 On July 29, 1797, Jefferson County was organized by a proclamation of Governor Arthur St. Clair, and Steubenville was selected as the County seat and was platted in the same year by Bezaliel (Bezaleel) Wells and James Ross, the city's co-founders.Wells, a government surveyor born in Baltimore, received about of land west of the Ohio River; Ross, a lawyer from Pittsburgh, owned land north of his.On March 1, 1803, Ohio was admitted to the Union as the 17th state.