Give me liberty.
And while you’re at it, give me a place to hang around for 173 years.
That’s precisely what Patrick Henry has been doing all this time in Morgantown.
Or rather, that’s what that 9-foot wooden statue depicting him has been doing all this time in Morgantown.
Henry, of course, is known for the “Give me liberty, or give me death” quote that closed out an incendiary address he delivered in 1775 to the Virginia legislature.
Make that, the fledgling Virginia legislature, which was one year away from official statehood.
He was the colony’s first governor, and it was his job to get the new Americans roused for the Revolution, which, as history shows, he did.
Meanwhile, the northwestern climes of the colony of the Commonwealth, in what would become West Virginia, Morgantown and Mon (such as they were) were already settled, given the brisk river trade developing on the Monongahela River.
Any democracy and place of commerce needs a courthouse, so one went up in 1784, followed by a new, improved one in 1802 and still yet another in 1848 — which is where the governor comes in.
Well, actually, he was perched.
The Rev. Ebenezer Mathers, a local minister who knew both the Word and a whittling knife, set about carving Henry’s likeness from a single log of wood.
On Aug. 20 in 1851, said statue was dedicated and placed at the very top of the structure.
While the statue and whatever moorings used to keep it in place bore up nicely, the same couldn’t be said of the courthouse.
By the early 1870s, it was deemed structurally unsafe for meetings or occupancy of any kind.
Even so, the building languished in architectural limbo almost two decades after.
That’s because residents didn’t want to pass a bond measure required to pay for a new one — citing a reason that could be pulled from any headline in The Dominion Post of the present day. We’ll get to that.
So, what was Monongalia County to do?
At the stroke of midnight on Sept. 13, 1890, county officials, bolstered by local attorneys and circuit court staffers, ordered the demolition of the building — making sure to grab all the pertinent documents, plus that statue of Patrick Henry, first.
The new courthouse, which is also Mon’s current courthouse, a Victorian Romanesque marvel, was dedicated a year later.
Gov. Henry’s statue took liberty for a time at the Morgantown Public Library and Morgantown High School, before moving back to the courthouse in October 1976, just in time for Mon’s bicentennial celebration.
According to most historians, it’s the oldest statue of any dignitary in the state.
In case you’re wondering, Mon’s courthouse cost more than $43,000 in 1891 — which comes out to nearly $1.5 million in today’s dollars.
Residents then didn’t want to pony up for the price tag.
And, as said, they had a motivation that could give any 21st century Morgantown and Mon resident pause.
They wanted to put the money into road improvements, instead.
Give me liberty — but how about doing something with these potholes, will ya?
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