Downtown Circleville mural of a by-gone era
Circleville
Circleville is located in Pickaway County, Ohio, along the Scioto River. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 13,485. It is the county seat of Pickaway County. Circleville hosts the Circleville Pumpkin Show every October, which draws over 400,000 visitors. The city's water tower has been painted to look like a giant pumpkin in honor of this festival.
Founded in 1810, Circleville's name is derived from a large Indian earthwork that existing where the town was first built. Living up to its chosen name, the original town plan integrated a circular street layout that emanated out from the center with an octagonal courthouse directly in the center. In time, this layout proved unsatisfactory, and in 1837, the Ohio General Assembly authorized the "Circleville Squaring Company" to convert Circleville into a conventional street layout grid with rectangular blocks. This was completed over a period of years and was totally complete by 1856 and became the earliest known example of urban redeveelopment in the United States. The original Indian mound is completely gone with no remaining traces remaining. There are a few buildings that were part of the original circular layout and have retained curved walls.
In the 19th century, Circleville became a prosperous town, in part because of its location near the Scioto River and its proximity to the Ohio and Erie Canal which was about west of Circleville. Today, there still remains a 3 mile stretch of the canal along Canal Road.
Circleville also benefited from the growing network of railroads in the mid-nineteenth century. The combination of the canal and the railroads provided manufacturing growth in the community.
Most of Circleville's industries were related to local agriculture, including meat packing, canning, tanning, and milling. At one point Circleville was recognized as producing the largest amount of broomcorn in the United States (broomcorn is a type of sorghum used for making brooms).
Several Americans of note lived in Circleville at various points in their lives. One of Circleville's early residents was Caleb Atwater, who was noted for writing about the Native American earthworks in Ohio, including those at the original site of Circleville. He published one of the few descriptions of the Circleville mounds in his "Western Antiquities." Atwater also served as Circleville's first postmaster. He also was a champion of public education in the state of Ohio.
Benjamin Hanby, composer of "My Darling Nellie Gray" and "Up on the Housetops," grew up in the community, as did jazz musician Ted Lewis (see sidebar).
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was very active in Circleville and Pickaway County. Between 1835 and 1860 clergymen William Hanby (Benjamin Hanby's father) and Immanuel Buchwalter, plus Phillip Doddridge, Colonel Samuel Moore and George Stanhope were conductors on the Underground Railroad operating through south-central Ohio, helping to move escaping slaves north to Canada.
Today there are 2 houses still standing that were stations on the Underground Railroad. One is the Moore House at Court and Mound Streets, and the Doddridge House at the southwest corner of Scioto and Mound Streets.
Big Pumpkin Capitol
Circleville is most noted for its big gourd festival: The Circleville Pumpkin Show. This annual event is one of largest festivals in the state and aptly called "The Greatest Free Show in the World."
When Circleville was first plotted, it was laid out along the lines of a prehistoric earthwork, that at the time, early settlers were unsure of its meaning, or who constructed the earth in such a manner. The earthworks were described in a 1772 Boston magazine that described a 1,100 diameter circle connected to a 900 foot square. When Daniel Dreisbach platted the town, he used the center point of the large circle as the center of the town. The early inhabitants of the Circleville built an octagonal courhouse directly at the center of what is now the intersection of Court and Main Streets. The above illustration correctly depicts the circle's position.
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