Hancock County, Ohio

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

County Seat: Findlay
Year Organized: 1820
Square Miles: 531

Court House:

300 South Main Street
County Courthouse
Findlay, OH 45840-3309

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Residents named the county in honor of John Hancock, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

On February 12, 1820, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Hancock County. Residents named the county in honor of John Hancock, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Previously, the county had been part of land reserved to Ohio's Indian people, under the Treaty of Greeneville.

Hancock County is located in northwestern Ohio. It is predominantly rural, with only 1.4 percent of the county's 531 square miles consisting of urban areas. The county seat is Findlay. With a population of 38,967 people, Findlay was the county's largest community in 2000. Many residents of Ohio's rural communities are seeking better lives and more opportunities in the state's cities, but Hancock County seems to be growing dramatically in population. Hancock County experienced an 8.8 percent population growth rate between 1990 and 2000, bringing the total number of residents up to 71,295. The county averages 135 people per square mile.

The largest employers in Hancock County are manufacturing businesses, followed closely by sales positions and service industries. During the late nineteenth century, county residents earned their livings drilling for natural gas. By the early twentieth centuries, the residents had extracted the natural gas, ending this industry in the county. In 1999, the per capita income in the county was just over twenty-eight thousand dollars, with 7.3 percent of the people living in poverty.

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

Among Hancock County's more prominent residents were Ohio Governor Joseph Vance and songwriter Tell Taylor.

Sources

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

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1939&nm=Hancock-County

Neighboring Counties:

Wood County (north)
Seneca County (northeast)
Wyandot County (southeast)
Hardin County (south)
Allen County (southwest)
Putnam County (west)
Henry County (northwest corner)

Cities and Towns:

- Allen	township
- Arcadia	village	Incorporated Area
- Arlington	village	Incorporated Area
- Benton Ridge	village	Incorporated Area
- Biglick	township
- Blanchard	township
- Cass	township
- Eagle	township
- Findlay (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Jenera	village	Incorporated Area
- Liberty	township
- McComb	village	Incorporated Area
- Mount Blanchard	village	Incorporated Area
- Mount Cory	village	Incorporated Area
- Pleasant	township
- Rawson	village	Incorporated Area
- Van Buren	village	Incorporated Area
- Vanlue	village	Incorporated Area

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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