Januarius Aloysius MacGahan

This statue is in honor of the "Liberator of Bulgaria," Januarius Aloysius MacGahan. It depicts MacGahan striding forward, seemingly staring at the 1887 Perry County Courthouse across the street. He holds a pen in one hand and a notepad in the other, with a crossbody satchel resting against his back. The stone he walks upon reads, "JANUARIUS A. MACGAHAN, 1844 - 1878, CHAMPION OF BULGARIAN FREEDOM." His notepad appears to have some possible letters carved into it, as well as "1982," presumably the year Lubomir Daltchev, a Bulgarian-American sculptor, created the statue.

The man depicted, Januarius Aloysius MacGahan, was a war correspondent, born to Irish immigrant parents in New Lexington, Ohio, where his statue now stands. He was mentored in his youth by General Philip Sheridan, also a son of Perry County, who has his own statue 8 miles away in Somerset. MacGahan's graphic reports in 1876 of the massacre of Bulgarians by the Ottoman Turks created massive public outrage throughout the world. When the Turks turned to Britain, their traditional ally, for help at an impending Russian invasion, Britain refused to intervene, due to the intense opposition of their citizens in the wake of MacGahan's reporting. The ensuing Russo-Turkish War resulted in the defeat of the Ottoman Turks and their five-century rule over Bulgaria. Bulgaria became an autonomous state following the war. In 1878, three months after the war ended, MacGahan died from typhoid fever in Constantinople. He is celebrated by Bulgarians for his role in keeping the British out of the war, and his writing and accomplishments were well-known to Americans at the time as well, as they had also been horrified by the atrocities he wrote about. Now, however, his name and his impact are almost completely unknown in America. There is a society in his name, the MacGahan American Bulgarian Foundation, that holds an annual MacGahan festival in New Lexington and helps honor his legacy.

The statue is located in Doobie Park, at the intersection of Main St and Brown St, across from the Perry County Courthouse.