Adams County, Ohio

Adams County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: West Union
Year Organized: 1797
Square Miles: 584

Court House:

110 West Main Street
County Courthouse
West Union, OH 45693-1347

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The county was named after John Adams, the President of the United States in 1797

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Arthur St. Clair established Adams County on July 10, 1797. He named the county after John Adams, the President of the United States in 1797. It was one of the first four counties created in the Northwest Territory. In 1795, Nathaniel Massie founded Manchester, the first permanent white settlement in Adams County.

Adams County is a rural area, located approximately fifty miles east of Cincinnati along the Ohio River. It consists of 625 square miles of land. West Union is the county seat and it is the largest town in the county. In 2000 the population of West Union was just over 2,900 people. The county averages forty-seven people per square mile. Approximately eighty percent of the residents find employment in service industries. These industries include medical care, utilities, and communications. Just over seven percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, and especially in dairy farming. The average income per person in 1999 was just over sixteen thousand dollars. Adams County is one of the poorest counties in Ohio. Approximately eighteen percent of all residents live in poverty. Many residents describe the county as the "Edge of Appalachia." Politically, the county's residents are predominantly Republican.

Serpent Mound, an Indian earthwork and an Ohio Historical Society site, is located in Adams County.

Sources

Adams County Ohio History Central, July 23, 2008,

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1888&nm=Adams-County

Neighboring Counties:

Highland County (north)
Pike County (northeast)
Scioto County (east)
Lewis County, Kentucky (south)
Mason County, Kentucky (southwest)
Brown County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Blue Creek	township
- Bratton	township
- Brush Creek	township
- Cherry Fork	village	Incorporated Area
- Liberty	township
- Manchester	village	Incorporated Area
- Meigs	township
- Oliver	township
- Peebles	village	Incorporated Area
- Seaman	village	Incorporated Area
- Sprigg	township
- West Union (County Seat)	village	Incorporated Area
- Winchester	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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