Geauga County, Ohio

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

County Seat: Chardon
Year Organized: 1805
Square Miles: 404

Court House:

231 Main Street
County Courthouse
Chardon, OH 44024-1263

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The county is named for an Indian word for “raccoon.”

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

On December 31, 1805, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Geauga County. It originally was a portion of Trumbull County and was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The county is named for an Indian word for “raccoon.”

Geauga County is located in the northeastern corner of Ohio and covers almost 404 square miles. The county has grown dramatically in recent years, as residents of nearby Cleveland in Cuyahoga County have moved to Geauga and surrounding counties to escape the busyness of the city. Between 1990 and 2000, Geauga County’s population increased by 12.1 percent to a total of 90,895 residents in 2000. Chester Township is the largest community in the county, with almost eleven thousand residents in 2000. The county seat of Chardon ranked a distant seventh in size, with just over 5,100 residents in 2000. The county averages 225 residents per square mile.

Geauga County is overwhelmingly rural, but most residents earn their livings by working in manufacturing, sales, or service positions. Farming is a distant fourth, although county residents produce almost all of Ohio’s maple syrup or other maple products, earning Geauga the nickname “Ohio’s Sweetest County.” Many residents also commute to Cleveland to work. The county’s average income was approximately thirty-four thousand dollars per person in 1999, with five percent of the population living in poverty.

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

Ohio Governor Seabury Ford ranks among Geauga County’s most famous residents.

Sources

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

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1932&nm=Geauga-County

Neighboring Counties:

Lake County (north)
Ashtabula County (northeast)
Trumbull County (southeast)
Portage County (south)
Cuyahoga County (west)
Summit County (southwest corner)

Cities and Towns:

- Aquilla	village	Incorporated Area
- Auburn	township
- Bainbridge	village	Incorporated Area
- Burton	village	Incorporated Area
- Chagrin Falls	village	Incorporated Area
- Chardon (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Claridon	township
- Hambden	township
- Huntsburg	township
- Middlefield	village	Incorporated Area
- Montville	township
- Munson	township
- Newbury	township
- Parkman	township
- Russell	township
- Thompson	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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