Sylvania, Ohio
city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States
Sylvania is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 19,011 at the 2020 census. Sylvania is a suburb of Toledo, and encompassed by Sylvania Township. Its northern border is the southern border of the state of Michigan.
The name "Sylvania" is borrowed from the Latin sylvan or sylva, meaning "forest land", owing to the dense forests that once made up the region, part of the Great Black Swamp.
History
General David White is considered the founder of Sylvania as the first pioneer settler and town supervisor, originally from Palmyra, New York. In 1832, White was given the title of General (possibly after services rendered during the War of 1812), which allowed him to explore the western Lake Erie region. In realizing the potential of some available land to the north of Maumee, Ohio, a notable port city at the time, he acquired a title to the land and built a log cabin at what would eventually be the corner of Summit and Monroe streets near downtown Sylvania.
Prior to White's acquisition, the land was a part of Port Lawrence Township, Monroe County, Michigan. Over the course of several years, White, along with his associate, Judge William Wilson, purchased a total of 1,920 acres (780 ha) of Port Lawrence and surrounding land in what would eventually become Sylvania, and 1,720 acres (700 ha) of what would become Whiteford Township, Michigan, where he also served as the first town supervisor.
“Sylvania, Ohio” enters the record as city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sylvania, Ohio and city can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Sylvania, Ohio” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Sylvania, Ohio and city provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q386862. VIAF identifies the subject as 133720007. The Library of Congress control number is n82163453. Authority coordinates are 41.711, -83.703. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1832 and 1812.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sylvania, Ohio”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sylvania, Ohio primary sources, Sylvania, Ohio archive and Sylvania research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sylvania, Ohio”?
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sylvania, Ohio” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.