Chillicothe, Ohio

City: Chillicothe

County: Ross

State: Ohio

Lat/Long: 39.3167, -82.9667

Located on the Scioto River, forty-four miles south of Columbus, Chillicothe is the county seat of Ross County, Ohio. Originally home to numerous Native American nations, the area that would become Chillicothe was a hotbed of conflicting claims and jurisdictions prior to the American Revolution, as the French, British, and Native Americans struggled for sovereignty and ascendancy. After the Revolution, the United States assumed control, and after the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, white settlers began moving into the region. In 1796, proprietors laid out Chillicothe, and when the Territorial Legislature of the Northwest Territory incorporated Ross County in 1798, the legislators selected Chillicothe as the county seat. In May 1800, Congress made Chillicothe the capital of the Northwest Territory. In 1802, the territorial legislature incorporated Chillicothe as a town, and the Ohio Legislature followed suit in 1804. It served as the capital of the state of Ohio from statehood in 1803 to 1810, and again from 1812 to 1816. In 1838, the Ohio Legislature incorporated Chillicothe as a city.

Lyle S. Evans, ed., A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio (Chicago and New York: Lewis, 1917), 1:16-50, 51, 52, 53-54, 219, 272, 274; Webster's New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 256.