Lancaster, Ohio

City of Lancaster, Ohio
City
Lancaster as viewed from Mount Pleasant in 2006
Location of Lancaster, Ohio
Country	United States
State	Ohio
County	Fairfield
Government
• Mayor	David S. Smith (R)
Area
• Total	18.1 sq mi (46.8 km2)
• Land	18.1 sq mi (46.8 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0.02 km2)
Elevation	879 ft (268 m)
Population  (2000)
• Total	35,335
• Density	1,955.5/sq mi (755.02/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP code	43130
Area code	740
FIPS code	39-41720Template:GR
GNIS feature ID	1048903Template:GR
Website	www.ci.lancaster.oh.us

West Main Street in downtown Lancaster in 2006

Lancaster (pronounced LANG-kiss-ter by most locals, instead of LAN-kast-er) is a city in Fairfield County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 35,335. It is located near the Hocking River, approximately 33 miles (53 km) southeast of Columbus, Ohio. It is the county seat of Fairfield CountyTemplate:GR. The current mayor of Lancaster is Republican David S. Smith, who took office in January 2004. In November 2007, Smith won reelection to a second four-year term commencing in January 2008.

History

The earliest known inhabitants of the southeastern and central Ohio region were the Hopewell, Adena, and Fort Ancient Native Americans, of whom little evidence survived, beyond the burial and ceremonial mounds built throughout the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Many mounds and burial sites have also yielded archaeological artifacts.(See also: Serpent Mound and Hopewell Culture National Historic Park, which though not located in Fairfield County proper, are close by.)

Prior to and immediately after European settlement, the land today comprising Lancaster and Fairfield County, Ohio was inhabited variously by the Shawnee, Iroquois, Wyandot, and other Native American tribes. It served as a natural crossroads for the inter-tribal and intra-tribal wars fought at various times. (See also: Beaver Wars) Noted frontier explorer Christopher Gist reached the vicinity of Lancaster on January 19, 1751, when he visited the small Delaware town of "Hockhocking" nearby. Leaving the area the next day, Gist rode southwest to "Maguck," another Delaware town near Circleville.

Having been ceded to the United States by Great Britain after the American Revolution by the Treaty of Paris, the lands north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachian Mountains became, in 1784, incorporated into the Northwest Territory. White settlers began to encroach on Native American lands in the Ohio Territory. As the new government of the United States began to cast its eye westward, the stage was set for the series of campaigns that culminated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 , and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. With pioneer settlement within Ohio made legal and safe from Indian raids, developers began to speculate in land sales in earnest.

Knowing that such speculation, combined with Congressional grants of land sections to veterans of the Revolution, could result in a lucrative opportunity, Ebenezer Zane in 1796 petitioned the US Congress to grant him a contract to blaze a trail through Ohio, from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Limestone, Kentucky, (near modern Maysville, Kentucky) a distance of 266 miles (428 km). As part of the deal, Zane was awarded square-mile tracts of land at the points where his trace crossed the Hocking, Muskingum, and Scioto rivers. Zane's Trace, as it has become known, was completed by 1797 , and as Zane's sons began to carve the square-mile tract astride the Hocking into saleable plots, the city of Lancaster formally came into being in 1800. It predated the formal establishment of the State of Ohio by three years.

The initial settlers were predominantly of German stock, and emigrated from Pennsylvania. Ohio's longest continuously operating newspaper, the Lancaster Eagle Gazette, was born of a merger of the early Der Ohio Adler, founded about 1807, with the Ohio Gazette, founded in the 1830s. The two newspapers were ferocious competitors since they were on opposite sides of the American Civil War, as was the split populace of the city itself, until they merged seventy-two years after the war's end in 1937. This was shortly after the Gazette was acquired by glassmaker Anchor-Hocking. The newspaper is currently part of the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio, which is in turn a unit of Gannett, Inc.

Initially known as New Lancaster, and later shortened by city ordinance (1805), the town quickly grew; formal incorporation as a city came in 1831. The connection of the Hocking Canal to the Ohio and Erie Canal in this era provided a convenient way for the region's rich agricultural produce to reach eastern markets.

Modern Lancaster is distinguished by a rich blend of 19th-century architecture (best evidenced in historic Square 13, part of Zane's original plot) and natural beauty (best evidenced by the famous Standing Stone, today known as Mount Pleasant) with all the typical modern accoutrements of a small-medium-sized American city.

