Genoa

History

In 1835, Timothy and Cinderella Sherman, with their two-year-old son Phillip, became the first people of European descent to settle in what is now Clay Township. Other settlers sprinkled into the Great Black Swamp and the area became known as Stony Ridge, likely due to the limestone bedrock sticking out of the ground and swamp. Ultimately the town owes its existence to a cost-saving decision by the executives of the Toledo, Norwalk, and Cleveland Railroad. In an effort to eliminate eleven miles from the planned railroad line that was to connect Toledo and Cleveland, the railroad opted not to connect Woodville and Perrysburg on the line but instead to proceed in a straight line from Fremont to Toledo. The farmers around Stony Ridge happened to fall on this line. In 1851 work began on the line running through Stony Ridge. During the fall of 1852, iron imported from England was laid down and on December 22, 1852, the first passenger train rolled through a swampy wilderness. Stony Ridge began to develop immediately; within two years there was a saw mill, post office, hotel, and other businesses. Settlers from the East Coast and Europe began to arrive immediately, and churches were founded. Genoa quickly became a prominent source of limestone and with its position on a railroad the area quarries began distributing "Genoa White Lime" across the region. Stony Ridge was renamed Genoa in the spring of 1856, likely to settle confusion with another Stony Ridge, Ohio, just seven miles away. That year the first Genoa school was built, which still exists as Heritage Hall. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 the nationwide call for troop mobilization went out and Genoa, having a railroad station and thus a connection to the outside world, saw more than one hundred commit…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  73,614
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  61,951
• Tree Swallow

  Tachycineta bicolor (Vieillot, 1808) · Aves
  59,253
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  54,958
• Great Egret

  Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  51,567
• Great Blue/Cocoi Heron

  Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  51,286
• Bald Eagle

  Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  50,823
• Common Grackle

  Quiscalus quiscula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  47,557

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2026-05-04
  8 km N of Maybee, Michigan
• M 3 — 2026-04-26
  7 km SSE of Amherstburg, Canada
• M 2.5 — 2024-03-18
  4 km WSW of Millbury, Ohio
• M 2.6 — 2023-05-20
  3 km SSE of Walbridge, Ohio
• M 3.2 — 2020-08-21
  2 km SSE of Detroit Beach, Michigan
• M 3.4 — 2018-04-20
  Michigan