Ada

Ada Ohio has the unique distinction of having the shortest name for a town or city in the state (there is a village in Defiance County called Ney). Ada is also geographically located at a unique spot in Ohio. On the north side of town, streams and rivers eventually empty into Lake Erie. On the south side of town the water flows to the Gulf of Mexico.

Back when Ada was first being platted it was going to be called Johnstown, but when founders of Johnstown requested a post office, the post master said there already was a Johnstown and they would have to come up with something else. Since the gentlemen applying for the post office couldn't come up with another name, they asked the post master for a suggestion. He said, "How about Ada?" That was fine with the men. When they asked what Ada meant, the post master said "Why that's my daughter's name!"

The original town has its roots tied loosely to the railroads. In 1850 William Mitchell purchased a large 160 acre tract of land almost exactly at the center of where Ada is located today. William Mitchell, who had become friends with Sanford M. Johnson. Mr. Johnson had only recently arrived in Fort Wayne and met William Mitchell. William Mitchell had purchased some 160 acres of wilderness that was supposed to be heavily forested, but a bit swampy. This wilderness land was also along the right-of-way of a new rail line being built. Because Sanford Johnson was a millwright, Mitchell thought it would be a perfect fit if he gave Johnson 80 acres, if Johnson would move to Hardin County and establish a lumber mill on the land next to the proposed railroad. Both men would benefit: Johnson would gain some valuable property, and Mitchell's property would greatly increase in value as the area grew in size and importance.

1887 Ada Depot, 112 E. Central Avenue

Once his lumber mill was under construction, Sanford M. Johnson plotted out the beginnings of the new village he proudly named Johnstown. The new village of Johnstown was off and running. The first passenger train arrived in 1854. Within a year, the village had two general stores, a tavern and the new railroad depot. With the regular arrival of mail to and from the village, it became quickly apparent that there was going to be a problem since mail destined for Johnstown in Licking County was being delivered to Johnstown in Hardin County. So in 1855 the post office officially changed the name and it became permanently the village of Ada.  In 1861 the Village of Ada was incorporated. In the mid 1860s, Sanford Johnson sold his mill. This was about the same time that Henry Lehr arrived in Ada. Henry would later recall that it was his meeting with Mr. Johnson that convinced him that Ada was the place he wanted to begin his new career as a college instructor. Not long after this meeting between the two men S.M. Johnson permanently moved to Lima after selling his lumber mill to Solomon Smick. Johnson would go on to opened a paper mill in Lima where fifteen years later Johnson died.

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Ohio Northern University

The roots of ONU can be traced back to just after the Civil War when Henry Lehr arrived in Ada in search of a location where he could establish the kind of school he was proposing. This was still the early days of Ada and young Lehr (28 years old) had a rough look about him and he was quite small in stature. Not the look of a school teacher. Henry had just received his final discharge from the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and he had spent the last 3 years in and out of medical facilities. 

When the war broke out Henry Lehr had just finished his winter teaching and was preparing to pickup his college studies at Mt. Union as he had been doing. That April in 1861 he enlisted at Wooster but was rejected because of his small size. He went back to Alliance and his studies. That fall he tried to enlist again but was again rejected by the army. The following spring he enlisted and was accepted, but in September of that same year he was rejected because of his poor health.

When Henry Lehr debarked from the train, he liked what he saw: a growing town that wasn't too big and it wasn't that far away from his father who had convinced Henry not to move on to Missouri. So when the train came to a halt in Johnston, it seemed like a perfect fit. Johnstown needed a school, Henry needed a job. When discussing the public schools in Johnstown, he convinced the board that he was a perfect fit. He could oversee the public school duties during the day, and teach students wanting to become teachers in the evening if the board would allow him the use of the building. In exchange Henry promised, that in 20 years his school would be enrolling 5,000 pupils. With that promise and his determination, Henry became Ada's first superintendent, a position he held from 1866 to 1871.

Henry Solomon Lehr
Born in 1838 in Ohltown, Ohio, the 11th child to George and Salome Lehr. His grandfather fought in the American Revolution and his father was a Brigadier General in the Pennsylvania Militia. Henry Lehr got his first formal schooling at age 12. By the time he was 16 he had earned his teaching certification and actually began teaching part-time all the time while working on his farm. A few years later he enrolled at Mount Union College in Alliance. It was while studying here that he began developing an idea of how colleges should design and organize the way courses are made available to the student. Rather than working around the teacher's schedule, colleges needed to work with the student's schedule and needs. His belief is that if colleges could be more adaptable to the people paying their way, then higher education for the masses could be not only more affordable, but that more people would take advantage of that opportunity. Lehr began teaching these principles when he opened Northwestern Ohio Normal School, a school that taught it's students how to teach.

Football Capital of the World

Wilson had been supplying footballs to the NFL since 1941, but it wasn't until 1955 that Wilson opened the Wilson Football factory in Ada. As of this writing, the Wilson Football Factory is the only  football factory dedicated to making professional footballs in the world. American-made and Quality go hand-in-hand and the prime reason the plant was built in Ada. Today, the Wilson Football Factory is the 2nd largest employer in Ada, second only to Ohio Northern University, Each year700,000 footballs are produced at Wilson's only football factory. Of those 700,000 balls made each year, 108 of them are shipped to each team in the NFL for each regular season game they play (54 for the game and 54 for practice).

Did you know:

• There are 16 lace holes on each ball
• There are 4 panels on each game ball
• The difference between a regular game ball and the NFL kicker ball is a letter "K" inscribed on the kicker ball and they are then sealed in boxes with anti-tampering tape, and they arrive at the the NFLs official hotel one week before the game and then delivered to the officials room a few hours before kickoff.
• Official pressure for an NFL game ball is 13 pounds
• Teams give their 54 game balls to the officials on game day. The officials inspect the balls and once approved, a synthetic DNA link is added to the laces to indicate they are the authentic on-field game balls.