STATES AND TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED

In this post we will looking at Ohio and its territories, Its past and present governors and current House of representative’s members.

INTRODUCTION.

Ohio is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The state’s capital and largest city is Columbus, with the Columbus metro area, Greater Cincinnati, and Greater Cleveland being the largest metropolitan areas. Ohio is bordered by Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the west, and Michigan to the northwest. Ohio is historically known as the “Buckeye State” after its Ohio buckeye trees, and Ohioans are also known as “Buckeyes”. Its state flag is the only non-rectangular flag of all the U.S. states. The state takes its name from the Ohio River, whose name in turn originated from the Seneca word ohiːyo’, meaning “good river”, “great river”, or “large creek”. Ohio arose from the lands west of Appalachia that were contested from colonial times through the Northwest Indian Wars of the late 18th century. It was partitioned from the resulting Northwest Territory, which was the first frontier of the new United States, and became the 17th state admitted to the Union on March 1, 1803, and the first under the Northwest Ordinance. Ohio was the first post-colonial free state admitted to the union, and became one of the earliest and most influential industrial powerhouses during the 20th century. Although Ohio has transitioned to a more information- and service-based economy in the 21st century, it remains an industrial state, ranking seventh in GDP as of 2019, with the third largest manufacturing sector and second largest automobile production. The government of Ohio is composed of the executive branch, led by the governor; the legislative branch, consisting of the bicameral Ohio General Assembly; and the judicial branch, led by the state Supreme Court. Ohio occupies 16 seats in the United States House of Representatives. The state is known for its status as both a swing state and a bellwether in national elections. Seven presidents of the United States have come from Ohio. This has led to it receiving the moniker “the mother of Presidents”.

OHIO TERRITORIES.

Ohio is bounded by the Ohio River, but nearly all of the river itself belongs to Kentucky and West Virginia. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court held that, based on the wording of the cessation of territory by Virginia (which at the time included what is now Kentucky and West Virginia), the boundary between Ohio and Kentucky (and, by implication, West Virginia) is the northern low-water mark of the river as it existed in 1792. Ohio has only that portion of the river between the river’s 1792 low-water mark and the present high-water mark. The border with Michigan has also changed, as a result of the Toledo War, to angle slightly northeast to the north shore of the mouth of the Maumee River. Much of Ohio features glaciated till plains, with an exceptionally flat area in the northwest being known as the Great Black Swamp. This glaciated region in the northwest and central state is bordered to the east and southeast first by a belt known as the glaciated Allegheny Plateau, and then by another belt known as the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau. Most of Ohio is of low relief, but the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau features rugged hills and forests. The rugged southeastern quadrant of Ohio, stretching in an outward bow-like arc along the Ohio River from the West Virginia Panhandle to the outskirts of Cincinnati, forms a distinct socio-economic unit. Geologically similar to parts of West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania, this area’s coal mining legacy, dependence on small pockets of old manufacturing establishments, and distinctive regional dialect set this section off from the rest of the state. In 1965 the United States Congress passed the Appalachian Regional Development Act, an attempt to “address the persistent poverty and growing economic despair of the Appalachian Region”. This act defines 29 Ohio counties as part of Appalachia.[107] While 1/3 of Ohio’s land mass is part of the federally defined Appalachian region, only 12.8% of Ohioans live there (1.476 million people.)

LIST OF GOVERNORS OF OHIO

There have been 64 governors of Ohio, serving 70 distinct terms. The longest term was held by Jim Rhodes, who was elected four times and served just under sixteen years in two non-consecutive periods of two terms each (1963–1971 and 1975–1983). The shortest terms were held by John William Brown and Nancy Hollister, who each served for only 11 days after the governors preceding them resigned in order to begin the terms to which they had been elected in the United States Senate; the shortest-serving elected governor was John M. Pattison, who died in office five months into his term. The current governor is Republican Mike DeWine, who took office on January 14, 2019.

Governors of Northwest Territory

Initially after the American Revolution, parts of the area now known as Ohio were claimed by New York, Virginia, and Connecticut; however, New York ceded its claim in 1782, Virginia in 1784, and Connecticut in 1786, though it maintained its Western Reserve in the area until 1800. On July 13, 1787, the Northwest Territory was formed. As territories were split from it, one of them eventually came to represent the area of present-day Ohio. Throughout its 15-year history, Northwest Territory had only one governor, Arthur St. Clair. He was removed from office by President Thomas Jefferson on November 22, 1802, and no successor was named; Charles Willing Byrd, as Secretary of the Territory, acted as governor until statehood.

Governors of the State of Ohio

Ohio was admitted to the Union on March 1, 1803. Since then, it has had 64 governors, six of whom (Allen Trimble, Wilson Shannon, Rutherford B. Hayes, James M. Cox, Frank Lausche, and Jim Rhodes) served non-consecutive terms. The first constitution of 1803 allowed governors to serve for two three-year terms, limited to six of any eight years, commencing on the first Monday in the December following an election. The current constitution of 1851 removed the term limit, and shifted the start of the term to the second Monday in January following an election. In 1908, Ohio switched from holding elections in odd-numbered years to even-numbered years, with the preceding governor (from the 1905 election) serving an extra year. A 1957 amendment lengthened the term to four years and allowed governors to only succeed themselves once, having to wait four years after their second term in a row before being allowed to run again. An Ohio Supreme Court ruling in 1973 clarified this to mean governors could theoretically serve unlimited terms, as long as they waited four years after every second term.

MEMBERS OF REPRESENTATIVES TO THE U.S. HOUSE FROM OHIO.

The following is an alphabetical list of members of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Ohio. For chronological tables of members of both houses of the United States Congress from the state (through the present day), see United States congressional delegations from Ohio.

List of members