By Brookville and Franklin County Historian John Newman
Editor’s Note: Mr. Newman wrote this in 1995 before the Franklin County Government Center was opened on Franklin Avenue in Brookville. When he wrote this history, all the county offices were in the courthouse.
Mr. Newman offered the use of this history while we were watching the removal of the historic belfry from the courthouse on Wednesday, November 4, and I was peppering him with questions on the history of the courthouse.
My thanks to Mr. Newman for allowing me to reprint this.
TALK TO THE FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FRANKLIN COUNTY COURTHOUSES:
PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
June 13, 1995
John J. Newman
Courthouses have always been a symbol in America. Their size, grandeur and prominence in the county seat reflect the pride and importance the county extends to itself. Its tower, as a beacon overlooking the community, has served as a source of information, from telling the public its location, to being the community’s source of time, either by tolling the bell on the hour or by a large four-faced clock. Its bell further has alerted the citizens of times of court, solemnizing events of tragedy, or alarming the community of a fire. The courthouse, then, is a source of pride, reflective of what a county’s citizens think of themselves.
The courthouse, however, is becoming an endangered institution. It is being replaced by “government centers,” “county office buildings,” or “Justice Centers,” all modern square or rectangular pill box structures indistinguishable in a sea of similar buildings within the county seat. And with the loss of its unique style is the loss of its symbolism. Fortunate is the county still maintaining its courthouse. Franklin County is one of these.
The courthouse reflects the dual responsibility county officials have to their citizens and the people to the county. It is both a building where functions occur, as the administration of justice, collection of taxes, and it is also where records resulting from performance of these and other functions are kept. These public records perpetuate title to land, guarantee individual rights and responsibilities, and document public decisions, as location and maintenance of roads and performance of other public functions. This dual character has been well documented in the history of the Franklin County Courthouse.
Thus, I wish to present a current study of our courthouse history, following in the footsteps of S. S. Harrell (1869), Elliott Winscott (1889), James B. Kidney (1893), G. Henri Bogart (1907) and the last study, by Will M. Baker, in 1912. Mine will be both an update for this current generation of Franklin Countians and additional sources of information and new interpretations of that data.
Distance and population have always dictated the creation of counties in Indiana. In pioneer times, it appeared as a rule of thumb that no one would be required to ride by horse more than a half a day to the county seat; if it appeared to the General Assembly that sufficient population was so inconvenienced by a greater distance, a new county was warranted.
Visionary speculators, as Jesse Burgess Thomas, then of Lawrenceburg, took advantage of this fact by platting Brookville in August 1808. Among the town’s lots was a “public square,” a positive sign that Brookville was designed to be the country seat of a new county. The territorial legislature agreed two years later when it created Franklin County. The enabling act of November 27, 1810 split both Franklin and Wayne counties from Dearborn, effective February 1, 1811. [An amendment changed Franklin County’s birthdate to January 1, 1811.]
That act appointed three commissioners to select a suitable site for a county seat. They were James Adair, David Hoover and Elijah Sparks, “whose duty it shall be to convene at the town of Brooksville in the said county of Franklin, on or before the first Monday in May next” to “proceed to fix the most convenient and eligible place for the permanent seat of justice for the same.” Upon establishment of the county seat, the judges of the county “shall immediately proceed to erect the necessary public buildings for the same at such place.” The commissioners did not act within the time period required by law so in an act approved December 5, 1811, the General Assembly legalized the commissioners’ late determination and enacted “That the seat of justice in and for the said county of Franklin, be and the same is hereby permanently fixed and established on the public square, in the town of Brookville, in the said County.”
The judges of the Court of Common Pleas did not act “immediately,” and terms of courts met at various taverns in Brookville, first being James Knight’s Old Yellow Tavern, now the site of the jail. Other places included the taverns of William H. Eads and Archibald Guthrie, and a log school house erected on the public square, as well as the home of the clerk of courts, Enoch McCarty.
Although Brookville was platted with a “public square,” the county did not gain official title to it until August 13, 1812, and the deed was not recorded until May 15, 1813. This may explain why the judges made no early attempt to build a courthouse. During the period, the county did not officially own the public square; a small log structure was erected on it, probably as a school. Evidently, this also served as the first courthouse, as the Court Minutes [April 13, 1812 state ” “. This continued as the primary courthouse until May 21, 1817, while public rooms in both Knight’s and Eads’ taverns were used for meetings, or grand and petit jury deliberations. Those places served as centers for the performance of functions, and not as record repositories.
