Electricity Rates in Jefferson, OH

History of Jefferson

Jefferson was officially founded by Gideon Granger, U.S. Postmaster General during Thomas Jefferson's administration, in 1803. He envisioned the new settlement as a "Philadelphia of the West," and early plans for the village were based upon the layout of that city. A cabin was erected by Granger's agent in 1804, but the settlement's first permanent residents arrived only in 1805: the Samuel Wilson family. Wilson, misled by land agents, moved to Ohio in late autumn expecting to find a thriving city on Granger's land. Instead, he found a wilderness, broken only by trees emblazoned with Philadelphian street names, marking where future streets would be built. Wilson himself died after two weeks of herculean effort to prepare for the winter, but his family stayed on as the first citizens of Jefferson. In 1811, Jefferson was made the county seat of Ashtabula County.Jefferson's two most famous sons were Congressman Joshua Reed Giddings and Senator Benjamin Wade, two prominent Whig Party and later Republican Party abolitionists. In 1831, the two men formed a law practice in Jefferson and worked together until Giddings was elected to Congress in 1838. Wade successfully ran for the Ohio State Senate in 1837, then won election to the US Senate in 1851. Both were instrumental in the foundation of the Republican Party and defied the "Gag Rule" barring discussion of slavery prior to the American Civil War. Jefferson itself was a hotbed of abolitionism.

Jefferson by the Numbers

Population

8,379

Median Age

50.5 yrs

Median Household Income

$59,720/yr

Median Home Value

$182,500

Homeownership Rate

76%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates (2023)