Editing Bryan, Ohio (section)

==History==
[[Image:BryanOhioEastSide1910.jpg|left|thumb|Bryan, Ohio, The East Side, 1910 or before]]
Bryan was [[plat]]ted in 1840 by [[John A. Bryan]], and named for him.<ref name="holidaycityohio.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.holidaycityohio.org/county_information.htm |title=Template |access-date=2015-11-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222014315/http://www.holidaycityohio.org/county_information.htm |archive-date=2014-02-22 }}</ref> It was incorporated as a [[Village (United States)|village]] in 1841, and reincorporated as a [[city]] in 1941.

Williams County was originally part of [[Defiance County, Ohio|Defiance County]], with [[Defiance, Ohio|Defiance]] as the county seat.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1901|title=Bryan, Ohio - Ohio History Central|website=www.ohiohistorycentral.org|access-date=19 April 2018}}</ref> The area was later split into Williams and Defiance counties.  Bryan was named the seat for the new county,<ref name="holidaycityohio.org"/> but not without conflict; the village of [[Montpelier, Ohio|Montpelier]] was considered a more centralized location. The people of Montpelier petitioned the state legislature, but in the end Bryan was named county seat because of its greater industrial and commercial importance and because of its higher population. To this day, many people still argue about the state's decision and a rivalry of sorts remains between the two communities.

A strip of Williams County north of Bryan was originally part of a conflict known as the [[Toledo War]], between Ohio and [[Michigan]]. Both states claimed the land, the [[Toledo Strip]], which was named for the port city of [[Toledo, Ohio|Toledo]] at its eastern end. The conflict was eventually resolved in favor of Ohio, with Michigan being compensated with what is now the western [[Upper Peninsula of Michigan|Upper Peninsula]].

The Williams County Courthouse downtown was completed in 1891.  It is the third courthouse to occupy the property.<ref name="holidaycityohio.org"/>

The [[Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway]], later absorbed into the [[New York Central Railroad]] as part of its Chicago mainline, began serving Bryan in 1869. Due to the New York Central's line between [[Stryker, Ohio]] and [[Butler, Indiana]], being both straight and flat, on July 23, 1966, Bryan was a mid-point of a record-setting speed run by a New York Central [[Budd Rail Diesel Car|RDC-3]], [[M-497 Black Beetle]], modified with a pair of jet engines. The car reached a speed of {{convert|183.68|mph|km/h|1|abbr=on}}, an American rail speed record that still stands today.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Truscott |first1=Tim |year= 2010|title= Some Earlier High Speed Rail Accomplishments|journal=The ESPA Express |publisher= The Empire State Passengers Association|volume=34 |issue=4|pages=8 }}</ref> From 1905 to 1939, Bryan was also the western terminus for the [[Toledo and Indiana Railway]], an interurban that began operation between Toledo and Stryker in 1901.