Morgan County was organized
January 5, 1833, and was named for Daniel Morgan, a
Revolutionary War general. The County consists of 594
square miles and has an approximate population of
20,000.
In 1836, Morgan County's
first courthouse in the frontier town of Versailles,
Missouri was a log building that was purchased and
reconstructed on the square. It remained there in service
until 1843, when it was removed in favor of a more permanent
building. The county's second courthouse, built in 1844,
was a rectangular, two-story, brick building. After more
than forty years of continuous use, the voters agreed to
build a third courthouse, but in 1887, while the new
building was under construction, the old building was
destroyed by fire.
It took a judge's ruling in 1889 to clear the way for
construction to proceed on the county's present courthouse
in Versailles. A court case developed when the courthouse
bond issue election created a major question about the
interpretation of a state statute. One group of citizens
argued that the two-thirds majority, which the law required,
applied to the total number of eligible voters in the
county. Another group of voters claimed that a two-thirds
majority of those who actually voted in the election was
sufficient. The judge sided with those who thought that
two-thirds of actual voters settle the issue.
After the legal challenge was resolved, the county could
issue the bonds that had been passed by the voters, and
construction of the present courthouse went forward. The
still hard-at-work courthouse is on the National Register of
Historic Places.
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