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Athens County Ohio

As a ‘rural-cosmopolitan’ community, Athens County offers big-city amenities wrapped in small-town hospitality. The rolling hills of southeastern Ohio draw people from all over the world to live and work in this pastoral, yet progressive, county. Previously part of Washington County, Ohio, Athens County was formed in 1805, named for the ancient center of learning, Athens, Greece.

The year prior, the Ohio General Assembly chartered Ohio University, making it the first institution of higher learning in the Northwest Territory. Ohio University was established with the first federal endowment of an educational institution in the United States.