Ohio and Erie Canal, former waterway of Ohio, 307 mi (494 km) long, between Lake Erie at Cleveland and the Ohio River at Portsmouth; built 1825-32. It utilized part of the courses of the Cuyahoga, Muskingum, and Scioto rivers and had 49 locks. It flourished as a means of transporting freight until the advent of the railroad era in the 1850s. The canal was responsible for the growth of cities along its route, especially Cleveland, Akron, and Columbus.

Ohio University, main campus at Athens; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1804, opened 1809 as the first college in the Old Northwest. There are additional campuses at Chiillicothe, Lancaster, and Zanesville, as well as facilities throughout the state. It has a noted university museum and a library that houses a special collection relating to the history of the Northwest Territory.

Ohio State University, main campus at Columbus; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1873 as Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, renamed 1878. There are also campuses at Lima, Mansfield, Marion, and Newark. The university maintains extensive scientific programs and facilities, as well as notable research programs in literature, medicine, the social sciences, computer technology, engineering, and agriculture. Its library houses many important collections relating to American literature and history, religion, geology, and linguistics. In collaboration with Ohio Wesleyan Univ., it operates the Perkins Observatory near Delaware, Ohio, and the Perkins telescope near Flagstaff, Ariz.

Ohio Company of Associates, organization for the purchase and settlement of lands on the Ohio River, founded at Boston in 1786. Its organizers were a group of New England men, most of them former American Revolutionary army officers. In July, 1787, one of the directors, Dr. Manasseh Cutler, was sent to New York to a meeting of Congress to negotiate the land purchase. There he shrewdly allied himself with a group of New York speculators led by William Duer, secretary of the U.S. Treasury Board. Congress desperately needed revenue, and the prospect of selling large tracts of land in Ohio hastened its passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. In order to conclude the matter quickly, Cutler suggested the appointment of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, then president of Congress, as governor of the Northwest Territory. On Oct. 27 two contracts were signed by Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Ohio Company. The first gave to the company 1,780,000 acres (720,340 hectares) of land at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers for a payment of $1 million in government securities, then worth about 12¢ specie to the dollar. The contract also provided that one section of land in every township be devoted to the maintenance of public schools, another section be set apart for religious uses, and two entire townships be reserved for a university. The second contract, made for William Duer, gave to the Scioto Company (as Duer and his associates were known) the option to buy 5,000,000 acres (2,023,428 hectares) of land on the Ohio and Scioto rivers. The Scioto Company's scheme was purely speculative, and its contract lapsed before any land was purchased. The Ohio Company, however, had a genuine plan of settlement. In Apr., 1788, Gen. Rufus Putnam, one of the directors, began settlement of the company's land and laid out Marietta. In 1796 the company divided its shares and ceased to be a significant land company.

Ohio Company, organization formed (1747) to extend settlements of Virginia westward. The members were mostly Virginia planters interested in land speculation and the fur trade. A royal charter (1749) granted the members 200,000 acres around the forks of the Ohio River, and in 1750 the company employed Christopher Gist to explore the Ohio valley. The first organized group to develop the region W of the Alleghenies, the company embarked on vigorous British colonial activity. The company's colonizing activities, however, were viewed by the French as a challenge to their claim to this region. The immediate rivalry helped to bring on the final French and Indian War. Later the Ohio Company merged its interests with another land company, but the American Revolution obstructed its plans.

Ohio, midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania (NE) West Virginia (SE), Kentucky (S), Indiana (W), and Michigan and Lake Erie (N).

Facts and Figures

Area, 41,222 sq mi (106,765 sq km). Pop. (2000) 11,353,140, a 4.7% increase since the 1990 census. Capital and largest city, Columbus. Statehood, Mar. 1, 1803 (17th state). Highest pt., Campbell Hill, 1,550 ft (473 m); lowest pt., Ohio River, 433 ft (132 m). Nickname, Buckeye State. Motto, With God, All Things Are Possible. State bird, cardinal. State flower, scarlet carnation. State tree, buckeye. Abbr., OH

Geography

From the dunes on Lake Erie to the gorge-cut plateau along the Ohio River, from which Ohio takes its name, the land is fairly flat, with some pleasant rolling country and, in the southeast, small rugged hills leading to the mountains of West Virginia. Before the coming of settlers to the state, it was covered with miles of virgin forest, but today only vestiges of the trees that helped to build the many cities remain. Columbus is the capital and largest city. Cleveland is the center of the state's largest metropolitan area. Other major cities are Cincinnati, Toledo, and Akron.

