West Liberty, the seat of Morgan county, is located on the Licking River in the center of the county. It was settled in 1804 and became known as Wells Mill, for the mill of Edmund Wells. The town was renamed West Liberty when it became the seat of the new county in 1823. The name is thought to have been chosen because the town was west of the site of a proposed town to be called Liberty that would be the seat of Pike county, which was being formed at about the same time. The population in 1990 was 1,887.