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) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Ross County. The municipality is located in southern Ohio along the Scioto River. The name comes from the Shawnee name
, meaning "principal town." Plotted by General Nathaniel Massie on his own land, Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio.
The population was 21,796 at the 2000 census. According to the US Census 2007 estimate, Chillicothe has a population of 22,187, while the Columbus-Marion-Chillicothe, OH Combined Statistical Area has 1,982,252 people. The city is the largest in Ross County, and the center of the Chillicothe Micropolitan Statistical Area (as defined by the United States Census Bureau in 2003).
This was the center of the ancient Hopewell tradition, which flourished from 200 BC until 500 AD. This Amerindian culture had trade routes extending to the Rocky Mountains, and built mounds throughout the Scioto and Ohio river valleys. Later Native Americans who inhabited the area through the time of European contact included Shawnees.
It was after the American Revolution that most European settlement came to this area. Migrants from Virginia and Kentucky moved west along the Ohio River in search of land. Chillicothe served as the capital of Ohio from the beginning of statehood in 1803 until 1810 when Zanesville became the capital for two years. The capital was moved to Zanesville as part of a state legislative compromise to get a bill passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate. In 1812 the capital was moved back to Chillicothe.
In 1816 the state legislature voted to move the capital to Columbus to have it near the geographic center of the state, where it would be more accessible.
Migrants to Chillicothe included free blacks, who came to a place with fewer restrictions than in the slave states. They created a vibrant community in Chillicothe, where they aided runaway slaves coming north. As tensions increased prior to the breakout of the American Civil War, Chillicothe became an important stop for refugees on the Underground Railroad. Slaves escaping from the South traveled across the Ohio River to freedom, and then up the Scioto River to get more distance from their former homes and slave hunters. White abolitionists aided the Underground Railroad as well.