Ohio

Ohio. 1- The third in importance of the United States of North America, is bounded N. by Michigan and Lake Erie, W. by Indiana, E. by Pennsylvania, and E. and S. by the Ohio, having an area of 40,760 square miles, most of which consists of an undulating plain, divided by a watershed running N.E. to S.W. into two unequal districts, the larger drained by the Ohio and the smaller discharging its waters into Lake Erie. The soil produces abundance of wheat, maize, fruit, and even tobacco and wine, supporting also great numbers of oxen and sheep. There still exist many acres of virgin forest, yielding valuable timber. Coal-beds and iron-stone are worked very profitably in the eastern districts. The chief cities are Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus (the state capital), Dayton, Toledo, and Zanesville. The railway and canal systems are highly developed. Education, elementary and advanced, is supported by taxation and endowment. The N.W. district was exempted from slavery as early as 1787. The French were the first settlers about 1671, and ceded their claims in the Treaty of Paris (1763) to Great Britain. 2. A river of North America, formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From this point it flows W.S.W. for 950 miles, till it joins the Mississippi at Cairo, 193 miles below the confluence of the Missouri. It drains at least 200,000 square miles, receiving in its course the Wyandotte, Muskinquin, Scioto, Miami, Licking, Kentucky, White, Wabash, and Tennessee, besides smaller tributaries. Its steamboat traffic is considerable, its waters are clear, and many important towns stand on its banks.