Ohio

Formed December 17, 1798 (34^th county)

Ohio County (23,772), Hartford (2,666), Beaver Dam (3,537)

The Art Deco concrete and masonry courthouse was built in 1940.  The courthouse is on Washington at Main streets.  United States Highway 231 is Main Street in the town.  Walter Scott Roberts provided the designs.  Veteran memorials are on the courthouse grounds.  There was an 1865 courthouse earlier also in Hartford the only county seat.  The county was created on December 17, 1798 from parts of Butler, Grayson, Daviess, Hancock, and McLean counties as the 34^th county.  The county’s name comes from the Ohio River.  The county seat is named for a deer crossing in the Rogue River. 

Ohio County government consists of a County Judge Executive, a sheriff, a clerk, an attorney, a treasurer, a coroner, and an appraiser (executive).  It has 5 Magistrates (legislative.)  Two Circuit Court Judges, Two District Court Judges, and One Family Court Judge serve Ohio, Butler, Edmonson, and Hancock counties and a court clerk serves Ohio County (judicial.) The county is in west central Kentucky.  Bowling Green, Kentucky is southeast and Owensboro, Kentucky is northwest.  The county center is 7 miles Northeast of Hartford nearer Sulphur Springs.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Hancock, Breckinridge, Grayson, Butler, Muhlenberg, McLean, and Daviess counties. 

The area of the county is 594 square miles.  It is 5 out of 120 in the state.  It ranks 50 out of 120 in population in the state.  It has a density of 40.0 persons per square mile making it 84 out of 120 in the state.  Ohio County has 32.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 62 goes east to west in the county from Grayson County to Muhlenberg County.  United States Highway 231 crosses northwest to southeast from Daviess County to Butler County.  The county is shaped like a bag of marbles.  Hartford is in the southwest quarter of the county.  Beaver Dam is directly south of Hartford in the county.  Hartford is the county seat and Beaver Dam is the largest city.  Hartford is 11.2% of the county population while Beaver Dam is 14.9% of the county population.