Bucyrus, Ohio

the following is taken from
"OUR TOWN" Bucyrus, Ohio - 1976 Bicentennial Issue

     The name Bucyrus has been the subject to much research to discover why it was so named. An examination of the original contract between Mr. Norton and Col. Kilbourne will prove that the town was named Bucyrus from the beginning. It was spelled the same way in the first legal papers of the village.
     Col. Kilbourne desired to have a name for this town different from that of any place inhabited by man since the world was created. He succeeded. Some say that one of Col. Kilbourne's favorite historical characters was Cyrus, the Persian general, and that the town was named for him. The country around this town was very beautiful so Col. Kilbourne prefixed the syllable "bu" for beautiful declaring that the name should mean beautiful Cyrus." Other authorities including John Hopley in his HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY, say that Bucyrus is an Egyptian word, the name being derived from Busiris, a city of ancient Egypt  near the Nile. The word pleased his fancy and he changed it to Bucyrus as a good sounding name.
     When Samuel Norton, from Pennsylvania, reached Bucyrus in October 1819, the party consisted of eighteen persons: Samuel Norton, his wife Mary; three daughters, Louisa, Catherine and Elizabeth; three sons, Rensselaer, Warren and Waldo; Mr. Albigence Bucklin, a brother of Mrs. Norton, and his wife and six children, and an adopted daughter, Polly. The eighteenth person was Seth Holmes who guided them here. He had been through this region as a teamster in the War of 1812.
     On arriving here they found an old wigwam standing in the woods in what is now the court house yard. This they occupied for three days while the men built a log cabin. It was of round logs and was built on the banks of the Sandusky just west of the Sandusky Avenue bridge on the old Shonert property. A cabin similar to this was built for the Bucklin family north of Mansfield street just west of the T. and O.C. embankment. The pioneers were as comfortably situated as possible for their first winter; the Nortons and Bucklins in their cabins, Seth Holmes in the wigwam. Seth Holmes was Bucyrus' first old bachelor.
     Whether Mr. Norton realized it or not, the site he Selected is situated on the dividing line or highest ridge of the state. Water in one part of the city flows south to the Ohio, Mississippi, and on to the Gulf of Mexico. In the other part it flows north to the Sandusky and Lake Erie.
     When Norton first settled on the land it had been surveyed-but it was not entered for sale. As soon as it was open for purchase Norton went to Delaware on horseback and entered 400 acres on which the central part of Bucyrus still stands. Returning home, he gave Mr. Bucklin the 80 acres where he resided. He promised him that amount if he would come to Ohio. Mrs. Norton refused to make the trip unless her brother and his family came along. February 11, 1820, that first winter, a daughter, Sophronia, was born to the Nortons, the first white child born in Bucyrus.
     Mr. Norton built himself another log cabin on the southeast corner of Galen and Spring. This was much larger, a double log cabin, two rooms downstairs, two front windows,- a spacious loft. The chimney, for six feet, was actually- built of stone. It was the palatial residence of the county, one that well became the future founder of Bucyrus.

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Also for a short history of Crawford County

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