The current Morgan County location is included as a part of the territory obtained from the Creek Indians by a treaty at Fort Wilkinson, on the 16th day of June, 1802. This area was made into three counties, Wayne, Wilkinson and Baldwin. Morgan County was subsequently divided from Baldwin County. An act "to lay out and identify six new counties out of the counties of Baldwin and Wilkinson" was passed by the Legislature and signed by Jared Irwin, Governor of Georgia, on December 10th, 1807.
The lands were opened for settlement by a lottery conducted by the State, the terms of which are fully set forth in the Act of the Legislature and approved by John Milledge, Governor, on the llth day of May, 1803. The numbers of all the lots of land were put in a box, together with enough blanks to make the number of tickets equal to the number entitled to draw. Each free white male between ages of 21 and 50 had one chance.
Morgan County was named in honor of General Daniel Morgan. General Morgan served on Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec in 1776, commanded the riflemen at Saratoga in 1777 and defeated British General Tarleton at Cowpens in 1781. After the War he served two terms in Congress.
