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Circleville is a city in
Pickaway County, Ohio Pickaway County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 58,539. Its county seat is Circleville, Ohio, Circleville. Its name derives from the Pekowi ban ...
, United States, and its
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
. The city is situated along the
Scioto River The Scioto River ( ) is a river in central and southern Ohio more than in length. It rises in Hardin County, Ohio, Hardin County just north of Roundhead, Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olent ...
25 miles (40 km) south of Columbus. The population was 13,927 at the 2020 census. Circleville is named after its original layout created in 1810, which was based upon the circular Hopewell tradition earthwork within which the city was built. This earthwork measured in diameter, and was constructed in the early centuries of the
Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...
. The county courthouse was built in the center of the innermost circle. In the late 1830s, for various reasons, residents requested authorisation from the state legislature to change Circleville's layout to a standard grid format. This was accomplished by the mid-1850s. All traces of the Hopewell earthwork were destroyed, although hundreds of other monuments of its kind still remain in the Ohio Valley.


History


Early history

By the mid-18th century, the
Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...
( Delaware Indians) were pushed west from Pennsylvania by European settlers flowing into the colony. The Lenape were given permission by the
Wyandot people The Wyandot people (also Wyandotte, Wendat, Waⁿdát, or Huron) are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of the present-day United States and Canada. Their Wyandot language belongs to the Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian language f ...
to settle in the Ohio country. One of their settlements was Maguck, a small village built before 1750 on the banks of the
Scioto River The Scioto River ( ) is a river in central and southern Ohio more than in length. It rises in Hardin County, Ohio, Hardin County just north of Roundhead, Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olent ...
. Modern Circleville was built to the north of this site. Frontier explorer Christopher Gist was the first recorded European explorer of the Circleville area. On January 20, 1751, Gist visited Maguck, which had a small population of about 10 families. He wrote in his journal that he had stayed in the town for four days. Between the time of the establishment of the United States and of the city's settlement, the land was owned by the US federal government (As opposed to other land in the county, which was part of the
Virginia Military District The Virginia Military District was an approximately 4.2 million acre (17,000 km2) area of land in what is now the state of Ohio that was reserved by Virginia to use as payment in lieu of cash for its veterans of the American Revolutionary ...
). Circleville was founded by European-American settlers in 1810, as people relocated westward after the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
. One such settler was George Hitler Sr., who migrated to Circleville in 1799 with his wife and 4 children, with seven more being born in Circleville after they resettled. One of these children, Dr. Gay Hitler, used to be a dentist. Numerous features of the town are named after this family, these being two 'Hitler' roads, Hubert Hitler Road, Hitler Pond, Hitler-Park, and Hitler-Ludvig cemetery. There is no connection between the family and
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
, whose surname was defined much later.


Establishment

On January 12, 1810, Pickaway County was established by order of the
Ohio General Assembly The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Colu ...
. On February 19 of that year, the assembly appointed David Bradford, George Jackson, and John Pollock to choose the location for the county seat. The men ventured across the county and inspected numerous sites. The Hopewell fortifications were still intact at this time, and were selected as the site for Circleville's construction. A history of the county published in 1880 suggests that the men thought the site location would spur the preservation and maintenance of the Hopewell mounds. The group was subsequently assigned appointed director Daniel Dreisbach to oversee them on July 25. Dreisbach was to purchase the land, determine lots, and distribute them. At the time, the land was owned by Jacob Zeiger, Zeiger Jr., and Samuel Watt; Dreisbach purchased 200 acres for a sum of $800 to $900. The first sale of property in the new town was followed with a celebration: a barbecue, and the manufacture of a several-hundred-pound wheel of cheese, which was transported to the barbecue on a sled. A competition for the honor of constructing the first house also took place. By 1827, the town had a population of 725 people, 102 individual houses, a courthouse, jail, government office building, a private and public school, one church, nine stores, three pharmacies, three groceries, and a market house. All buildings were made with brick, except the jail, which was made out of stone. The settlement was formally incorporated as the town of Circleville in 1814, and it was made a city on March 25, 1853.


