Origin of Morgan County.
Tradition tells that the settlement originally owed its existence to a spring, not far distant from where is now the city of Madison. This old spring as long disappeared. It’s water hither completely dried up or diverted into other channels. The “preservation of the public spring,” is referred to in the legislative enactment by which the town of Madison was incorporated and made the county seat of Morgan in later years. This original settling around the spring grew and grew with advancing years, until today there exists an attractive county and a city unsurpassed in many ways by its sister communities in the state, where once the savage red man roamed and beasts of the jungle had their lairs.
Among the old records at the county courthouse in Madison is found a COMPILATION of the LAWS of the STATE OF GEORGIA, by Augustin Smith Clayton, Esq., printed at Augusta, Georgia in the year 1813 by Adams & Duyckinck, which gives an interesting, though brief, legislative history as to the organization of Morgan county.
The old record tells that the county of Morgan was “formed from parts of Baldwin and Wilkinson counties” by legislative enactment assented to the 10th day of December, 1807. Benjamin Whitaker was speaker of the house of representative, David Bates was president of the senate and Jared Irwin was governor of the state.
......The first justices of the inferior court were the “Honourables Isaac Hughes, W. Brown, Stephen Nobles and Wm. Randle.”
.......The first will probated in the newly organized ordinary’s court was that of Joel Phillips “Whitehall Phillips and Charity Phillips qualified and were appointed as administrators of the estate of Joel Phillips;” the citation was advertised to the requirements of law in the Milledgeville Advertiser under the date of 24th of September, 1807.
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Source: The Banner-Herald, Athens, Georgia, Sunday, July 17, 1921; Pg. 1 and continued on Pg. 5
Attachment:
Source: Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, Georgia, February 20, 1808; Pg. 3, Column 4
