ATHENS, a city of Ohio, U.S.A., 72m. S.E. of Columbus, on the Hocking river; the county seat of Athens county. It is on Federal highway 5o, and is served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the New York Central, and the Hocking Valley railways. The popu lation in 1930 was 7,252. The city occupies a site loft. above the river, which almost encircles it, and commands views of some of the most beautiful scenery in the State. There are several prehis toric mounds in the vicinity. South of the city is a State hospital for the insane. The principal manufactures are furniture, stoves, caskets, files, and parquetry flooring. Parts of the Jackson, Iron ton, and Hocking coalfields lie within the county.
Athens is the seat of Ohio university (co-educational), the old est college north-west of the Ohio. When the Ohio Company, in 1789, made its contract for the purchase of land in the North-west Territory, Manasseh Cutler secured from Congress the donation of two entire townships as a perpetual endowment for a university. In 18o1 he was appointed by the Territorial Legislature, one of the trustees of the Ohio University, to bring the lands into avail able use, and he proceeded up the Hocking river with a fleet of canoes, and with compass and chain fixed the boundaries of the university campus in the virgin forest. A charter for "the Ameri can University" was granted by the Territorial legislature in 1802; and in 1804 the new State legislature passed a modified act es tablishing "Ohio University" in the town of Athens. The college was opened in 1809. A building erected in 1817 is still in use. In recent years the total net enrolment of resident students has been about 3,000, of whom about 6o% were women. The appro priations by the legislature for 1925-27 were $1,207,361.
Athens was made the county seat in 1805; was incorporated as a village in 1811; and was chartered as a city in 1911.
See S. P. Hildreth, Biographical and Historical Memoirs of the early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, p. 114.