Maasdam, Ohio, population 26,529, is situated on Ohio Route 57 at Erhart Road, approximately half way between Medina and Grafton. 
It was created along with its history in 2015, by an act of authorial eminent domain. The author expresses his regrets to those whose farms and homes have been displaced by his authorial sovereignty.
Maasdam was founded by Dutch immigrant Diederik Smit in 1890 when he located his engineering and manufacturing company, Smithton Industries, at the site. The plant adjoined the Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling Railroad, which ran northwest through Medina, linked at Grafton with the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad running northeast into Cleveland, and continued on to Lorain on Lake Erie, linking with main east-west rail lines along the way.
Smit named the town after his home town of Maasdam, a suburb of Rotterdam. The earliest settlers were Dutch Calvinist immigrants coming to work for Smit, their fellow religionist. Over the years the town has developed additional economic infrastructure, including Maasdam College. Besides the people who are employed at Smithton Industries and the College, many are employed by small local businesses. Others work in Medina, Grafton and other southern suburbs of Cleveland, as well as in Cleveland and Akron. Cleveland-Hopkins Airport is about 8 miles NNE as a helicopter flies, and 35 minutes drive time via Avon-Belding Rd and State Route 10. Its current population is about 70 percent White, 15 percent Black, and 15 percent Latino.