Squaring the circle

Over time, residents grew dissatisfied with Circleville's unusual layout. Some believed the design was kept only due to "childish sentimentalism", while others complained that the lots were irregular and inconvenient, and that a circular plan wasted space that could otherwise be used to generate revenue. Additionally, the space around the central courthouse had become unpresentable. People from the countryside would hitch their horses around the courthouse, which would draw hogs and domestic animals to the area and surrounding city. In March 1837, at the request of the town, the Ohio General Assembly authorized the requested alterations given the consent of all property owners in the circle. In March 1838, after no activity, the assembly authorized alterations to any quadrant given consent from property owners in the quarter. The "Circleville Squaring Company" was created to convert the town plan into a squared grid, as was the typical style of platted towns. The southeast corner was the first to be altered later in March, followed by the northwest quarter in September. The northeast corner was only squared in 1849, and the southwest was reformed in 1856. This process required intense construction work, such as destroying, moving, or constructing buildings and grading and repaving roads. Due to these changes, no traces of the original earthworks remain aside from a section of elevated ground at the corner of Pickaway and Franklin streets. A history of the county makes note that the citizens of Circleville regret the rare circular layout of the town was ever changed. The only drawings of Circleville before its squaring were made by G. F. Wittich. He made sketches of the courthouse, the circle, and the other buildings in 1836. Wittich used these drawings along with information from residents to create a map around 1860, of which he produced a watercolour rendition in 1870.


20th century

During April 1967, Bingman's Drug Store and several neighboring buildings on West Main Street in downtown Circleville were destroyed. Lee Holbrook, the husband of a drug store employee, brought a wooden box containing bundled
dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...
into the store, wherein it detonated during a struggle with the store's staff. Holbrook and four employees died in the blast and ensuing fire, and nearly thirty others were injured. On October 13, 1999, an F-3 tornado hit the city, set off by a squall line moving through the region. The tornado touched down on the north side of town, dealing considerable damage to a barber's shop and a masonry building. A furniture store also received a hole in its roof, and it was reported that items from inside the store were sucked out. Damage to nearby buildings occurred as the tornado moved east across the north-central part of town. The tornado moved into a residential area in the Northwood Park neighborhood, destroying several homes and damaging trees and vehicles.


Circleville letters mystery

Starting in 1977, residents began receiving mysterious letters from an unknown source identified only as "Writer". The letters contained threats of violence and supposed blackmail, often as means of coercing the receiver to comply with the Writer's will (e.g., voting for the Writer's preferred candidate in the county election). On January 27, 1983, the Writer hung up a sign visible from the bus route of Circleville School, containing obscenities regarding the 13-year-old daughter of bus driver Mary Gillispie. Upon observation of the sign, Gillispie discovered a booby-trapped box containing a loaded gun, which was rigged to fire upon attempted removal of the sign. Gillispie and her husband Ronald had previously received letters from the Writer accusing her of engaging in an extramarital affair with school superintendent Gordon Massie. Ronald had been killed under mysterious circumstances six years prior, in August 1977. While the Gillispies' brother-in-law Paul Freshour was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the boobytrap incident in 1984, letters continued to circulate during his imprisonment. It was only after Freshour's release in 1994 that the Writer ceased threatening the residents of Circleville. As of August 2024, the identity of the Writer remains unknown.


Geography

Circleville is situated on the eastern bank of the
Scioto River The Scioto River ( ) is a river in central and southern Ohio more than in length. It rises in Hardin County, Ohio, Hardin County just north of Roundhead, Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olent ...
, and is 25 miles south of Columbus and 22 miles north of Chillicothe. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water.
Calamus Swamp Calamus Swamp is a public preserve located from Circleville, Ohio, Circleville in Pickaway County, Ohio, United States. It has a natural Kettle (geology), kettle lake/wetland and is owned by the Columbus Audubon, the local chapter of Nationa ...
is a 19-acre public reserve located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the town.


Climate


Demographics


2010 census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2010, there were 13,314 people, 5,402 households, and 3,447 families residing in the city. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 6,024 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 95.4%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 1.9%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.2% Native American, 0.4% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino people of any race were 1.1% of the population. There were 5,402 households, of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.2% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.2% were non-families. 30.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.90. The median age in the city was 39.3 years. 23.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.8% were from 25 to 44; 25.4% were from 45 to 64; and 17.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.9% male and 52.1% female.


