The City of Pickerington gets its name from Abraham Pickering, who built a log cabin home on the land that is now Sycamore Park.
Pickering’s property was a public land sale parcel that was purchased by his father-in-law, James Looker of Virginia, in 1811.
Pickering decided to establish a town, so he purchased more land from his father-in-law and had surveyors lay out the town, which he named Jacksonville on Sept. 15, 1815 in honor of General Andrew Jackson’s defeat of the British in New Orleans.
In 1827, the state legislature changed the name of the town to Pickerington after it received a petition from citizens who wanted to honor Pickering.
Pickerington received its status as a village in 1881.
When the Violet City hit the official population mark of more than 5,000 residents in 1991, Pickerington was certified as a city by the Ohio Secretary of State.
Pickerington is now the second-largest city in Fairfield County, right behind Lancaster.
It is the place that approximately 19,000 residents, as Pickering once did, call home.