Economy

Ohio is highly industrialized, yet it also continues to draw economic riches from the earth. Among national leaders in the production of lime, clays, and salt, it is a historic center of ceramic and glass industries. Ohio's soil supports rich farms, especially where it was improved ages ago by additions of glacier-ground limestone. Although most of the state's income is derived from commerce and manufacturing, Ohio also has extensive farmland, and large amounts of corn, soybeans, hay, wheat, cattle, hogs, and dairy items are produced, although the number of family farms is rapidly dwindling.

Railroads, canals, and highways crisscrossing the state have since the late 19th cent. provided the means for transporting large amounts of raw materials and manufactures. Lake Erie ports, chiefly Toledo and Cleveland, handle iron and copper ore, coal, oil, and finished materials (including steel and automobile parts). In spite of massive industrial decline since the 1960s, which has made Ohio the center of the "Rust Belt," the state retains many manufacturing centers, with an emphasis on heavy industry. Leading products include transportation equipment, primary and fabricated metals, and machinery.

Government, Politics, and Higher Education

Ohio's present constitution was adopted in 1851. It has been amended many times, most notably in 1912 after a constitutional convention adopted such changes as progressive labor provisions and such measures as initiative, referendum, and the direct primary. The state's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term and permitted two successive terms. Ohio's general assembly has a senate with 33 members, elected for four-year terms, and a house with 99 members. The state elects 2 senators and 19 representatives to the U.S. Congress and has 21 electoral votes.

Republicans have predominated in Ohio politics since the Civil War, but the state has often supported Democratic candidates. George Voinovich, elected governor in 1990 and reelected in 1994, was succeeded by Bob Taft, a fellow Republican, elected in 1998 and reelected in 2002. A Democrat, Ted Strickland, was elected to the post in 2006.

Among the large number of institutions of higher learning in the state are Antioch Univ., at Yellow Springs; Bowling Green State Univ., at Bowling Green; Case Western Reserve Univ., at Cleveland; the College of Wooster, at Wooster; Kent State Univ., at Kent; Kenyon College, at Gambier; Miami Univ., at Oxford; Oberlin College, at Oberlin; Ohio State Univ., at Columbus; Ohio Univ., at Athens; Ohio Wesleyan Univ., at Delaware; the Univ. of Cincinnati; the Univ. of Toledo; and Wilberforce Univ., at Wilberforce.

History

Prehistory to the American Revolution

In prehistoric times Ohio was inhabited by the Mound Builders, many of whose mounds are preserved in state parks and in the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (see National Parks and Monuments, table). Before the arrival of Europeans, E Ohio was the scene of warfare between the Iroquois and the Erie, which resulted in the extermination of the Erie. In addition to the Iroquois, other Native American tribes soon prominent in the region were the Miami, the Shawnee, and the Ottawa.

La Salle began his explorations of the Ohio valley in 1669 and claimed the entire area for France. The Ohio River became a magnet for fur traders and landseekers, and the British, attempting to move in (see Ohio Company), hotly contested the French claims. Rivalry for control of the forks of the Ohio River led to the outbreak (1754) of the last of the French and Indian Wars. The defeat of the French gave the land to the British, but British possession was disturbed by Pontiac's Rebellion. The British government issued a proclamation in 1763 forbidding settlement W of the Appalachian Mts. Then in 1774, with the Quebec Act, the British placed the region between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes within the boundaries of Canada. The colonists' resentment over these acts contributed to the discontent that led to the American Revolution, during which military operations were conducted in the Ohio country.

