Your Delaware Home Builder

The original home to the Mingo, and Shawnee Indian tribes, the area would later become Delaware Ohio. Moses Byxbe arrived in central Ohio from Berkshire County, Massachusetts in 1804. A man of exceptional energy, courage and drive, he helped shape the City of Delaware, during its formative years. On May 9, 1808, Byxbe filed the “plan of the town of Delaware,” marking the real beginning of the present City of Delaware. For the last 20 years of his life, he excelled at growing the City of Delaware. In addition to founding and planning the town, Byxbe was a great consensus builder who enlistment of capable civic partners in helping the grow the local economy. He even campaigned to have Ohio’s capital located in Delaware.

After the War of 1812, Delaware’s population grew rapidly with a large influx of settlers arriving including the parents of the soon to be 19th President, Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes was born in Delaware and later met his wife Lucy at Ohio Wesleyan University, which was founded in 1842. Before the Civil War broke out on Apr 12, 1861, Delaware area residents sympathized with the plight of slaves fleeing the tyrrany and oppression of the south. Abolitionists brought the Underground Railway through the area. In fact, southern Delaware’s Africa Road is a reminder and homage to the role Delaware played as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Camp Delaware, a Civil War-era camp for soldiers, was one of the few from which African-American soldiers deployed to fight on behalf of the Union Army.