When did Ontario get founded?
Ontario, Oregon
Ontario was founded on June 11, 1883, by developers William Morfitt, Mary Richardson, Daniel Smith, and James Virtue. In March 1884, Richard Welch started a post office for the quarter of Ontario, so named by James Virtue after Ontario, Canada. Two months later Joseph Morton applied for a Morton post office at an island about one mile south of town, with Oscar Scott as postmaster. Unfortunately for Morton and Scott, merchants Morfitt and Richardson of Malheur City, gold miner Virtue, and lumberman Smith of Baker City acquired more land and were better financed. More importantly, Morfitt had negotiated a train depot for Ontario. All the settlers and speculators knew the railroad was coming and how important that would be to Ontario's future so Scott closed his Morton post office and built a hotel at present-day Ontario. By December, Scott was Ontario's postmaster.
Ontario, Ohio
Ontario was founded by Hiram Cook, and was platted in December 1834 as a settlement in Springfield Township near Mansfield. During that same month thereafter, the original settlement of Ontario merged with New Castle, another small settlement that was originally located just to the west of the Ontario settlement along the Mansfield and Bucyrus route (known today as State Route 309) that had just been laid out and platted. New Castle was named for Henry Cassell, while others stated that it was named in honor of Newcastle upon Tyne, a city in England. Ontario was named after Ontario County, New York, the native place of the founder of the town. In 1863, the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad (later Erie Railroad mainline) reached Ontario and a train station was built, but was later demolished after much of the railway was abandoned in the late 20th century.