Monroe County OHGenWeb
History & Genealogy

Monroe County History

Monroe County

Established: Act - January 29, 1813
2007 Population: 14,258
County Seat: Woodsfield Village
Land Area: 455.6 square mile
Named for: James Monroe, Fifth U.S. President

On January 29, 1813, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Monroe County. Residents named the county in honor of James Monroe, the current United States Secretary of State and eventually the fourth president of the United States. The county used to be parts of Belmont, Guernsey, and Washington Counties.

Monroe County is located in eastern Ohio. The county's eastern border lies along the Ohio River. It is predominantly rural, with less than one percent of the county's 456 square miles consisting of urban areas. The county is also in the heart of Appalachia. The county seat is Woodsfield. With a population of 2,598 people, Woodsfield was the county's largest community in 2000. in 2004 the county population was 15,063. This was a decrease of -.77% from the 2000 census. The county is one of Ohio's least populous counties.

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In 1969 the Woodsfield Chamber of Commerce produced a Monroe County Ohio History. The majority of the information came originally from "History of Monroe County, Ohio", by H.H. Hardesty & Co., Publishers, dated 1882, newspaper files, and other individuals. It contains histories of most townships, Ohio River transportation, Oil, and Monroe's part in the Civil and Revolutionary Wars. The following links (and the imagemap links) go directly to those portions of this historical account.

Stock, Enoch, Elk and Union townships were part of Monroe County in the 1850's and became part of Noble County c 1851 or c 1860. See the Noble County OHGenWeb Website for more information.

• Organization
• Early Settlements
• First Germans and Swiss
• The County Seat
• The First Monroe County Fair
• Monroe County's Patriotic Part in the Civil War
• Monroe County's Patriotic Part in the Revolutionary War
• Early History of Oil
• Transportation on the Ohio River
• Condensed from "Railroad Magazine" and "Train Magazine"

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Current Townships of Monroe County Ohio
Seneca	Malaga	Sunsbury
Switzerland	Summit	Center
Adams	Salem	Franklin
Wayne	Green	Ohio
Bethel	Washington	Perry
Benton	Jackson	Lee

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