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James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

St. Marys

Ohio

Basic Information

Type of Place
Independent City or Town
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Don’t Know
Unions, Organized Labor?
Don’t Know

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Possible
Was there an ordinance?
Don't Know
Sign?
Don’t Know
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Probably

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950 6208 6
1960
1970
1980
1990 8441 10
2000
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • German Protestant
  • German Catholic
  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

One local resident says the town was sundown.

Another nearby resident testifies:
“I live in a heavily German county in Western Ohio (the German belt runs along the Indiana/Ohio border from Cincinnatti to Van Wert County to the north of me). After the Civil War, some Southerners that had been slave owners who owned lands in this area, offered that property to some of their former slaves who sought new beginnings in the North. They got to Cincinnati, then took a canal boat on the Miami & Erie Canal to a town (St. Marys) the next county over (Auglaize). They were met by German farmers with guns and told in no uncertain terms to stay on the boat and head back to Cincinnati. Our local paper did an article on this some years ago.”