TIFFIN

city, seat (1824) of Seneca county, north-central Ohio, U.S., on the Sandusky River, 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Toledo. Fort Ball, a military depot of the War of 1812, occupied a site on the river's north bank (marked by a bronze statue, The Indian Maiden), where the settlement of Oakley (after 1824, Fort Ball) sprang up. In 1820 Josiah Hedges founded a settlement on the south bank and named it for Edward Tiffin, Ohio's first governor. Incorporated in 1835, Tiffin merged with Fort Ball in 1850. Agriculture was originally the economic mainstay, but the discovery of natural gas (1888) nearby brought industrial growth. Manufactures now include vitreous plumbing fixtures, wire products, hermetic auto parts, steel blankings, hot-cold forging machinery, abrasives, tableware, and bulk material handling systems. Heidelberg College was founded in 1850 by the Reformed Church of the United States (now United Church of Christ), and Tiffin University, a business school, was founded in 1888. Pop. (1990) 18,604.