Maria Stein is situated in Southern Mercer County, in Marion Township. State Route 119 runs through the community. Maria Stein is in the Marion Local school district.

It was on the 13th day of October, 1833, that three German immigrants and their families arrived in Marion Township, Mercer County, from Baltimore. They met in Baltimore, became friends and decided to settle in the same community. The names of the three settlers were John Leistenschneider, John Stelzer and John Thomas, the latter being Protestant. The 1882 History of Van Wert and Mercer Counties, Ohio, states that John and Margaret Leistenschneider had seven children when they arrived. The three men all being named John made the selection of a name easy. Possibly, the name of St. John had been decided upon already when they left Baltimore. It was also that day that a man named John was ordained Bishop of Cincinnati; Right Reverend John Purcell.

Families kept coming continuously and as early as 1835 St. John had some 25 families. The settlers moving into the community (Marion and Granville Townships) came from the "Low Countries," of northern Germany and spoke "Plattdeutsch." They came mostly from a rather small area in Southern Oldenburg, and adjoining area of Hanover.

In 1845 and 1846 Father Brunner arrived in St. John and built a Convent north of St. John, and called in Maria Stein. Eventually, the town of St. John was called Maria Stein, and when the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad arrived in the 1881, the western half of the town was called Maria Stein Station. In 1923, the Railroad left and the whole town was known as Maria Stein.

In 1883, the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad reached Maria Stein; businesses grew and farmers prospered.

In 1899, Joseph Oppenheim founded the New Idea Spreader Company which built manure spreaders. The entire operation was moved to Coldwater in 1910 and was called New Idea Spreader Works.

John M. Kramer and others started the Marion Telephone Co. in 1899.

Maria Stein had a log school house, wooden shoe factory, blacksmith shop, general store, post office, undertaking business, dry goods store, doctor's office, machine shop, butter tub factory, and grain elevator.