Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 22 December 2004

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In March, 1879, the County Commissioners decided to submit the question of building a new court house to a vote of the electors of the county. Within one week after public notice of the election had been given, there was held in Morrow a public meeting of the citizens of that place to consider the question of voting a tax for a new court house. The preambles and resolutions adopted at this meeting were printed in it circular and widely circulated throughout the county. They declared strongly against the proposed tax; that a new court house ought to be built without increasing the burden of taxes; that it is just and right that those who are benefited largely by the location of a new court house should furnish the money to build it and save those not pecuniarily benefited from being taxed therefor, and "That the friends of Morrow tender to the people of Warren County the proposition to furnish the grounds and build the new court house by private donations free to the taxpayers, and we fully recognize the right of any and all other towns in Warren-County to make similar propositions, leaving it to the people to say where their convenience and best interests require its location."

At the April election, the people of the county, by an overwhelming majority, voted against the tax. The question was again submitted at the October election of 1879, with a like result. After the second vote on the question,, the citizens of Morrow prepared and industriously circulated a petition to the. Legislature praying for a law authorizing a vote on the question of the removal of the seat of justice. The petition set forth the advantages of Morrow as a seat of justice, being at the junction of two railroads and that "Lebanon being off the railroad can afford neither markets nor manufacturing facilities and has failed to develop the ordinary advantages of a county town."

The people of Lebanon, at first feeling perfectly secure in their possession of the seat of justice, treated the movement of Morrow with contempt. A. different course was soon decided upon, and, for some months, the people of the whole county experienced something of the bitterness and animosity which, usually result from the agitation of the question of the removal of a seat of justice. Having given up all hopes of a vote in favor of a tax for a new court house, the friends of Lebanon as one means of settling the removal contest urged upon the County Commissioners the necessity of repairing the existing building, and the contract for its extension and repair was entered into by the Commissioners. The friends of Lebanon also circulated throughout the county a remonstrance addressed to the Legislature against the prayer of the Morrow petition. The following extracts are taken from this remonstrance:

"On the formation of Warren County at the first session of the first State

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"So nearly exactly in the center of the county is the present, county seat, that of the two diagonal lines uniting the extreme corners of the county, one passes through the town, the other within a short distance of the corporate limits. It is not only the geographical center; it is the center of population; the center of the largest and most populous township; and the center to which a greater number of free macadamized highways converge from all directions than to any other town in the county, or perhaps in the State. The taxes for new bridges and road improvements alone in case of removal would exceed the cost of a necessary court house improvement on the present site.

"The county buildings, the jail, a new infirmary, costing $60,000, other infirmary buildings, the infirmary farm of seventy-seven acres, a new County Orphan Asylum, are all centrally located at or near Lebanon, convenient to the administration of legal business, and could not be relocated except at great cost."

The Morrow petition and the Lebanon remonstrance were presented to the Legislature. The whole county had been thoroughly canvassed in the interests of both parties. The signatures to the petition numbered 2,148; those to the remonstrance, 3,750. A bill in accordance with the prayer of the petition was introduced into the Senate. The bill, petition and remonstrance were referred to one of the standing committees of the Senate. This committee, after hearing arguments from representatives of both parties, on February 12, 1880, agreed unanimously to report against the bill. This ended the contest for the removal of the county seat from Lebanon.