Fayette County, Ohio

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

County Seat: Washington Court House
Year Organized: 1810
Square Miles: 407

Court House:

110 East Court Street
County Courthouse
Washington Court House, OH 43160-1355

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Residents named the county in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French officer who aided the Americans during the Revolutionary War.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

On February 19, 1810, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Fayette County. The county was originally parts of Ross and Highland Counties. Residents named the county in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French officer who aided the Americans during the Revolutionary War.

Fayette County is located in south central Ohio. It is predominantly rural, with less than one percent of the county's 407 square miles consisting of urban areas. The county seat is Washington Court House. With a population of 13,524 people, Washington Court House was the county's largest community in 2000. The next largest urban area, Union township, had only 3,808 residents that same year. Fayette County experienced a slight increase in population -- roughly 3.5 percent -- between 1990 and 2000, raising the total number of residents to 28,433 people. The county averages less than seventy people per square mile.

The largest employers in Fayette County are sales establishments, with manufacturing positions a distant second. Farming, government careers, and service industries, such as health care and communications, are virtually equal, finishing a distant third, fourth, and fifth to sales and manufacturing positions. Interestingly, Fairfield County residents are famous for their horse breeding. The county is home to one of the best standard-bred breeding facilities in the United States. Residents also raise Hereford Cattle, among several other types of animals. In 1999, the per capita income in the county was approximately 20,600 dollars, with twelve percent of the people living in poverty.

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

Sources

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

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1927&nm=Fayette-County

Neighboring Counties:

Madison County (north)
Pickaway County (northeast)
Ross County (southeast)
Highland County (south)
Clinton County (southwest)
Greene County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Bloomingburg	village	Incorporated Area
- Jeffersonville	village	Incorporated Area
- Milledgeville	village	Incorporated Area
- Octa	village	Incorporated Area
- Paint	township
- Washington Court House (County Seat)

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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