Settled in 1833, Arcadia was one of the last permanent villages established in eastern Hancock County. Pioneers Ambrose, David, and Ephriam Peters laid out the farming village on the south edge of Wild Cat Thicket, where they found the resident Wyandot Indians friendly and helpful. A Methodist Episcopal Society was established in 1833, a first log schoolhouse stood by 1855, and 135 lots were laid out in 1859, when Arcadia was incorporated. Soon afterward, the Lake Erie & Western and the New York Chicago & St. Louis railroads entered the village. By 1863 four physicians were in practice, a Lutheran church was built in 1872, and in the 1880s the village had two hotels, a drug store, a broom factory, and a handle factory in business. In 1889 a coal-gas plant provided heat and light, Reeves Park was located on the east edge of town in the 1900s, and an electric plant was established in 1916.