Browsing past editions of the Morrow County Sentinel I was surprised to read in a May 31, 1935, edition that a proposal had been made in the Ohio legislature for the “merging of the 88 counties into 22 districts, and Morrow County would become part of Marion County with Marion as the county seat.”
Other counties to be merged in the proposal were Delaware, Union and Crawford. According to the article, “insistent opposition had been found voiced here time and time again.”
However, two years later, in a February, 19, 1937 edition, it was stated the proposal was still being made with the name of the new sub-division “taken from that of the most populous county of the district, in this case Marion.”
The story states the same procedure would be followed in the selection of a county seat, Marion. The bill was introduced by Senator Harold D. Nichols, a Democrat from Claremont County, and was presented as an economy measure.
Among the optional plans which the legislators were to be asked to adopt was the county manager plan whereby a county manager would appoint all county officers and serve as chief executive with the office being elective.
It was later noted that the changes which would be optional if the merger was approved would be the merger of the offices of county auditor and treasurer, merger of the offices of clerk of courts and recorder and elimination of county coroners.
However, by the end of the 1930s the state legislature had stopped this “nonsense proposal.” Before redistricting took place in the late 1960s each county had a representative in the state legislature and Morrow County’s was J. G. Mills, of Cardington, who served from 1934 to 1940.
More news from 1968: The two Catholic parishes in Morrow County were allotted $25,000 by the Columbus Diocese to help build a joint multi-purpose parish center.
The Head Start School program began in the county with schools opening in Cardington, Fulton, Mount Gilead and Marengo.
October, 1948: Carol Higgins was selected secretary; Silver Russell, treasurer, and Jane Patterson, reporter of the Brownie Scout Troop
Don Cotner, Cardington farmer, discovered a 102 year old grave on the Benedict Farm west of Marengo. The headstone, located in a grove of large oaks read “Nathaniel Earl, at the age of 77, died Sept. 28, 1846 and was buried there.”
October, 1958: Joyce Truax, Mary Lou Evans, Sandra Denton, Barbara Hold and Sandra Weaver were members of the Cardington Homecoming court. Miss Truax was crowned queen.
Carolyn Carr, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Carr, returned to OSU in Columbus where she was a second year nursing student. The Carr family resided on the former Paul Fricke farm southeast of Cardington.
October, 1968: Brad Curl, Russell Bergdoll, Shawn Martin and David Jones all of Cardington, appeared on “Luci’s Toy Shop” on WBNS-TV, Channel 10 in Columbus.
October, 1978: Earl Linstedt retired after 16 years as Cardington postmaster.
