Fairfield

Formed December 9, 1800 (9^th county)

Fairfield County (158,918), Lancaster (40,541)

The yellow stone 1871 courthouse is located on Main Street between High Street and Pearl Avenue.  Main Street is United States Highway 22 in the town.  A Hall of Justice Center was added in 1975 and the courthouse functions as the Administration Building.  Jacob B. Orman provided the Neo-Classical courthouse designs.  A rot iron fence surrounds the old courthouse and reaches to the Hall of Justice.  Fairfield County was organized on December 9, 1800 from parts of Ross and Washington counties as the 9^th county with Lancaster as the only county seat.  The county name is derived from the original area around Lancaster.  The county seat is named for Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

The area of the county is 505.1 square miles.  It is 24 out of 88 in the state.  It ranks 20 out of 88 in population in the state.  It has a density of 314.6 persons per square mile making it 20 out of 88 in the state.  Fairfield County has 56.0% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 70 clips the northwest corner of the county from Licking County, north, to Franklin County, west.  United States Highway 22 enters from the east, Perry County, and exits to the southwest, Pickaway County.  United States Highway 33 travels northwest to southeast from Franklin County to Hocking County.  The county resembles a fire hydrant.  Lancaster is located in the southern third of the county.  Lancaster is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 25.5% of the county population. 

Fairfield County government consists of an auditor, a sheriff, an attorney, and a coroner (executive).  It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.)  Nine Common Pleas Court Judges and a court clerk serve Fairfield County (judicial.)  Fairfield County is in south central Ohio.  Columbus, Ohio is directly northwest and Cincinnati, Ohio is southwest of the county.  The county center is 5.9 miles Northwest of Lancaster nearer Dumontville.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Licking, Perry, Hocking, Pickaway, and Franklin counties.  The county seat is pronounced LANK-A-STER.  This county is in the Columbus Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Tarlton