Springfield is a city in Clark County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located in southwestern Ohio along the Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, about 45 miles (72 km) west of Columbus and 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Dayton. The city had a total population of 58,662 at the 2020 census, while the Springfield metropolitan area had 136,001 residents.
At a Glance
- County: Clark County
- County seat of Clark County
- State: Ohio
History of Springfield
During the 18th century, the Ohio Country saw warfare, waves of migration and displacement, and imposition of claims by rivaling colonial powers France and Britain. With the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British became the sole European claimants of the region.
The area was home to the major Shawnee village in the region, called Peckuwe or Piqua. It belonged to the Shawnee septs (sub clans) of Pekowi and Kispoko and had a population of about 3,000. It stood at 39° 54.5′ N, 83° 54.68′ W, less than four miles southwest of the current city of Springfield and less than six miles from its center.
During the Western theater of the American Revolutionary War, the area saw a major battle that pitted the Americans against the Shawnee and their indigenous allies. The Shawnees had formed an alliance with the British and the Lenape, the Wyandot, and the Mingo, refugees from warfare and displacements elsewhere, and had been raiding into Kentucky with the aim of driving out American settlers. On August 8, 1780, Piqua was attacked by American soldiers under the command of General George Rogers Clark. It was a ferocious battle that ended with the destruction of the Shawnee village and the exodus of its inhabitants. Clark’s men spent two days burning as much as 500 acres of corn surrounding the village.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Springfield, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.