Editing Franklin County, Ohio (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of Columbus, Ohio}}
On March 30, 1803, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Franklin County. The county originally was part of [[Ross County, Ohio|Ross County]]. Residents named the county in honor of [[Benjamin Franklin]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9V1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA131 | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=131}}</ref> In 1816, Franklin County's Columbus became Ohio's state [[Capital (political)|capital]]. Surveyors laid out the city in 1812, and officials incorporated it in 1816. Columbus was not Ohio's original capital, but the state legislature chose to move the state government there after its location for a short time at [[Chillicothe, Ohio|Chillicothe]] and at [[Zanesville, Ohio|Zanesville]]. Columbus was chosen as the site for the new capital because of its central location within the state and access by way of major transportation routes (primarily rivers) at that time. The legislature chose it as Ohio's capital over a number of other competitors, including [[Franklinton, Ohio|Franklinton]], [[Dublin, Ohio|Dublin]], [[Worthington, Ohio|Worthington]], and [[Delaware, Ohio|Delaware]].

On May 5, 1802, a group of prospective settlers founded the Scioto Company at the home of Rev. Eber B. Clark in [[Granby, Connecticut]], for the purpose of forming a settlement between the [[Muskingum River]] and [[Great Miami River]] in the [[Ohio Country]]. [[James Kilbourne]] was elected president and Josiah Topping secretary.<ref>McCormick 1998:7</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=October 2020}} On August 30, 1802, James Kilbourne and Nathaniel Little arrived at Colonel [[Thomas Worthington (governor)|Thomas Worthington]]'s home in Chillicothe. They tentatively reserved land along the [[Scioto River]] on the [[Pickaway Plains]] for their new settlement.<ref>McCormick 1998:17</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=October 2020}}

On October 5, 1802, the Scioto Company met again in Granby and decided not to purchase the lands along the Scioto River on the Pickaway Plains, but rather to buy land {{convert|30|mi|km}} farther north from Jonas Stanbery and his partner, an [[American Revolutionary War]] general, [[Jonathan Dayton]]. {{convert|16000|acres|km2 ha|spell=In}} were purchased along the Whetstone River (now known as the [[Olentangy River]]) at $1.50 per acre.<ref>McCormick 1998:19-27</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=October 2020}} This land was part of the [[United States Military District]] surveyed by [[Israel Ludlow]] in 1797 and divided into townships {{convert|5|mi|km}} square.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=613|title=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875|website=memory.loc.gov|access-date=April 19, 2018|archive-date=November 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231112192641/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=613|url-status=live}}</ref>

Before the state legislature's decision in 1812, [[Columbus, Ohio|Columbus]] did not exist. The city was originally designed as the state's new capital, preparing itself for its role in Ohio's political, economic, and social life. In the years between the first ground-breaking and the actual movement of the capital in 1816, Columbus and Franklin County grew significantly. By 1813, workers had built a [[Prison|penitentiary]], and by the following year, residents had established the first church, school, and newspaper in Columbus. Workers completed the [[Ohio Statehouse]] in 1861. Columbus and Franklin County grew quickly in population, with the city having 700 people by 1815. Columbus officially became the county seat in 1824. By 1834, the population of Columbus was 4,000 people, officially elevating it to "city" status.