OHIO. 



295 



after the principal waters on winch they are situated. 

 They are the Miami country, the Scioto country, the 

 Muskingum country, and the Lake country. For 

 civil purposes, Ohio is divided into seventy-three 

 counties. In the greater part of the state, the towns 

 or villages are not situated in townships of the same 

 name ; but the New England custom of nearly iden- 

 tifying' town and township prevails in some parts of 

 Ohi~, which were settled principally from New Eng- 

 land. In many cases, also, the post-offices in Ohio 

 bear different names from the towns in which they 

 are situated. The largest city of Ohio is Cincinnati, 

 in the south-west corner of the state. Its population, 

 in 1830, was 24,431, according to the official census. 

 Another census of the same year made it 26,515, and, 

 in 1831, it contained 28,014. Columbus, the seat of 

 government, contained 2437 in 1830. Zancsville, 

 Dayton, Steubenville, and Chilicothe, are larger than 

 Columbus. The population of Ohio has increased, 

 and increases, with wonderful rapidity. In 1790 it 

 contained only 3000 inhabitants; in 1800, 45,365 ; 

 in 1810,230,760; in 1820,581,434; in 1830, 937,637. 

 There are remnants of several Indian tribes in Ohio, 

 amounting, in 1829, to 2350 persons. They then 

 owned 390,846 acres of land, besides 16,200 acres 

 which were secured to individuals of the several 

 tribes. These lands are secured by treaty to the 

 \V~yandots, Shawnees, Senecas, Delawares, and Otta- 

 was ; for the other remnants of tribes are classed with 

 these. The Delawares have sold their share, amount- 

 ing to 5760 acres. Considerable annuities are paid 

 by the national government to these tribes. Their 

 population gradually diminishes. There are verv 

 few negroes in Ohio, and none are held as slaves. 



The Presbyterians in this state have 346 churches, 

 and 22,150 communicants; the Baptists have 240 

 churches, and 8801 communicants ; the Methodists 

 have 36,064 members; the Lutherans have 8706 

 communicants ; the Associate Presbyterians have 

 sixty-five congregations, and 4225 communicants ; 

 the German Reformed have eighty-two congrega- 

 tions, and 3750 communicants; the Episcopalians 

 have sixteen ministers ; the New Jerusalem church 

 have four societies : there are also a considerable 

 number of Friends and Roman Catholics, and some 

 Universalists, Unitarians, and Shakers. There are 

 five colleges, in operation in Ohio, viz. the university 

 of Ohio, at Athens; Miami university, at Oxford; 

 Western Reserve, at Hudson; Kenyon, at Gambier, 

 and Franklin, at New Athens. There are no incor- 

 porated academies that are flourishing. Great atten- 

 tion is paid to common schools. An act passed by 

 the legislature in 1831 provides that a fund shall be 

 raised in the several counties in the state, for the use of 

 common schools, for the instruction of the white youth 

 of every class, without distinction, in reading, writ- 

 ing, and arithmetic, and other necessary branches of 

 education. An asylum for the deaf and dumb has 

 been established at Columbus, under the auspices of 

 the state. The principal domestic articles of trade 

 are horses, cattle, swine, whiskey, and flour. Those 

 articles which are exported from the northern and 

 some interior counties are frequently sent to the 

 Montreal and New York markets, by way of lake 

 Erie. From the southern parts of the state, they are 

 sent to New Orleans. The new canal from lake 

 Erie to the Ohio river will have a tendency to divert 

 the, trade from New Orleans to New York. (For a 

 description of the canals of Ohio, see the article 

 Canals.) Lake Erie bounds Ohio on the north 160 

 miles. Its whole length is 270 miles, and its average 

 breadtli from forty to fifty. Its circumference is 600 

 miles, and its area is 11,000 square miles. It affords 

 good navigation for steam-boats and schooners. The 

 principal rivers are the Maumee, Portaj^, Samlusky, 



Huron, Vermilion, Black, Rocky, Cuyahoga, Grand, 

 and Ashtabula, in the north; and the Mahoning, 

 Muskingum, Ilockhocking, Scioto, Little Miami, and 

 Great Miami, in the south. The Ohio river, and its 

 steam-boat navigation, will receive a separate de- 

 scription. 



The interior and northern parts of Ohio are gene- 

 rally level, and, in some places, marshy. About one 

 quarter of the eastern and south-eastern part, bor- 

 dering on the Ohio river, is very hilly and broken. 

 The hills are not, however, very large. Immediately 

 on the borders of the Ohio there are numerous tracts 

 of interval or meadow land of exuberant fertility. 

 In the interior parts, bordering on both sides of the 

 Scioto, and on the two Miamis, are the most exten- 

 sive bodies of rich and level land. In many places 

 are extensive prairies, particularly on the head 

 waters of the Muskingum arid Scioto, and between 

 the two Miamis. Several of these are low and 

 marshy, and others are elevated. The high prairies 

 are not fertile. Among the forest trees are black- 

 walnut, oak of various species, hickory, maple of 

 different kinds, beech, birch, poplar, sycamore, ash 

 of several species, pawpaw, buckeye, cherry, and 

 many which are less common. The soil and climate 

 are admirably suited to the most valuable vegetable 

 productions that grow in this latitude. Wheat, maize, 

 rye, and all other kinds of grain, grow here in great 

 perfection. Scarcely any part of the United States 

 is so productive, or affords so many of the natural 

 means for an easy and comfortable subsistence. The 

 summers are warm, and pretty regular, although 

 somewhat subject to tornadoes. In some parts, near 

 marshes and stagnant waters, fevers and agues fre- 

 quently prevail ; but the climate, in general, is de- 

 cidedly healthy. The general temperature, in that 

 part of the state which slopes to the south, is several 

 degrees warmer than in the same latitude in the 

 Atlantic states. In the Miami country, especially 

 about Cincinnati, green peas, and many other vege- 

 tables, are generally abundant in the markets be- 

 tween the first and twentieth of May. Snow seldom 

 falls deep enough for sleighing, or lasts more than 

 two or three days, in the southern half of the state ; 

 but there are generally two or three days of extremely 

 cold weather. In the counties bordering on lake 

 Erie, and for fifty milts back, there are often several 

 weeks of good sleighing. The winds of Ohio, 

 whether high or low, generally blow from the west 

 and south-west at all seasons. About one fifth part of 

 all the land in Ohio still belongs to the United 

 States. Settlers on this land will become citizens ut 

 Ohio; but the purchase-money belongs to the general 

 government. In the north-east part of the state is a 

 tract containing 3,300,000 acres, called New Con- 

 necticut, or Connecticut Western Reserve. The fee 

 of these lands is in the state of Connecticut, but Ohio 

 has the jurisdiction. This tract is divided into eight 

 counties, and is principally settled by emigrants from 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut. The state of Vir- 

 ginia also owns a tract of 4,204,800 acres, called 

 the Virginia Military Lands, and situated between 

 the Scioto and Little Miami rivers. This district is 

 not surveyed into townships, or in any regular form ; 

 and there are frequently many claimants to the same 

 lot, whose rights are not easily defined. Eight COJIH- 

 ties are situated wholly within this district, and a 

 part of fourteen others. 



The first permanent settlement in the state of 

 Ohio was made at Marietta, April 7, 1788, by forty- 

 seven persons from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and 

 Connecticut. The next year, a settlement was made 

 at Columbia, six miles above Cincinnati, by a com- 

 pany principally from Pennsylvania. In 1791, sev 

 eral French emigrants settled at Galliuolis. In Sep 



