History of Martinsville
Morgan County, was named after
Revolutionary War General Daniel Morgan, was approved by the governor
in 1822. An appointed committee was given the task of choosing a
county seat. Centerton and Waverly, two established towns, lobbied
for the honor. By donating a total of 155 acres of land for a
proposed town in Washington Township, Joel Ferguson, Jacob Cutler,
John Gray, Joshua Taylor, and Samuel Scott, became the founding
fathers of Martinsville. The town was named for the senior member of
the selection committee and local settler, John Martin. James
Gattelly surveyed and laid out the town with 42 blocks, 18 of which
were set back for the town square. The lots went up for sale in June
1822. By 1824 sixteen families lived in the town and all the lots
were sold in less that 30 years.
Soon after the establishment of Martinsville as the county
seat, a tradition of Saturday afternoon horse racing was born. The
race track ran east and west along the north side of the square until
it was determined to be a hazard and moved south one-quarter
mile.
Attempts were made to incorporate from 1840, but it took a public mandate in 1863 to win the right to vote for elected officials and pass ordinances. A board of five trustees, a marshal/treasurer and a clerk/assessor were elected to serve. The first mayor, James Baldwin, and the first police chief, John Fulford, were elected in 1884.
Pork and grain had become important industries by 1835. The area of Morgan County was originally heavily forested with hardwoods. Forest floors were dense with shrubs. Open areas were matted with nettles and pea vines. Thick grape vines covered the canopy of the treetops.
This made the area ideal for raising pork. "Razorbacks" and "Landsharks" were turned loose in the woods to forage. Most were fed a small amount of corn each day by the farmers to keep them close to the farms. The hogs that were not fed at all became wild and quite dangerous. Tusks on these animals were up to six inches in length, and they were faster and more aggressive than the hogs of today. In the 1840s, as many as 9,000 hogs per year were butchered in local slaughterhouses, packed in locally made barrels, and shipped on flatboats to markets as far away as New Orleans.