Lake County, Ohio

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

County Seat: Painesville
Year Organized: 1840
Square Miles: 228

Court House:

P.O. Box 490
County Courthouse
Painesville, OH 44077-0490

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The county is named for Lake Erie, which forms Lake County’s northern border.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

On March 6, 1840, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Lake County. It originally was a portion of Geauga and Cuyahoga Counties. It also was originally part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The county is named for Lake Erie, which forms Lake County’s northern border. Among the county’s earliest white settlers were the Mormons, who established a temple at Kirtland in 1833. Due to the opposition of their neighbors, many Mormons eventually fled from Ohio, moving further west.

Lake County is located in northeastern Ohio and covers 228 square miles. It is the smallest county territorially in Ohio. The county has grown dramatically in recent years, as residents of nearby Cleveland in Cuyahoga County have moved to Lake and surrounding counties to escape the busyness of the city. Between 1990 and 2000, Lake County’s population increased by 5.6 percent to a total of 227,511 residents in 2000. Mentor is the largest community in the county, with over fifty thousand residents in 2000. The county seat of Painesville ranked a distant fourth in size, with just over 17,500 residents in 2000. The county averages 998 residents per square mile.

Lake County is overwhelmingly rural, but most residents earn their livings by working in manufacturing, sales, or service positions. Farming ranks eighth. Tourism is a major industry for the county. Lake County is well known for its fish, including walleye, steelhead trout, and jumbo perch. The county is also home to the Holden Arboretum, which some people claim is the largest arboretum in the United States. The county’s average income was approximately twenty-nine thousand dollars per person in 1999, with 5.7 percent of the population living in poverty.

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

United States President James A. Garfield ranks among Lake County’s most famous residents. Ohio Governor Samuel Huntington was born in the county

Sources

Lake County, Ohio History Central, July 24, 2008,

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1955&nm=Lake-County

Neighboring Counties:

Across Lake Erie lies Elgin County, Ontario, Canada (north)
Ashtabula County (east)
Geauga County (south and east)
Cuyahoga County (south and west)

Cities and Towns:

- Concord	township
- Eastlake	city	Incorporated Area
- Fairport Harbor	village	Incorporated Area
- Grand River	village	Incorporated Area
- Kirtland	city	Incorporated Area
- Kirtland Hills	village	Incorporated Area
- Lakeline	village	Incorporated Area
- Leroy	township
- Madison	village	Incorporated Area
- Mentor	city	Incorporated Area
- Mentor-on-the-Lake	city	Incorporated Area
- North Perry	village	Incorporated Area
- Painesville (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Perry	village	Incorporated Area
- Timberlake	village	Incorporated Area
- Waite Hill	village	Incorporated Area
- Wickliffe	city	Incorporated Area
- Willoughby	city	Incorporated Area
- Willoughby Hills	city	Incorporated Area
- Willowick	city	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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