From the Settlement of the Old Northwest to Statehood

Ohio was part of the vast area ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris (1783; see Paris, Treaty of). Conflicting claims to land in that area made by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia were settled by relinquishment of almost all of the claims (see Western Reserve) and the organization of the Old Northwest by the Ordinance of 1787. Ohio was the first region developed under the provisions of that ordinance, with the activities of the Ohio Company of Associates promoted by Rufus Putnam and Manasseh Cutler. Marietta, founded in 1788, was the first permanent American settlement in the Old Northwest.

In the years that followed, various land companies were formed, and settlers poured in from the East, either down the Ohio on flatboats and barges, or across the mountains by wagon—their numbers varying with conditions but steadily expanding the area's population. The Native Americans, supported by the British, resisted American settlement. They successfully opposed campaigns led by Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair but were decisively defeated by Anthony Wayne in the battle of Fallen Timbers (1794). The British thereafter (1796) withdrew their outposts from the Northwest under the terms of Jay's Treaty, and the area was pacified. Ohio became a territory in 1799. General St. Clair, as the first governor, ruled in an arbitrary fashion that made Ohioans for many years afterward distrustful of all government. In 1802 a state convention drafted a constitution, and in 1803 Ohio entered the Union, with Chillicothe as its capital. Columbus became the permanent capital in 1816.

The War of 1812 and Further Settlement

In the War of 1812 the Americans lost many of the early battles of the war that took place in the Old Northwest, and their military frontier was pushed back to the Ohio River. Two British attacks on Ohio soil were successfully resisted: one against Fort Meigs at the mouth of the Maumee River and the other against Fort Stephenson on the Sandusky. The area was further secured by Oliver Hazard Perry's naval victory on Lake Erie near Put-in-Bay, Ohio, and William Henry Harrison's victory in the battle of the Thames on Canadian soil.

After the war Ohio's growth was spurred by the building of the Erie Canal, other canals, and toll roads. The National Road was a vital settlement and commercial artery. Settlement of the Western Reserve by New Englanders (especially those from Connecticut) gives NE Ohio a decidedly New England cultural landscape. Ohio's society of small farmers exported their produce down the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers to St. Louis and New Orleans. In 1837 Ohio won a territorial struggle with Michigan usually called the Toledo War. The Loan Law, adopted in the Panic of 1837, encouraged railroad and industrial development. Railroads gradually succeeded canals, preparing the way for the industrial expansion that followed the Civil War.

The Civil War, Industrialization, and Politics

Most Ohioans were sympathetic with the Union in the Civil War, and many Ohioans served in the Union army. Native sons such as Joshua R. Giddings, Salmon P. Chase, and Edwin M. Stanton had long been prominent opponents of slavery. Nevertheless, the Peace Democrats, the Knights of the Golden Circle, and the Copperheads were very active; Clement L. Vallandigham drew many votes in the gubernatorial election of 1863. Ohio was the scene of the northernmost penetration of Confederate forces in the war—the famous raid (1863) of John Hunt Morgan, which terrorized the people of the countryside until Morgan and most of his men were finally captured in the southeast corner of the state.

After the Civil War industrial development grew rapidly when shipments of ore from the upper Great Lakes region increased and the development of the petroleum industry in NE Ohio shifted the center of economic activity from the banks of the Ohio River to the shores of Lake Erie, particularly around Cleveland. Immigrants began to swell the population, and huge fortunes were made.

Ohio became very important politically. The state contributed seven American presidents: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding. Big business and politics became entwined as in the relations of Marcus A. Hanna and McKinley. City bosses such as Cincinnati's George B. Cox also followed this pattern. The state as a whole was for many years steadily Republican, despite the rise of organized labor in the late 19th cent. and considerable labor strife. In the 1890s the reform-minded mayor of Toledo, Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones, won national fame for his espousal of city ownership of municipal utilities.

Twentieth-Century Developments

Floods in the many rivers flowing to the Ohio and in the Ohio River itself have long been a problem; a devastating flood in 1913 led to the establishment of the Miami valley conservation project. Continuing long-term state and federal projects have improved locks and dams along the entire length of the Ohio and its major tributaries, for navigation as well as flood control purposes.

