ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY
The H.H.
Hardesty history of Monroe County provides an historical view of how the County
was originally formed. That section of the Hardesty book that is titled, “ORGANIZATION
OF THE COUNTY” is reproduced below. It is primarily a technical description of
the dates, actions, and boundaries that ultimately defined the new legal
jurisdiction of Monroe County, Ohio.
On the 29th
day of January, 1813, An act to erect the county of Monroe was passed by the
legislature. Section one provided that so much of the counties of Belmont,
Washington, and Guernsey as comes within the boundaries, viz: being at the Ohio
river in Belmont county, on the township line, between the third and fourth
township in the third range: thence running west along the township line to the
line running between the seventh and eight ranges, in the county of Guernsey;
thence running south with said range line to the line running between the
fourth and fifth townships in the said seventh range; thence east with said
township line to the Ohio river; thence up said river, by and with the meanders
thereof, to the place of beginning, be and is hereby erected into a county, by
the name of Monroe, to be organized whenever the legislature shall hereafter
think proper; but to remain attached to the said counties of Belmont,
Washington and Guernsey as already by law provided, until said county of Monroe
shall be organized.
Section two
provided for the appointment of commissioners to locate the county seat and
make report to the court of common pleas for the county of Belmont.
On the 21st
day of December, 1814, the following resolution was passed: “Resolved by the
General Assembly of the State of Ohio: That James Dunlap, of Ross county, John
Barr, of Pickaway county, and George Clark of Columbiana county, be and they
are hereby appointed commissioners to fix the seat of justice of the county of
Monroe.
On the 3rd
day of February, 1815, AAn act to attach part of the county of Washington to
the county of Monroe, and to organize the county of Monroe into a separate
county,: was passed. By the first, section of said act, fractional township
number one, in the fourth range, in Washington county, was attached to and made
part of Monroe county.
By section two
said county of Monroe was declared organized into a separate county.
Section three
provided that all suits and actions then before instituted should be prosecuted
to final judgment and execution the same as if the county had not been erected;
and that all taxes levied and unpaid at that time, should be collected by the
collectors of Belmont, Washington and Guernsey counties, respectively.
By section four
it was provided that the then justices of the peace should hold their office
until their respective terms should expire.
Section five
provided that the county officers should be elected on the first Monday of
April 1815, to hold their offices until the next annual election; and where any
election township should be divided by establishment of Monroe county, in such
manner that the place of holding the township election should fall within the
counties of Belmont, Guernsey, or Washington, in that case, the electors of
said fractional township should vote at the next adjoining township in the
county of Monroe.
Section six
provided that the courts for the county should be holden at the house of Levin
Okey until the permanent seat of justice should be established, and that the
act should take effect on the first day of March 1815.
On the 24th
day of December, 1819, “An act to attach part of county of Morgan to the county
of Monroe,” was passed. By said act so much of Morgan as was contained in the
sixth and seventh townships of range eight, were attached to the county of
Monroe; and the same provisions as to justice of the peace, suits or actions,
and taxes, were made as in the preceding act.
By the erection
of Noble county, in 1851, the townships of Elk, Enoch, Union, Stock, and parts
of Seneca and Franklin were detached from Monroe, and a strip of territory two
miles wide and thirteen miles in length, or twenty-six sections, were taken
from Washington county and added to Monroe. The greatest extent of the county,
east and west, is twenty-six and a half miles, by twenty-two miles north and
south, and contains 470 square miles.
The old line
between Washington and Belmont counties began on the Ohio river between
sections twenty-one and twenty-two, in township one, of range three, thence
west between sections three and four to the boundary line.
The above
description of the organization of Monroe County was reproduced from a book
titled, the "Combined History and Atlas of Monroe County, Ohio." The
material for this book was taken from two nineteenth century books: (1)
'History of Monroe County Ohio,' a product of the H.H. Hardesty & Co.,
publishers, Chicago and Toledo, 1882 and (2) 'Caldwell's Atlas of Monroe
County, Ohio,' a product of Atlas Publishing Company, Mount Vernon, Ohio, 1898.
The "Combined History and Atlas of Monroe County, Ohio" was reprinted
and is available from the Monroe County Historical Society
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