Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1924-11-20

MOISdu county III Inc past q years
was Judson Harmon in 1910, ant
his plurality over Harding was onl!
IL votes.
In view of the interest shown IL
the astounding plurality given Gov
ernor Donahey in Morgan county,
have no doubt your readers will bt
interested in brief review of some
Morgan county political history al
disclosed by election results since
the county was organized March /
1919. (Howe's history is in error
in the date given, March L, 1879
There is an additional reason why
such matters of political history
should be published in Morgan
county papers of today. 1t will
thus be made a permanent record
in the files of these papers, other
wise it will be lost forever, as am
taking large portion OF the infor-
nation from tattered copies OF early
Morgan county papers In my pos
session. They are the only ones
now in existence. Even the state
library does not have a copy of a
Morgan county paper earlier than
the McConnelsville Herald.
The first bitter election contest
in Morgan county was not political.
1t occurred Oct. 18, 1919, and the
issue was the location of the county
seat. Many citizens Of Morgan, no
doubt, have read that at one time
Caldwell and Sarahsville were in
Morgan county, but / doubt ii any
know that when Morgan county was
organized in 1919, the northeast
corner of the county was ten miles
beyond Sarahsville, or at least 40
miles from McConnelsville. Morgan
county in form at that time must
have looked something like the big
mud cats my friend Travis some
times hooks down at the dam--the
mouth being on the Perry county
border, and the tail near Barnes
vile.
The act of the General Assembly,
Dec. 30, 1877, erected Morgan
county from portions of Guernsey,
Muskingum and Washington coun-
ties, and named it in honor of Gen
eral Daniel Morgan, the Phil Sheri-
dan OF the Revolutionary war. On
ian. 26, 1878, the legislature Sc
Iected three commissioners to locate
the county seat, as follows: Ephraim
Cutler of Washington, Samuel Ly-
brand of Pickaway, and Daniel Robb
Of Guernsey. The fight was be-
tween McConnelsville and Bristol
(the David Stevens stand) and Brfs-
toi had the advantage in being
nearer the center OF the county
Robb favored Bristol, but the other
two commissioners selected McCon~
neIsyilIe. But this did not end the
fight A special election was held in
April, 1919, to select county COM
missioners. Robert Menee, OF olive,
David Fulton, of Manchester. and
sylvanus Piper, of Morgan, We're
selected
1t was their duty to construct a
court house, but it was soon dis
covered that all three ware opposed
10 locating the court house at Nc
Connelsville. Piper was from Nor
San township, but until 1889 Nor
gan township included what Is now
Malta township, and Piper lived on
the west side Of the river. The Nc
Connelsviil le- Malta feud thus start
I'd one month after the county was
organized. Matters remained thug
q deadlock until the regular
election, Oct IS, 1919.
The friends of McConnelsville
nominated for county commissioners
William Montgomery of Bloom,
Richard Cheadle of Windsor, and
john Shut of Deerfield. The cleo
tiDn resulted Futon 200, Mckee
,25T. Piper 2J2, Cheadle 303, Shut
! 31.8 and Montgomery 323.
The result was SO close that Nc
| IConnelsvile supporters became
frightened lest the contest be re-
opened. When the General AS
sembly met in December, resolu-
tion was introduced and passed the
house providing for the selection of
new county seat commission. ia
cob Adams of McConnelsville was
sent to Columbus post haste, and
succeeded in having the resolution
| killed in the senate. On Dec. "a,
1879, the legislature passed an act
detaching two townships east. of
Sarahsville, from Morgan, and
uniting them to Monroe county.
These townships are today Seneca
and Center townships, Noble coun-
| ty. This eliminated enough Opposi-
ton voters to restore the balance of
power to McConnelsville. Under
the first Ohio constitution, up to
1851, the General Assembly could
change the boundaries of counties
at will without referring the matter
to the voters affected. Under our
present constitution of 1851, should
the legislature provide for Man
chester being attached to Noble.
both counties would have to approve
the change by majority vote, to
make the change valid.
i Morgan county from 1919 to
1851 was uniformly Democratic.
Andrew Jackson carried the county
in 1892 by lat majority and in
1886 by 154. AS population in
i creased, the normal Democrat ma
/ jority grew to 800 or 400.
i In 1845 the Wings had control OF
the legislature and decided to
change the political complexion OF
Morgan county. To do this, Homer
and Marion were detached from
Athens and seven sections from
Roxbury township, Washington
Icounty, and all added to Morgan
icounty.
This change did not quite produce
lthe result desired. for in the frs
IaIoetsop In uuhioh ununor and Mar