2000 census

As of the census of 2000, there were 13,485 people, 5,378 households, and 3,581 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,706 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 95.36%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 2.54%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.20% Native American, 0.49% Asian, 0.06%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.27% from other races, and 1.08% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino people of any race were 0.82% of the population. There were 5,378 households, out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.8% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 12.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.4% were non-families. 29.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.93. In the city the population was spread out, with 26.7% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.8 males. The median income for a household in the city was $34,572, and the median income for a family was $41,943. Males had a median income of $32,342 versus $26,115 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $17,220. About 11.1% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 21.4% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over.


Economy

Manufacturing makes up a significant proportion of area industry and employment; in the 2010 census, 3075 county residents (13.4%) were employed in manufacturing. Circleville is home to the largest
DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
chemical plant in Ohio. Opened in the 1950s, it produces
Mylar BoPET (biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical stability, dimensional stability, transparency reflectivity, an ...
and Tedlar plastic films, the latter used extensively in the production of
photovoltaic module Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commerciall ...
s. PACCAR, a Seattle-based truck manufacturing company, has maintained a large factory for over 35 years. Sofidel Group, one of the world's largest tissue paper manufacturers, invested $400 million in building a 1.4 million square foot plant on the south side of the city. Once it is operating at full capacity, the plant will employ approximately 700 people. The first roll of paper was produced from the plant in June 2018. The
PPG Industries PPG Industries, Inc. is an American Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 company and global supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 70 countries around the globe. By ...
Circleville plant is the company's center for polymer resin production, primarily for automotive applications. Global Transmission Parts, a distributor of vehicle transmission parts, has its corporate headquarters and main warehouse located east of Circleville on State Route 56. Other major employers include OhioHealth; Circleville City, Teays Valley Local and Logan Elm Local School districts; Circle Plastics/TriMold LLC; the State of Ohio; and
Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...
Stores.


Arts and culture

Circleville hosts the Circleville Pumpkin Show every October. The Clarke-May Museum is run by the Pickaway County Historical Society.


Education

Circleville City School District operates one elementary school, one middle school, and Circleville High School. Ohio Christian University, an institution affiliated with
Churches of Christ in Christian Union The Churches of Christ in Christian Union (CCCU) is a Wesleyan-Holiness and Restorationist Christian denomination. The CCCU has a presence in 15 U.S. states and several nations, with about 200 churches in the United States. Ohio Christian U ...
, has been in operation at Circleville since 1948. Circleville has a public library, a branch of the Pickaway County Library.


Notable people

* Caleb Atwater – known as the "father of Ohio's public school system", the state's first historian, and an early scholar of the ancient Native American
mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...
s and other earthworks in the Ohio Valley * Rick Clifton – racing driver *
Conchata Ferrell Conchata Galen Ferrell (March 28, 1943 – October 12, 2020) was an American actress. She played Berta the housekeeper on the sitcom ''Two and a Half Men'' from 2003 to 2015, and she received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outs ...
– actress, best known for playing Berta the housekeeper in the CBS sitcom ''
Two and a Half Men Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn that aired on CBS for 12 seasons from September 22, 2003, to February 19, 2015. The series originally starred Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper, a hedonis ...
'' * Genevieve Estelle Jones - ornithologist and illustrator * Tony Laubach – storm chaser and meteorologist featured on the
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...
* Ted Lewis
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
performer and bandleader during the
Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western world, Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultura ...
; a Ted Lewis Museum is located in the city, and a local park bears his name *
Ralph Haswell Lutz Ralph Haswell Lutz (18 May 1886, Circleville, Ohio – 8 April 1968, Palo Alto) was an American historian. He was chair of the Board of Directors of the Hoover War Library, 1925-1943. After studying at Stanford University, Lutz gained his PhD at ...
(1886–1968) – historian and chair of the board of directors of the
Hoover War Library The Hoover Institution Library and Archives is a research center and archival repository located at Stanford University, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. Built around a collection amassed by Stanford graduate Herbert Hoover pr ...
, 1925–1943 * Tiffany McDaniel – author * Dwight Radcliff – longest serving sheriff in US history * Kohl Sudduth – actor known for the Jesse Stone series of TV movies


References


Further reading

* *


External links

* {{authority control 1810 establishments in Ohio Cities in Ohio Cities in Pickaway County, Ohio County seats in Ohio Populated places established in 1810