Both farms and industries in Ohio were hard hit by the Great Depression that began in 1929. In the 1930s the state was wracked by major strikes such as the sit-down strikes in Akron (1935-36) and the so-called Little Steel strike (1937). World War II brought great prosperity to Ohio, but labor strife later resumed, as in the steel strikes of 1949 and 1959. Political unrest also affected the state in the protests of the 1960s and most violently in 1970 when four students were killed by national guardsmen who fired on a group of Vietnam War protesters at Kent State Univ.

Ohio's economy went into massive decline in the 1970s and 80s as the automobile, steel, and coal industries virtually collapsed, causing unemployment to soar. Akron, once world famous as a rubber center, stopped manufacturing rubber products altogether by the mid-1980s. During this period, the state's northern industrial centers were especially hard hit and lost much of their population. Since then, Ohio has concentrated on diversifying its economy, largely through expansion of the service sector. The state became an important center for the health-care industry with the opening of the Cleveland Clinic. Industrial research is also important, with Nela Park near Cleveland and Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus among the more notable research centers; there are also still important rubber research laboratories in Akron.

Ohio, river, 981 mi (1,579 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in SW Pa., at Pittsburgh; it flows northwest, then generally southwest to enter the Mississippi River at Cairo, Ill. The Ohio's course follows a portion of the southern edge of the region covered by continental ice during the late Cenozoic era; glacial meltwater probably cut its original channel. The river is a major tributary of the Mississippi and supplies more water to it than does the Missouri River. The Ohio River basin covers c.204,000 sq mi (528,400 sq km); the chief tributaries are the Tennessee, Cumberland, Wabash, and Kentucky.

Flood Control and Canals

The Ohio is prone to spring flooding, and extensive flood control and protection devices have been constructed along the river and its tributaries. These devices also improve the river's navigability; a 9-ft (2.7-m) channel is maintained along its entire length. A system of modern locks and dams, constructed since 1955 to replace older structures, speeds the transit of barges and leisure craft. A canal (first opened in 1830) at Louisville bypasses the Falls of the Ohio, a 21/4-mi (3.6-km)-long series of rapids having a 24-ft (7-m) drop.

Human Impact

The Ohio River basin is one of the most populated and industrialized regions of the United States. Oil and steel account for most of the cargoes moved on the river. The principal river ports are Cincinnati, Louisville, and Pittsburgh. Eight states (Ill., Ind., Ky., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., Va., and W.Va.) affected by the river's industrial pollution ratified (1948) the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Compact. Some results of their cleanup efforts have become discernible, and the river now supports marinas and recreational facilities.

History

The French explorer La Salle reportedly reached the Ohio River in 1669, but there was no significant interest in the valley until the French and the British began to struggle for control of the river in the 1750s. An early settlement was established at the forks of the Ohio (modern Pittsburgh) by the Ohio Company of Virginia in 1749, but it was captured by the French in 1754, and the unfinished Fort Prince George was renamed Fort Duquesne; it was recaptured by the British and renamed Fort Pitt in 1758. At the end of the French and Indian Wars, Britain gained control of the river by the treaty of 1763, but settlement of the area was prohibited. Britain ceded the region to the United States at the end of the Revolutionary War (1783), and it was opened to settlement by the Ordinance of 1787, which established the Northwest Territory.

Until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the Ohio River was the main route to the newly opened West and the principal means of market transportation of the region's growing farm output. Traffic declined on the river after the railroads were built in the mid-1800s, although it revived after World War II. Comparatively little traffic remains on the Ohio, despite the new locks, dams, and channel improvements, which were all meant to spur economic activity on the river.

Mapp v. Ohio, case decided in 1961 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Dollree Mapp was convicted in a state court of possessing pornographic material in violation of Ohio law. Her conviction was obtained on the basis of evidence taken by the police when they entered (1957) her boardinghouse without a search warrant while looking for gambling materials. The Supreme Court, in overturning her conviction, declared that the exclusionary rule (based on the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution), which prohibits the use in federal court of evidence obtained through an illegal search and seizure, extended also to state courts. The ruling provoked a good deal of controversy; while proponents of the exclusionary rule claim that it is the only means of assuring freedom from illegal searches, opponents argue that a criminal should not go free because of a police officer's violation of the Constitution.

