Physical features:  This is part of the hill country of southeastern Ohio and mechanical agencies of weathering, and eroded by the action of water courses until the topography became a succession of ridges and valleys, in many places roughly picturesque, and elsewhere rolling off in waves from one horizon to another.  Geologically the rocks at the surface were those laid down in the Permian period, consisting of the Dunkard shales, sandstone and coal formation.  Sunfish creek and Opossum creek and other smaller streams. of the Pennsylvanian period outcrop.  Coal was found in all portions of the county and approximately two-thirds of the county's area is embraced in the Belmont coal field, producing the superior Pittsburgh or No. 8 coal.  The county, particularly the western half, is rich in the mineral resources of oil and gas, and this has been one of the leading petroleum producing counties in the State.
     On the eastern side of the county the drainage is directly into the Ohio through Sunfish creek and Opossum creek and other smaller streams.  Waters that fall on the northeast corner of the smaller streams.  Waters that fall on the northwest corner of the county find their way into Duck creek and reach the Ohio near Marietta.  The southern and southwestern parts of the county are drained into the various tributaries of the Little Muskingum River.

     First settlements:  Monroe county was off of the main routes of migration.  Pioneers who reached the Ohio in the vicinity of Wheeling traveled inland by Zane's Trace after 1796.  Those who embarked their goods on boats at Wheeling or at Pittsburgh seldom stopped short of Marietta.  In the Virginia country opposite Monroe County few settlements were made until after 1800.  Since the lands in Monroe County were held at the same standard price of two dollars an acre as in other portions of the Seven Ranges, better selections could be found in Belmont and Jefferson counties than in the region subsequently blocked off as Monroe.  One family  settled along the Ohio in the southeastern corner of the county in 1791, and three years later some other pioneers selected bottom lands, and before the end of the century there was a small group of settlers near the mouth of Sunfish creek.  Settlements in the interior scarcely began before 1805, when some parties located along the forks of the Little Muskingum and also at the northern edge of the county at Beallsville.
     Two of the townships along the Ohio River are Switzerland and Ohio, where in the spring of 1819 were planted some colonies of German-swiss families, headed by their minister Jacob Tisher.  But most of the early settlers were from western Pennsylvania and western Virginia.
     The commissioners in 1815 selected a portion of the unbroken forest as the site of the county seat and the first task of the proprietors was to clear a street through the trees.  Woodsfield had only eleven householders by 1818 and two years later the town consisted of eighteen cabins.  In 1820, when the county's area was much larger than today, the total population was about 4,600, whereas the adjoining county of Belmont had more than 20,000.

     Transportation:  The Ohio River borders Monroe Count for a distance of thirty miles and for over a century after the establishment of the county was the supreme artery of transportation.  There are several ferries but even yet no bridges from the Monroe County shore to the shores of West Virginia.  Only two improved roads lead from the banks of the Ohio inland toward Woodsfield, but a paved highway runs down the right bank of the Ohio and another paved highway leads into the county from the north to Woodsfield.
     Only one railroad was ever built in the county.  In 1875 was organized the Bellaire, Zanesville & Cincinnati, and it was built from Bellaire to Woodsfield as a narrow gauge.  In 1882 it was extended to Caldwell, but this portion of the road was long since abandoned.  After 190__

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