Organized as Wise County in 1855, todays Morris County was originally named for Henry A. Wise, who was Governor of Virginia during the John Brown seizure of Harper's Ferry. The execution of that "grand old man," at Charlestown, December 2, 1859, was one of the last acts of Wise's administration. The County's name was changed to Morris in February, 1859, in honor of Thomas Morris, a United States Senator from Ohio in 1832, who distinguished himself as an opponent of slavery.