Crawford County, Ohio

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

County Seat: Bucyrus
Year Organized: 1820
Square Miles: 402

Court House:

112 East Mansfield Street
County Courthouse
Bucyrus, OH 44820-2349

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Residents chose the name Crawford in honor of William Crawford, a Revolutionary War hero, who was eventually burned at the stake by Indians in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten Massacre.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Crawford County formed on February 12, 1820. Residents chose the name Crawford in honor of William Crawford, a Revolutionary War hero, who was eventually burned at the stake by Indians in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten Massacre. The county also contains the headwaters of the Sandusky, Huron, Olentangy, and Scioto Rivers.

Crawford County is located in the north-central portion of Ohio. The county seat is Bucyrus. Bucyrus is the county's largest population center, with just over thirteen thousand residents in 2000, and it is also home to a yearly bratwurst festival. The county's next largest community is Galion, with a population of approximately 11,300 people in 2000. The county experienced almost a two percent drop in population between 1990 and 2000, leaving a final population of 46,966 residents. This decline is typical for Ohio's other rural counties as well, as many residents are seeking better lives and more opportunities in the state's larger cities. An average of 117 people live in each of Crawford County's 402 square miles.

Crawford County is heavily rural, with urban areas comprising less than two percent of the county's land mass. Most residents find employment in manufacturing establishments, with sales and service-oriented positions falling a distant second and third. The main products manufactured in the county are machinery, steel vaults, rubber hose, and heavy road equipment. In fourth, agriculture employs approximately 2,500 people. The county's average income was approximately twenty-two thousand dollars per person in 1999, with just over ten percent of the population living in poverty.

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

Sources

Crawford County, Ohio History Central, July 23, 2008,

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1917&nm=Crawford-County

Neighboring Counties:

Seneca County (north)
Huron County (northeast)
Richland County (east)
Morrow County (southeast)
Marion County (southwest)
Wyandot County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Auburn	township
- Bucyrus (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Chatfield	village	Incorporated Area
- Cranberry	township
- Crestline	city	Incorporated Area
- Dallas	township
- Galion	city	Incorporated Area
- Holmes	township
- Liberty	township
- New Washington	village	Incorporated Area
- North Robinson	village	Incorporated Area
- Texas	township
- Tiro	village	Incorporated Area
- Tod	township
- Whetstone	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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