Frenchtown is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Seneca County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

History

The first settlement at the site that would become known as "Frenchtown" in the 20th century was created in the 1840s and 1850s by French-speaking immigrants largely from

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. The Catholic immigrants of the area built a log chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas, which was later replaced by a two-story school house (built in 1872) after a brick church was built across the road in 1856–1857. A two-story, red-brick rectory was built adjacent to the church in 1864, and the parish acquired a two-story home across the street from the church in 1930, for use as a convent for the Sisters who taught in the parish school. Shoddy construction necessitated the replacement of the former church, leading the community to build a large, red-brick

Romanesque revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

church. Bishop Richard Gilmour of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland The Diocese of Cleveland () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern Ohio in the United States. , the bishop is Edward Malesic. The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, located in Clevelan ...

blessed the cornerstone on October 9, 1887, and his vicar general, Msgr. Felix Boff, dedicated the new church on November 9, 1890. During the 19th century, the church was known as "St. Nicholas, Berwick," since the neighboring community of Berwick, two miles east) possessed the nearest railroad station; at that time, the church was served by the New Riegel post office (two miles northeast of the settlement). After the church was placed within the boundaries of the new post office in

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the ma ...

(three miles southeast), it became known as "St. Nicholas, Adrian." Sacramental records suggest that the first written reference to " St. Nicholas, Frenchtown" was made in the late 1910s.

Landmarks

* St. Nicholas Catholic Church, dedicated in 1890 * St. Nicholas Catholic Cemetery, with over 1,000 marked graves * The former rectory, a two-story, brick home to the west of the church (now a private residence) * The former convent, across the street from the rectory (now a private residence)

References

Unincorporated communities in Seneca County, Ohio Unincorporated communities in Ohio {{SenecaCountyOH-geo-stub