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, former waterway, c.185 mi (300 km) long, from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Md., running along the north bank of the Potomac River. A successor to the Potomac Company's (1784-1828) navigation improvement project, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was planned to extend W to Pittsburgh. Work was begun in 1828, but financial and labor problems (leading in 1834 to the first use of federal troops to settle a labor dispute), as well as opposition from the rival Baltimore and Ohio RR, delayed completion to Cumberland until 1850. Although extension to Pittsburgh proved impractical, the canal experienced a busy period in the 1870s carrying coal from the Cumberland mines. The canal was used until it was damaged by floods in 1924; in 1938 it was sold to the U.S. government. Partially restored, the canal and its towpath were proclaimed a national monument in 1961 and in 1971 became a national historical park (see National Parks and Monuments, table).

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), former U.S. transportation company with railroad lines in eight states, Washington, D.C., and Ontario, Canada. Founded as the Louisa RR Company in Virginia in 1836, the railroad changed its name to the Virginia Central Company in 1850. It served the Confederate armies during the Civil War and was severely damaged by Union raids. In 1869 financier Collis P. Huntington purchased the line; it became the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1878. In the 1960s the C&O received nearly all of its net income from carrying freight and was the nation's largest carrier of bituminous coal. The C&O merged with the Baltimore & Ohio RR in 1965 and in 1980 the combined company became part of the newly formed CSX Corporation.

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), first U.S. public railroad, chartered in 1827 by a group of Baltimore businessmen to regain trans-Allegheny traffic lost to the newly opened Erie Canal. Construction began in 1828, and the first division opened in May, 1830, between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills, Md. Horses were the first source of power, but the successful trial run of Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb in Aug., 1830, brought the change to steam locomotives. The B&O expanded steadily and reached St. Louis in 1857. During the Civil War the railroad moved Union troops and supplies. By the end of the 19th cent. the B&O had achieved almost 5,800 mi (9,334 km) of track and connected with Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City. By the mid-1900s it had become mainly a freight carrier. Faced with financial difficulties, the B&O was acquired by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1963 and merged with it in 1965. In 1980 the combined company became part of the CSX Corporation. The B&O was the first railroad to publish a timetable, to use electric locomotives and specialty cars (e.g., dining and baggage), and to run fully air-conditioned trains.

U.S. state university system consisting of a main campus in Columbus and branches in five other locations. It was established in 1870 as a land-grant institution. The main campus is a comprehensive research institution, with colleges of agriculture, dentistry, law, medicine, and veterinary medicine. Research facilities include a transportation research centre, a freshwater laboratory, a supercomputer centre, and a polar research centre.

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Organization of Englishmen and Virginia colonists, established in 1748 to promote trade with American Indians and secure British control of the Ohio River valley for settlement. Activity in the area claimed by France led to the last French and Indian War (1754). A separate organization, the Ohio Co. of Associates (1786), founded Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent settlement north of the Ohio River.

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State (pop., 2000: 11,353,140), U.S., north-central region. Bordered by Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana, it covers 44,828 sq mi (116,104 sq km). Its capital is Columbus. Lake Erie is on its northern boundary; the Ohio River forms part of its southeastern and southern boundary. Ohio was originally inhabited by prehistoric Hopewell mound builders, who disappeared circa AD 400. The earliest European explorers found the area occupied by Miami, Shawnee, and other Indian peoples. The region was ceded to Britain by France after the French and Indian War. In 1803 it became the 17th state and the first state carved out of the Northwest Territory (see Northwest Ordinances). During the 19th century, it became one of the first great industrial states because of its location, transport facilities, and natural resources, including coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Although manufacturing is its most important economic activity, nearly two-thirds of the state is still farmland. It was the birthplace or residence of eight U.S. presidents—William H. Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William H. Taft, and Warren G. Harding. Its major cities include Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, and Dayton.

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Park, eastern U.S. It consists of the former Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, a waterway running along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland, Md. The canal, which extends 185 mi (297 km), was built beginning in the 1820s. Competition from the railroads later caused its economic decline. The canal was purchased in 1938 by the U.S. government; it was restored and established as a historical park in 1971.

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