Morrow County, Ohio

Morrow County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Mount Gilead
Year Organized: 1848
Square Miles: 406

Court House:

80 N. Walnut Street, Suite A

Mount Gilead, OH 43338-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Residents named the county in honor of Jeremiah Morrow, a previous governor of Ohio.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

On February 24, 1848, the Ohio government authorized the creation of Morrow County. Residents named the county in honor of Jeremiah Morrow, a previous governor of Ohio. Many early settlers were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), who played an active role in the Underground Railroad. During World War I, Morrow County residents purchased more Victory bonds than the residents of any other single Ohio county. To honor this achievement, the Victory Shaft Monument was erected in downtown Mount Gilead.

Morrow County is located in the north central portion of Ohio. The county seat is Mount Gilead, which is the largest population center, with almost 3,300 residents in 2000. This marked a fourteen percent growth in the town’s population since 1990, and the county, itself, experienced a similar growth rate, to a total population of 31,628 people, during this same time period. Unlike many of Ohio’s more rural counties, which are losing population to the state’s larger cities, Morrow County is experiencing tremendous growth. An average of seventy-eight people live in each of Morrow County’s 406 square miles.

Despite the tremendous growth, Morrow County remains heavily rural. Farming is the county’s largest employer, with approximately sixty-two percent of the county’s acreage serving as farm fields. Manufacturing businesses are the county’s next largest employer, with government and retail positions finishing third and fourth respectively. Oil drilling also proved to be a major industry in the county during the 1960s. The county’s average income was 17,776 dollars per person in 1999, with 10.1 percent of the population living in poverty.

Most voters in Morrow County claim to be independents, yet in recent years, they have overwhelmingly supported Republican candidates at the national level

Sources

Morrow County, Ohio History Central, July 24, 2008,

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1983&nm=Morrow-County

Neighboring Counties:

Crawford County (north)
Richland County (northeast)
Knox County (southeast)
Delaware County (southwest)
Marion County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Bennington	township
- Canaan	township
- Cardington	village	Incorporated Area
- Chesterville	village	Incorporated Area
- Edison	village	Incorporated Area
- Fulton	village	Incorporated Area
- Gilead	township
- Harmony	township
- Lincoln	township
- Marengo	village	Incorporated Area
- Mount Gilead (County Seat)	village	Incorporated Area
- Peru	township
- Sparta	village	Incorporated Area
- Westfield	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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