If you think Washington County is big now, you should have been around in 1788; it was huge. One of the first orders of business after the establishment of the Northwest Territory was to set up counties within the new lands. As the first county in the Northwest Territory and future state of Ohio, Washington County filled nearly the entire eastern part of the land that would become the state. The borders were outlined in a proclamation by Arthur St. Clair in July 1788.

“Beginning on the bank of the Ohio River where the western boundary line of Pennsylvania crosses it, and running with that line to Lake Erie; then along the southern shore of said lake to the mouth of the Cuyahoga; thence up said river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down the branch to the forks, at the crossing place at Fort Laurens; thence with a line to be drawn westerly to the portage of that branch of the Big Miami on which the fort stood that was taken by the French in 1742, until it meets the road from the lower Shawneestown to the Sandusky; thence south to the Scioto River; thence with that river to its mouth and thence up the Ohio to the place of beginning; shall be a county, and the same is hereby erected in a county named and to be called hereafter the County of Washington.”

The massive amount of land had few man-made landmarks. The rivers formed the only real natural boundaries, it made perfect sense for them to serve as political boundaries as well. Reaching north to the Great Lakes, and east to Pennsylvania, the county was gigantic. Over time, the county was slowly carved up to form the counties in the eastern part of the state.

The final borders of the counties within the state were not set until 1888 more than 80 years after Ohio became a state in 1803. The lines between the counties constantly shuffled, with the counties adjusting their borders with their neighboring counties. Since Washington County was the first county, the border got moved around a lot.

There is an excellent interactive map at www.mapofus.org/ohio/ that allows readers to journey through each of the give-and-takes that ultimately gave Ohio the 88 counties that we have today.

Washington County first started getting smaller in 1797 when Hamilton County and Adams County were formed on the state’s west side, taking a bit on the western side of the county, and Jefferson took a chunk of the northeast away. Washington County no longer touched Lake Erie. As the counties filled in, Washington County slowly started to take its current shape. Athens took a big chunk out of the west in 1805.

The creation in 1813 of Monroe County shaped the northeast part of the county, then took a little more in 1815. Morgan County came along in 1817 and took the northern area between Athens and Monroe counties. Noble County was carved out of Monroe, Morgan, Guernsey and Washington counties in 1851. Washington County was finally set. The constant give and take of the borders gave Washington County a map with few straight lines.

Washington County is no longer the biggest county in the state, it is fifth by size with 640 square miles. The fact that it was first though could not be taken away by a century of tweaking the shape of counties.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com