Notable Natives and Residents

Lancaster is the birthplace and/or hometown of:

• John Sherman, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and U.S. Senator, author of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• Thomas Ewing, first Secretary of the Interior, appointed by President Zachary Taylor.
• Thomas Ewing, Jr., Union Army brigadier general.
• William Tecumseh Sherman, Union Army general.
• Henry Stanbery, Attorney General, defender of President Andrew Johnson at his impeachment trial.
• Richard F. Outcault, Cartoonist and creator of "Yellow Kid" and "Buster Brown"; who is known as the "Father of the American Comic Strip".
• Robert G. Heft, designer of the current 50-star flag of the United States, adopted by the Congress in 1960.
• Rex Kern, Football quarterback, Ohio State Buckeyes football 1968 National Championship team
• Mark Baltz, NFL Official 1989–present
• Rob Carpenter, NFL player New York Giants, Houston Oilers
• Bobby Carpenter, Dallas Cowboys NFL linebacker
• Allan Anderson, Minnesota Twins baseball pitcher and 1988 American League ERA champion
• Joe Ogilvie, PGA Golfer
• David Graf, actor, best known as Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry in the Police Academy series of films.
• Dr. Marc Wolfgang Miller, author, explorer, known for his cryptozoology expeditions
• James Hyde, actor, daytime television show Passions, plays the role of Sam Bennett.
• Ted H Jordan, actor, Born in 1924, TV Show Gunsmoke, character Nathan Burke (1966–1975)
• James A. Hill, retired U.S. Air Force general and former Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force
• Mary Murphy, ballroom dance champion, accredited dance judge, and a regular judge and choreographer on the television show So You Think You Can Dance.
• Lancaster was the home of the first newspaper published by Malcolm Forbes in 1941.
• Jake Schlaerth, sexed everyone

Society and Culture

Romanesque-style City Hall building downtown

• Lancaster is home to the Lancaster campus of Ohio University, offering a variety of two and four year baccalaureate degrees, and several master's programs.
• Lancaster is home to the Lancaster Festival, an 11-day arts and music festival.
• Lancaster is home to both the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio and the Ohio Glass Museum, both located within the downtown area.
• Lancaster is home to the Lancaster Eagle Gazette newspaper. [1]
• The 1948 20th Century Fox movie Green Grass of Wyoming was filmed at the Fairfield County Fairground in Lancaster, making it the first community in Ohio to act as the setting for a feature length Hollywood movie.

Industry

Lancaster saw a dimunution of its industrial capacity during the 1980s. Industry in Lancaster includes:

Glass

• Anchor Hocking Corporation

Cereal production

• Ralston Foods

Sites of interest

Mount Pleasant

A famous Lancaster landmark is Mount Pleasant, a 250-foot (76 m) high sandstone bluff called "Standing Stone" by earlier Native American peoples. It is located in Rising Park, a large city park on the city's north side. It is possible to climb to the top of Mount Pleasant by following a short marked trail from the park through the woods that cover the bluff's other sides. There is also a cave known unofficially as "Devils Kitchen" in the front in which braver people are willing to climb about 20 feet (6.1 m) using only shallow "bear claws". Experienced rock climbers have climbed the sandstone face of the bluff many times as well. Once one has reached the top, there is a lookout area from which one can see over great distances, and take in not just a panoramic view of the nearby Fairfield County fairgrounds and much of the city of Lancaster, but the changing landscape of Central Ohio as well—from the relatively flat farmlands north of Lancaster to the wooded hills lying south of the city. In addition, on very clear days, one is able to see the Columbus skyline.

Sherman House

Lancaster was the home of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman and his brother, Senator John Sherman. The house in which they were born has been converted to a Civil War museum, and today offers regular tours.

Geography

Lancaster is located at 39°43′9″N 82°36′19″W (39.719297, -82.605293)Template:GR. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.1 square miles (46.8 km²), of which, 18.1 square miles (46.8 km²) of it is land and 0.06% is water.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 35,335 people, 14,852 households, and 9,564 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,955.9 people per square mile (755.0/km²). There were 15,891 housing units at an average density of 879.6/sq mi (339.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.38% White, 0.61% African American, 0.47% Asian, 0.30% Native American, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.18% from other races, and 1.03% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.82% of the population.

There were 14,852 households out of which 30.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.9% were married couples living together, 12.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.6% were non-families. 30.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.91.

In the city the population was spread out with 24.6% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 89.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $33,321, and the median income for a family was $39,773. Males had a median income of $30,462 versus $23,023 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,648. About 8.7% of families and 10.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.8% of those under age 18 and 8.1% of those age 65 or over.

External links

• City website
• Fairfield County Visitors and Convention Bureau
• [2] / Notable Natives and Residents]