Ashland County, Ohio

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

County Seat: Ashland
Year Organized: 1846
Square Miles: 424

Court House:

110 Cottage Street
County Courthouse
Ashland, OH 44805-2114

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Residents chose the name in honor of Henry Clay, a prominent member of the Whig Party during this period.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Ashland County formed on February 24, 1846. Residents chose the name in honor of Henry Clay, a prominent member of the Whig Party during this period. Clay's home in Lexington, Kentucky, was named Ashland. Thomas Coulter established Perrysville, the first white settlement in Ashland County, in 1815, although individual whites had resided in the county for approximately fifty years before this date.

Ashland County is located in the north-central portion of Ohio. The county seat is Ashland. Ashland is the largest population center, with just over twenty-one thousand residents in 2000. This marked a five percent growth in the town's population since 1990, and the county experienced a ten percent growth, to a total population of 51,240 people, during this same time period. The county's next largest village is Loudounville, with a population of approximately 2,800 in 2000. An average of 124 people live in each of Ashland County's square miles.

The county is heavily rural, with farms comprising over sixty percent of Ashland County's 424 square miles. Ashland farmers rank fifth in oat production in Ohio and fourth in sheep raising. The next largest occupation is manufacturing, employing twenty-five percent of the county's work force. The county's average income was approximately 20,700 dollars per person in 1999, with just over eight percent of the population living in poverty.

Most voters in Ashland County claim to be independents, yet in recent years, they have overwhelmingly supported Republican candidates at the national level.

The county is home to Ashland University, founded by the United Brethren Church in 1879, and Mohican State Park. Among the counties most famous residents are John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) and Charles Kettering, an inventor. Ashland County residents Lorin Andrews was also the first Ohioan to volunteer for service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He eventually became president of Kenyon College.

Sources

Ashland County Ohio History Central, July 23, 2008,

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1890&nm=Ashland-County

Neighboring Counties:

Lorain County (north)
Medina County (northeast)
Wayne County (east)
Holmes County (southeast)
Knox County (southwest)
Richland County (west)
Huron County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Ashland (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Bailey Lakes	village	Incorporated Area
- Clear Creek	township
- Hayesville	village	Incorporated Area
- Jeromesville	village	Incorporated Area
- Lake	township
- Loudonville	village	Incorporated Area
- Milton	township
- Mohican	township
- Perrysville	village	Incorporated Area
- Polk	village	Incorporated Area
- Savannah	village	Incorporated Area
- Sullivan	township
- Vermillion	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

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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