I'm amazed at how few of us know the story of how Guernsey County got its name, and just as amazed that those who do know the story aren't fascinated by it.
A group of settlers came to America from the Island of Guernsey. They roamed around the Eastern seaboard for a few years, never content to stay in the places they found. They made their way across Pennsylvania--no mean feat, when one travels with oxen and wagons--and found themselves in southeastern Ohio, meaning to push on for the plains near the "English lakes", where they'd heard land was prosperous for farming. But the women...well, the women fell in love. They looked at our hills and our trees and said to themselves, "Could anyplace be as beautiful as this? As fruitful? No, we know it couldn't." And they told the men they could go on, but it would be without their wives and children. They would stay here, to raise crops and kids. I suppose even if any of the men thought a lake was better than a cabin with a warm hearth under the chestnut trees, they saw the light quickly enough. And Guernsey County took its name from these settlers. (Though I prefer to think of it as taking its name from these women, who had the real rhetorical power.)
Our county was born from powerful women and appreciation of beauty. How could such a birthright ever be forgotten?
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