Columbus, founded in 1812, is not the oldest city in Franklin County, but almost since the first tree was felled to make room for the new city it has been the most important. Columbus is one of a handful of state capitals that was built specifically to be the seat of state government. From 1803 to 1816 the state capital moved from Chillicothe to Zanesville and back to Chillicothe. Since its first mayor was sworn in Columbus has grown to be the largest city in Ohio and one of the reasons is that the city has been served by many dedicated men and women from all walks of life. Listed on this page are the names of the forty-seven mayors who have guided Columbus throughout its history. Surprisingly, there has never been a woman mayor.

In 1975 the Columbus Citizen-Journal, a subsidiary of Scripps Howard News Service, published a series of articles summarizing the life stories of the first forty-four Columbus mayors. As one of the "newspaper's services to Columbus and Ohio during our country's Bicentennial" those articles were "presented in book form." I recently received permission to publish the book as a PDF document to be used on this Web site. I want to thank Mr. Peter Copeland, Editor and General Manager of Scripps Howard News Service for his gracious consent to my request.

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Columbus Mayors; A Bicentennial Presentation
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A few of the early mayors appear in the pages of the 1880 Williams Bros., History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio; links to those biographical sketches appear below. I hope to add additional information and/or obituaries as time permits.

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