(Ed's Note: I scanned in the 1833 plat map and extracted this description of Muskingum County in 1833. A nice flavor.)
Muskingum County was formed March 1, 1804, from Washington and Fairfield Counties. The word Muskingum, said the famous Kilbourn's Gazetteer, "is said to signify in the old Indian language an elk's eye, or the glare of an elk's eye." Colonel John Johnston stated that "Muskingum is a Delaware word and means a town on the river side. The Shawanese call it Wa-ka-tamo-sepe, which has the same signification." The surface is hilly and clay the predominant soil.
The graphic below is from the side panel of the 1833 Plat Map of Muskingum County, a great piece of work and detail. Though too large to display with detail on a web page, I have copied segments of it throughout the essays. The paragraphs below give the flavoring of 1833 details.
