AthensCounty
Long before Ohio became a state, the men that first met to form the Ohio Company of Associates firmly had in mind that this new territory they were dreaming of developing had to have a university, something that would rival Yale. It would be called American Western University and that was in 1786. They decided to set aside two townships along the Hockhocking River (Hocking River today).
When the first group of the Ohio Company of Associates got settled in after that first year, a small number of them rode north to pick the site for the first college that would be developed west of the Allegheny Mountains. They selected a height overlooking the Hockhocking River and platted a town that would surround the college. They called the town Athens.
When it came time to create the county, Athens was the largest town. and so they called the county Athens in honor of Athens, Greece for its devotion to classicism. But, when the county was formed there were only 6 cabins located in the county seat.
Ohio University's Manasseh Cutler Hall is the oldest building in the Northwest Territory devoted to higher education.
America's First Declaration of Independence
In 1774 at the mouth of the Hockhocking River, a small stockade (Fort Gower, in honor of Earl Gower, a British politician) was built by the royal governor of Virginia. The Gorvernor, Lord Dunmore, left a handful of soldiers to tend the small stockade while he set out to reconoiter the area north of where Athens is today in search of Native Americans that might have been causing problems along the Ohio River. Among those soliders that remaining at the stockade, rumors were running rampant about the rebellion building along the east coast. They heard reports of the speeches being given in Philadelphia by men such as Patrick Henry that were protesting the British closing Boston's port. To that end, the soldiers at Fort Gower wrote out a statement that should trouble between the Royal Crown and the Colonists break out in war, they were going to fight on the side of the Americans. Thus being the first to declare their indpendence of the British in 1774. That document became known as the Fort Gower Resolutions.
George Washington slept here-- twice!
The site of Fort Gower is today where the small town of Hockingport is located, and George Washing slept there in 1770.
In 1770, George Washington made a journey down the Ohio River, and in his journal on October 27 he wrote:
"Incamped at the mouth of the great Hock-hocking, distant from our last incampment about 32 miles." and when Washington made the return trip stopped at the same site on November 7. He noted that the weather was a little "gloomy". See, November's grey weather in Ohio has been around for centuries.
In an effort to maintain control of their colonies and protect Native American homelands, England prohibited American settlers from moving west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Proclamation of 1763. Taxes and other restrictions were also place on the colonists to prevent them from moving west. These disagreements led to the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
