St. Johns, OH

St. Johns is a census-designated place on the border of Clay and Union townships in Auglaize County, where U.S. Route 33 meets State Route 65. The community occupies the site of Blackhoof, a Shawnee village associated with the chief whose name remains on Blackhoof Creek and a memorial in the center of town. Daniel Bitler and John Rogers platted St. Johns in April 1835, and the name was chosen as a compromise between the founders' preferences. Bitler had already opened a store and blacksmith shop nearby, while the first post office followed in 1838.

That older Blackhoof layer is the part of St. Johns easy to miss if you only read the modern CDP label. The roads make it a practical stopping point between Wapakoneta and Indian Lake, but the community's character comes from the overlap of Indigenous history, early settlement, and a small crossroads town that never became a separate city. St. Johns is served by the Wapakoneta City School District and shares the surrounding farm-country landscape with the townships around it. The local scoop is that the name changed, but the creek and memorial keep the earlier place-name visible.