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is a city located along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Ohio, in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and is largely considered part of the Pittsburgh Tri-State area, unofficially as a suburb despite its own individual identity. It is also a principal city of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 19,329. Steubenville is called the City of Murals because of over 25 murals in the downtown area, and is the home of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Jefferson Community College, Old Fort Steuben, and the Creegan Animation Factory. During its heyday in the period of the 1940s-60s, Steubenville was popularly known as "Little Chicago," a nickname that, on the one hand, evoked the city's prolific industry and downtown bustle, while on the other hand suggesting Steubenville's reputation for crime, gambling, and corruption.
Steubenville was platted as a town in 1797, immediately after the creation of Jefferson County. It was built on the site of Fort Steuben which was erected in 1786–1787 and named in honor of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. Steubenville received a city charter in 1851. The city was also a stop along the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad that connected Pittsburgh to Chicago and St. Louis. Bezaliel (Bezaleel) Wells and James Ross were the founders of the city. Wells, a government surveyor born in Baltimore, received about of land west of the Ohio River, and Ross, a lawyer from Pittsburgh, owned land north of his. The two men were responsible for the layout of the city.