Morgan County, Kentucky: History
Morgan County was formed on December 7, 1822, from portions of Bath County and Floyd County. It was named for Daniel Morgan, a distinguished general in the American Revolutionary War.
The first white settler in the county was Daniel Williams, a traveling preacher from Virginia who built the first permanent home in the vicinity several miles south of present-day West Liberty. Williams had also previously served in the American Revolution in the Kentucky Militia.
During the Civil War, Morgan County was a majority Pro-Confederate County. 220 Morgan County men served as Union Soldiers, while nearly 400 or more served as Confederate soldiers. Morgan County men formed nearly all of A, B, C and parts of D and E. companies of the 5th KY Infantry. (CSA)
On May 29, 1869, a portion of Morgan County became part of present-day Menifee County.
Morgan County was hit by a devastating EF3 tornado during a widespread and deadly tornado outbreak on March 2, 2012. The county seat was the most heavily impacted area by the tornado, as monetary costs within West Liberty and Morgan County reached up to $75 million (2012 USD). Six out of eleven people (including one direct death) were killed within the county by the tornado.
In May 2015, Morgan County was sued for $1 million (2015 USD) by Emergency Disaster Services (EDS), a Lexington-based emergency relief company the county rented various amounts of equipment and apparatus from following the 2012 tornado. EDS demanded to be paid by the county, but officials of Morgan County claimed EDS owner Jerry Lundergan, a former Kentucky Democratic Party chairman, was price gouging for the rented equipment and repairs throughout the area. They also claimed Lundergan struck shady business deal with Timothy Alexander Conley, the county's former judge-executive who was sentenced in 2014 to seven years in a federal prison following various counts of fraud, money laundering, bid rigging and kickbacks.