Ohio State Facts & Information

The following list of county Pages list some of the following: year the county was created; if different, the year it was fully organized for record keeping (in parentheses); and the parent county from which it was formed. Under parent county are some county names with an (*) indicating records may also be found there since the county may have been “attached” to those other counties for some period in its history.

The date listed for each record category is the earliest record known to exist in that county. It does not indicate that there are numerous records for that year and certainly does not indicate that all such events that year were actually registered. In some cases there may be lapses in records after the beginning year listed. For example, Adams County has birth and death records beginning in 1888—but only through 1893.

Ohio Burned Courthouses

 

The destruction of courthouses greatly affects genealogists in every way. No only are these historic structures torn from our lives, so are the records they housed: marriage, wills, probate, land records, and others. Once destroyed they are lost forever. Even if they have been placed on mircofilm, computers and film burn too. The most heartbreaking side of this is the fact that many of our courthouses are destroyed at the hands of arsonist. However, not all records were lost.

Below is a list of Ohio Counties and the years the Courthouses were subjected to a disaster. This does NOT mean that ALL RECORDS were lost. Often, folks took their documents again in for recording after a disaster and later deeds will contain long chains of title, etc.

• Adams, 1910;
• Belmont, 1980;
• Brown, 1977;
• Champaign, 1948;
• Columbiana, 1976;
• Crawford, 1831;
• Delaware, 1835;
• Fayette, 1828;
• Franklin, 1879;
• Fulton, before 1860;
• Gallia, 1981;
• Hamilton, 1814, 1849, 1884;
• Henry, 1847;
• Licking, 1875;
• Monroe, 1840, 1867;
• Seneca, 1841;
• Trumbull, 1895.

Ohio State History

 

Ohio, one of the East North Central states of the United States. Ohio is located on several main routes between the eastern and western United States. Therefore it attracted settlers from all parts of the country and developed a culture significant for its diversity. Ohio first developed as an agricultural region, and more than half of the land is still devoted to growing crops and raising livestock. The state’s position on major east-west highways and railroads and its access to Lake Erie and the Ohio River, however, offered a large potential market for industrial production. This strategic location, combined with the presence of abundant natural resources and potential sources of power, made possible the rise of the industrial concentrations that have made Ohio a leading industrial state.

  Ohio takes its name from the Ohio River, which forms the southern and southeastern and part of the eastern boundaries of the state. The word Ohio is thought to derive from an Iroquois word meaning either great or beautiful river. Ohio is popularly nicknamed the Buckeye State because of the many buckeye trees that grew within its borders when settlers arrived. Some of the trees, a variety of horse chestnut, were used to build log cabins. The nickname Mother of Modern Presidents refers to the fact that Ohio was the birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding.

Ohio entered the Union on March 1, 1803, as the 17th state. Columbus is Ohio’s capital and largest city. Cleveland is at the heart of Ohio’s largest metropolitan area. The Official State Website is http://www.ohio.gov/

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, the French explorer, traveled through Ohio land in 1667 and is thought to have been the first white person to see the Ohio River. Eighty years later, in 1747, the Ohio Company of Virginia was organized to colonize the Ohio River Valley, leading to the creation of the Ohio Land Company two years later. Great Britain gained control of the region following the French and Indian War in 1763 but lost it again in 1779.

The establishment of Northwest Territory in 1787 marked the beginning of a steady stream of migration. Scots-Irish from Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio settled mainly in Marietta in Washington County. New Englanders and Revolutionary War soldiers, most of them from Massachusetts and Ohio, arrived in that same area followed by Essex County, New Jersey, people, who settled in Cincinnati in an area called the Symmes Purchase. French immigrants settled in Gallipolis, Gallia County, from 1790 through 1791. Additional Ohio migrations occurred in 1796-97, settling in the Ohio Western Reserve. Others from Ohio and Vermont settled in what became Geauga County three years later. Clermont County was the new home of those from Maine in 1796, the same year that emigrants from Scotland arrived in Montgomery County. In 1796 the Refugee Tract was established in Columbus for Canadians who sympathized with the American Revolution. Three years later Ohio Territory was created, followed in 1800 by the first Ohio territorial census and the opening of the first land offices at Marietta, Steubenville, Chillicothe, and Cincinnati. The territory became a state in 1803.

The influx of new settlers continued, with Germans and Welsh from Ohio, plus additional migrations from Kentucky and Virginia. Statehood was rapidly achieved in 1803. Three years later the United Society of Believers of Christ's Second Appearing (Shakers) migrated to Warren County. Germans settled in Brown and Tuscarawas counties from 1814 through 1824. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 was an opportunity for those in the northeastern United States to migrate to Ohio. The Mormons (see Church Records) arrived in Ohio in 1831. English and Irish emigrated to Ohio for railroad construction employment in the 1840s. By 1860, Ohio's extensive railroad construction provided more miles of track than any other state.

Ohio was intensely involved with the abolitionist movement prior to the Civil War having considerable activity in the Underground Railroad along Lake Erie and the Ohio River. Following the Civil War, the state gained national political power, producing seven United States presidents. As an agricultural and industrial state, some early industries were barrel-making and meat packing. The American Federation of Labor formed there in the 1880s. The industrialization and urbanization of Ohio brought new residents from eastern and southern Europe and blacks from southern states. Mining became increasingly important with products of coal, limestone, and salt.

Twelve to fifteen thousand native inhabitants were said to have been living in Ohio country when the first European settlers arrived. The Miami lived in the western part of Ohio, and the Wyandotte were in the northwest. The Huron, the Ottawa, and the Seneca were also in the northwest. The Shawnee tribe was located in the lower Scioto Valley, the Delaware in the Muskingum Valley, the Tuscarora in the northeastern section of that valley, and the Mingo occupied the east.

In the mid-1700s, the French and the English began their long struggle for possession of the region. The English victory was followed by the battles of the American Revolution; the native inhabitants of Ohio were tragically involved in both of these wars. When the bloodshed was over between the two European factions, the contest for the land began in earnest between white and native. By the end of the Revolutionary War, still unwilling to give up their domain, the natives struggled to maintain their lands for twelve long years. In the summer of 1794, at the battle at Fallen Timbers, Anthony Wayne and his well-trained troops totally defeated the Native Americans of Ohio. The following year, in August of 1795, a treaty was negotiated-the final step in taking away native home lands. The last group of Native Americans left northwestern Ohio in 1833.