The act establishing the same reads as follows: "That all that part of the county of Franklin, lying west of Franklinton, is hereby erected into a separate county and bounded as followeth, viz.: Beginning at the southeast corner of Delaware county; thence east with the south boundary of the said county line, to a point that a line running due south will be the distance of twelve and one-half miles west of the county seat of Franklin county; thence on a straight line, to the northwest corner of the county of Pickaway; thence with said line south, until it intersects the line of Ross county; thence west with said line, to the line of Greene county; thence north with the line of Greene, to the Champaign county line; thence with the Champaign line, to the place of beginning.
"That the said county of Madison shall, from and after the 1st day of March next, be, and the same is hereby declared to be a separate and distinct county, and entitled to all the rights and privileges appertaining to the same; Provided, that all actions and suits which are, or may be pending, or instituted in the county of Franklin, before the first Monday of March next, shall be prosecuted and carried into final judgment_and execution, and all taxes which shall be now due, shall be collected as though the act had not passed.
"That on the first Monday in April next, the legal voters residing in said county of Madison, shall assemble in their respective townships, and elect their several county officers, who shall hold their offices until the next annual election.
"That there shall be appointed, by joint resolution of both houses of the present General Assembly, three commissioners to fix the seat of justice in said county of Madison, agreeable to the act establishing the seats of justice, who shall make report of their proceedings to the court of common pleas, of Franklin county, who shall be governed by the provision of the aforesaid act.
"That the commissioners aforesaid shall be paid for their services out of the treasury of the county of Madison, and that the temporary place of holding courts, until otherwise provided for according to law, shall be at house of Thomas Gwynne, in said county of Madison. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the 1st day of March next."
By an act passed January 16, 1818, the following territory was_added to Madison county: "That all that part of Champaign county, east of the eastern boundary of Clark county be, and the same is, hereby attached to Madison."
In the erection of Union county, January 10, 1820, a strip of territory two and one-half miles wide, parallel with the old line, was taken from the north part of Madison, in the formation of the new county, while at the same time the following territory was cut off from Franklin county and attached to Madison, viz.: "Beginning on the line between the counties of Franklin and Madison, at a point two and one-half miles south of the north boundary of said counties; thence east two miles; thence south four miles; thence west two miles; thence north to the place of beginning, be attached to, and hereafter considered a part of Madison county." It will, doubtless, be of interest to the general reader to know of the many acts passed establishing and changing the county lines. The official records of the different surveys and changes since the erection of the county are therefore here given.