Formed December 7, 1822 (73rd county)
Morgan County (13,724), West Liberty (3,221)
The 1907 brown/green stucco Beaux Arts courthouse in West Liberty stands out. It is located at Main and Court streets. The courthouse is two blocks south of United States Highway 460 in the town. The building was renovated in 1936 and repaired in 2012 following a tornado. M. T. Lewman provided the designs. A Judicial Center was added in 2014. The courthouse features a tower with a working clock and the grounds have veteran memorials. The county was formed on December 7, 1822 from parts of Bath and Floyd counties as the 73rd county with West Liberty as the only county seat. American Revolutionary War hero Daniel Morgan inspired the name of the county. He is also the namesake of the county seat of Union County. The county seat was named to align with the county seat of Pike County (originally Liberty but later changed to Pikeville).
Morgan County government consists of a sheriff, County Judge Executive, and 5 Magistrates. One Circuit Court Judge, Two District Court Judges, and One Family Court Judge serve Morgan, Carter, and Elliott counties. The county is situated in eastern Kentucky. Huntington, West Virginia is northeast and Lexington, Kentucky is west of the county. The county center is in West Liberty .4 miles North-Northeast of the city center. The county is surrounded clockwise by Elliott, Lawrence, Johnson, Magoffin, Wolfe, Menifee, and Rowan counties.
The area of the county is 381 square miles. It is 39 out of 120 in the state. It ranks 79 out of 120 in population in the state. It has a density of 36.0 persons per square mile making it 96 out of 120 in the state. Morgan County has 23.5% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 460 comes from Menifee County, northwest, and goes into Magoffin County, south. The county is shaped like a tree lying toward the west. West Liberty is in the southwest quarter of the county. West Liberty is the county seat and the largest city since it is the only incorporated city. It is 23.5% of the county population.
West Liberty
