Place:Morgan, Indiana, United States

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Morgan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 68,894. The county seat (and only incorporated city) is Martinsville.

Morgan County is between Indianapolis, in Marion County, and Bloomington in Monroe County. It is included in the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Two major highways, Interstate 69 and Indiana State Road 67, carry large numbers of daily commuters between the two larger communities. The county has 14 townships which provide local services.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The future state of Indiana was first regulated by passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. The governing structure created by this act was superposed over an area that was still largely contested with the country's natives, although these were being gradually pushed out of the area. In 1818, a series of treaties was concluded, resulting in the confinement of the Miami tribe to the reserve area and the removal of the Delaware tribe, who had dominated central and east central Indiana, to west of the Mississippi River by 1820, clearing the way for colonization. The area was called the Delaware New Purchase until it was divided into Wabash County in the northwest and Delaware County in the southeast on 2 January 1820. Those counties were soon after dissolved, and the areas came to be called the "Wabash New Purchase" and "Delaware New Purchase" (renamed the "Adams New Purchase" in 1827). Subsequently, 35 new counties (including Morgan, authorized on 15 February 1822) were carved out of the original area. It was named for Gen. Daniel Morgan, who defeated the British at the Battle of Cowpens in the Revolutionary War.

The first settlers arrived in Morgan County in 1822. They came mostly from southern states. The Mooresville area and surrounding communities received large numbers of southern Quakers, driven to migrate because of their opposition to slavery. Paul Hadley, a Mooresville resident, was the designer of the current Indiana flag, as well as a locally prominent water color artist in the early twentieth century.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mineral springs in Martinsville gave rise to several spas, and the nickname of the Martinsville High School athletic teams has subsequently been the Artesians.

County government took several steps forward in the 2000s, creating a new Plan Commission, re-instituting a county economic development organization, and establishing the county's first Park and Recreation Board between 2000 and 2004. Morgan County also was the first county in the metropolitan Indianapolis region to establish a smoking ban ordinance for restaurants, taking that step in 2004. Other communities in the region soon followed Morgan County's lead.

Courthouse

The first building used for Morgan County courts was the log house of a pioneer. Work began in 1823 to build the first courthouse, a two-story log house. A brick courthouse replaced it in 1833.

The Morgan County courthouse was designed by Isaac Hodgson in the Italianate style. It was built from 1857 to 1859 by Perry M. Blankenship of Martinsville at a cost of $32,000. It was almost identical to Hodgson's Jennings County courthouse in Vernon, which was also begun in 1857, but the Martinsville building received an addition in the 1970s; the original section was also remodeled and renovated at that time. The building is of red brick with white stone quoins and has tall windows with round arches, arranged in pairs. It is one of the few remaining pre-Civil War courthouses.

Timeline

Date Event Source
1822 County formed Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1822 Land records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1822 Marriage records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1822 Probate records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1830 First census Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
1870 No significant boundary changes after this year Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
1882 Birth records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
Census Year Population
1830 5,593
1840 10,741
1850 14,576
1860 16,110
1870 17,528
1880 18,900
1890 18,643
1900 20,457
1910 21,182
1920 20,010
1930 19,424
1940 19,801
1950 23,726
1960 33,875
1970 44,176
1980 51,999
1990 55,920

Cemeteries

Cemeteries of Morgan County, Indiana, United States

Research Tips

Check out the The Morgan County Public Library.

External links

www.rootsweb.com/~inmorgan


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Morgan County, Indiana. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.