Perry

Formed March 1, 1818 (54^th county)

Perry County (35,409), New Lexington (4,434)

The 1887 brown stone Richardsonian Romanesque courthouse is located on Main at Brown streets.  Main Street is Ohio State Highway 37 in the town.  Joseph Warren Yost provided the designs.  The structure features a tower and the grounds have a canon and veteran memorials.  The county was established on March 1, 1818 from parts of Washington, Fairfield, and Muskingum counties as the 54^th county.  Somerset was the first county seat until 1857 when New Lexington assumed the seat.  The county is named for War of 1812 hero Oliver Hazard Perry.  New Lexington is named for Lexington, Massachusetts. 

Perry County government consists of an auditor, a sheriff, an attorney, and a coroner (executive).  It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.)  Three Common Pleas Court Judges and a court clerk serve Perry County (judicial.)  The county is located in south central Ohio.  Columbus, Ohio is northwest and Cincinnati, Ohio is southwest of the county.  The county center is 5 miles Northwest of New Lexington nearer Somerset.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Muskingum, Morgan, Athens, Hocking, Fairfield, and Licking counties.  United States Highway 22 crosses through the county from northeast, Muskingum County, to southwest, Fairfield County. 

The area of the county is 409.8 square miles.  It is 65 out of 88 in the state.  It ranks 68 out of 88 in population in the state.  It has a density of 86.4 persons per square mile making it 65 out of 88 in the state.  Perry County has 37.2% of its population in its incorporated areas.  The county looks like a zig zag arrow facing southeast.  New Lexington is located near the center of the county.  New Lexington is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 12.5% of the county population.