In writing a history of Madison County, we believe it to be one of the most important duties we owe to her citizens to give an authentic list of the men who have filled the many public offices and occupied a leading position in her affairs. Since the first white settlers built their cabins within her limits, there has never been a time when there were not men competent and trustworthy to transact the public business, and guide the affairs of the growing county in a manner satisfactory to her people. With the object in view of preserving the names of those officials, we have spared no pains in making a thorough research of all records within our reach, and, if there should be any list incomplete, it is because there is no source now in existence from which to obtain the information. The reader will bear in mind that seventy-two years have passed away since the birth of Madison County,and that in the first years of its existence little was done toward preserving many facts important to the historian of to-day. No regular method was followed in keeping the records of the several offices, often the events were not transcribed at all, and what does exist is in places so vague, or dimmed by the ravages of time as to baffle our efforts toward deciphering its meaning with any degree of certainty.
The only citizen of Madison County who has ever had the honor of being a member of the United States House of Representatives was Richard A. Harrison, now a resident of Columbus, Ohio, but who for many years was a leading member of the Madison County bar. He was elected to represent the Seventh Congressional District in the Thirty-seventh Congress (1861-63), vice Thomas Corwin, who resigned to accept the appointment of Minister to Mexico. Three citizens of this county have been Presidential Electors, viz.: James Curry, in 1816, as a Monroe and Tompkins Elector; Aquilla Toland, in 1840, as a Harrison and Tyler Elector; and Charles Phellis, in 1872, as an Elector on the Grant and Wilson ticket.
For seven years prior to the erection of Madison County its vote belonged to Franklin, and ere the formation of the latter its ballots were counted among those of Ross. It will, therefore, be of interest to the citizens of this portion of Ohio to know who represented the territory now embraced within its boundaries from the first Territorial Assembly up to the present. The members were, from 1799-1801, Thomas Worthington, Elias Langham, Samuel Findlay and Edward Tiffin; 1801-1802, Edward Tiffin, Elias Langham and Thomas Worthington. The Territory then became a State, and the constitution thereof provided for a General Assembly composed of the members of the Senate and House of Representatives.