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GENERAL DESCRIPTION

OF

THE STATE OF OHIO.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.

NAME; BOUNDARIES; SITUATION & EXTENT; DIVISIONS NOMENCLATURE OF COUNTIES & TOWNS; PRINCIPAL TOWNS; POPULATION; FINANCIAL STATISTICS; RELIGION; CHARACTER & MANNERS; LITERATURE, COLLEGES & SCHOOLS; TRADE & MANUFACTURES; INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS; FORM OF GOVERNMENT; INDIAN TRIBES; ANTIQUITIES.

NAME. The name of the state of Ohio is derived from that, of the Ohio river which washes nearly all its eastern and southern borders; as will be seen by reference to the map. The name is of Indian, or aboriginal origin. Its signification, in the Indian language, is not satisfactorily ascertained. Some writers have imagined it to signify handsome river; because, about the middle of the eighteenth century, some French explorers of the country, who found the stream a pleasant one to sail upon, and fine lands along its borders, called it la belle riviere, or the beautiful river. But that circumstance could have had no influence with the Indians, at a more ancient period, in inducing them to give it a name of that signification. Another meaning, which has been.. attributed to the word Ohio, as applied by the Indians to this river, is bloody, from the circumstance of numerous bloody battles having been fought between many tribes. along its banks, in centuries past. Another definition,

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is also given, to wit: that it is an aspiration, indicati of severe exertion, among the Indians, as oho, or oh which they formerly used in paddling or pushing the skiffs and canoes up the river.-But, after all, these se eral definitions are however merely conjectural: and t reader must judge for himself, which, if either of the be correct.

BOUNDARIES.-The state of Ohio is bounded on t north by Michigan territory, and lake Erie, which se arates it from the British province of Upper Canad east by Pennsylvania and the Ohio river; south also b said river, which separates it from Virginia and Ke tucky; and on the west by Indiana. The Ohio river, its various windings, bounds this state, for a distance 436 miles.

SITUATION & EXTENT.-It is situated between 38 d grees 30 minutes, and 42 degrees of north latitude; an between 3 degrees 32 minutes, and 7 degrees 46 mir utes of west longitude from Washington city; or be tween 80 degrees 32 minutes, and 84 degrees 46 min utes of longitude west from London.-It is about 22 miles in extent, both from east to west, and from nort to south. But lake Erie projects so far into the norther borders, and the Ohio river cuts off so much of its south eastern quarter, that the state contains an area of but a small fraction over 200 miles square--which is equal to 40,000 square miles, of 25,600,000 acres.

DIVISIONS.-The greater part of the state is divided by nature, into four grand divisions, which are named after the principal rivers and other bodies of water, upon which they are respectively situated. They are the Miami country; the Scioto country; the Muskingum country, in the south; and the Lake country in the north, situated upon lake Erie and the waters emptying themselves into it.-These several natural divisions will be more fully treated of hereafter.

For civil purposes, the state is primarily divided into seventy-three counties; which, together with the dates of their organization, their number of square miles, the

Counties.

Adams,

July 1797

TABLE.

Organized. Sq. miles. T'ps. County seats.

550 10 West Union.

*Allen,

542

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NOTE. Those counties, with this mark [*] prefix

40,155 994

are not yet organized.

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