northwestern Ohio. There, I served as pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Okolona. We had a Defiance mailing address. It should be interesting, although one might hope that once a town like Defiance gets its moment in the sun, it would be through a less difficult true story.

2 comments:

EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima said...

Why should a town be called such a name "Defiance"?
Are the townfolk defiant peope?

Mark Daniels said...

Orikinia:
The town grew up around the site of Fort Defiance, built as an outpost to fend off the British who, in the years after the Revolutionary War, sought to push the Americans out of what was then called the Northwest Territory. (The state of Ohio would later be one of several states carved from the territory.)

Fort Defiance stood at the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers. The main library for the town of Defiance sets there now. (My family and I used to spend a lot of time there because it was one of the best small-town libraries we've ever experienced. In fact, I think it's better than the libraries here in our suburban Cincinnati community today.)

Here's the URL address of a site that explains a bit of the history: http://www.defiancetourism.com/fortdefiance.htm.

Thanks for dropping by the site and for your comments.

Mark