Ottawa is a village and the county seat of Putnam County, Ohio, United States. It is located about 51 miles southwest of Toledo. The population is 4,456 as of the 2020 census. The region was long inhabited by the Iroquoian-speaking Wyandot and Algonquian-speaking Ottawa tribes, who settled along the Blanchard River. In 1792 President George Washin…Ottawa is a village and the county seat of Putnam County, Ohio, United States. It is located about 51 miles southwest of Toledo. The population is 4,456 as of the 2020 census. The region was long inhabited by the Iroquoian-speaking Wyandot and Algonquian-speaking Ottawa tribes, who settled along the Blanchard River. In 1792 President George Washington sent Major Alexander Truman, his servant William Lynch, and guide/interpreter William Smalley on a peace mission to the tribes. Truman and Lynch were killed; the date of their deaths was apparently prior to April 20, 1792, at Lower Tawa Town, an Ottawa village. {The Ottawa County Courthouse stands on the site of their killings) A similar mission led by Colonel John Hardin ended with Hardin and his servant Freeman being killed in Shelby County; the tribes resisted European-American encroachment.