In territorial times, there were two primary public servants, in addition to the judges: the clerk of courts and the sheriff. Enoch McCarty served as both recorder and clerk from 1811 to September 1814. As clerk, he kept the records for the courts, which functioned as a civil, probate and criminal court as well as regulated county business, as the county commissioners do today. The sheriff not only maintained the jail but was the tax collector and custodian of public monies.
Both these officials lived a short distance from the public square, and as was common in most counties until a permanent courthouse was built, kept the records in their houses. All the records of the county could fit into a large laundry basket or grain sack. Less than 25 ledgers were created during Franklin County’s territorial existence, most consisting of from 150 – 175 pages. The original marriage record from 1811-1819 consisted of 99 pages recorded in a ledger measuring 4 1/1″ X 6 1/2″. When court was in session, the proper ledger was brought to the courthouse or tavern for recordation. Sometimes, the clerk brought the wrong book so that entries of a probate nature may have been recorded in the ledgers used for county business. But at least there was a record and all such ledgers survive.
On November 21, 1814, the Associate Judges of the Franklin Circuit Court, acting as county commissioners, created a board of trustees, consisting of John Hall, John Jacobs and John R. Beaty, to superintend construction of Franklin County’s first permanent courthouse. Aquilla Logan drew up the plans, and the judges contracted with James Knight, a civil engineer. When Knight died September 17, 1816, his widow, Mary, sent for her brother, William McCleery, a builder, to finish construction. Their father, Henry, was an architect of distinction in Maryland and designed the Frederick, Maryland courthouse in 1785.
The courthouse was erected on the public square 25 feet east of Main street, facing it, and 33 feet north of an alley that formerly ran through the center of the square. The building was 40 feet square “with a half octagon in the rear, or East side of the house.” It was a two-story brick structure with the first floor 16 feet high and the second 11feet high. In the center of the front, was a large door, five feet wide and a window on each side. The north and south sides each had two windows and the rear three, all on the first floor and the second story had three windows on the front and rear and two on each side. The roof was covered with “good yellow poplar shingles, laid to form “a regular square at the top, over which shall be erected an handsome dome or cupula, the height of which shall not be less than 15 feet high, from the top of the roof of said building. The said cupola to be eight feet square and 10 feet in diameter.. .with a ball of not less than 15 inches in diameter with a handsome gilt eagle on the top.” The contract called for two chimneys each having fire places on each floor.
“The window and door frames to be completely painted white. The dome or cupula to be completely painted white. The roof of said building to be completely painted Spanish brown. And the walls to be painted and penciled, the paint on the walls to be of water? and Spanish brown.”
“The above building to be commenced by or before the first day of April next and to be completed as respect the above describing work by or before the first of October 1816.”
The county commissioners accepted the building May 21, 1817, as being “built and furnished in a good and complete manner agreeable to the bond” entered into by Knight. The commissioners then added “that the old courthouse or school house situated on the public square will be exposed to public sale on the third Monday of June next.” The purchaser “will be required to remove the Said house without delay of off the public ground.” Later writers state this log structure was moved to the east corner lot of Court Street off Fifth street.
The contract with James Knight was for $4,025 and the total cost of his contract was $4,116.75, of which about 18 percent or $753.62 was by public donation and $3,363.12 was from the public treasury. But the courthouse was not completely finished. In addition to benches, jury boxes, tables and chairs, in August 1817, 1,000 feet of rough flooring was laid and $63.87 was spent for a lightning rod system. In February 1818, the commissioners let a contract for $795 to complete the building, and in November of that year, paid $24.16 for paint and $15.75 for seven-and-one-half days for painting the exterior. In August 1819, the Commissioners paid $498 for lathe and plastering of the courthouse. These additions extended the true cost of the building to about $5,543.
In the early 1820s, a local blacksmith, William Hoyt, added a metal triangle instead of a bell. An 1826 account described it as “a simple triangular bar of cast steel, hung up by one corner; three hammers of different sizes are placed near the center, which strike the base by means of turning a crank. Sounds are produced every way as loud and pleasant as from the common bell.” The writer indicated Hoyt had erected this device on the courthouse in Brookville, and it could be heard to a distance of several miles. “It cost, we believe, about 40 dollars.”
The following description is abstracted from the remembrances of a former resident, who used the pen name, “Elliott Winscott.” The Courthouse “was not altogether rectangular, but the rear wall was slightly polygonal, so as to break the full rectangular shape, a fact that would hardly be appreciated at first sight. Its structure was simple without the least decoration, externally or internally. There was no cornice with gutters. It was two stories high, the walls were brick, and painted a light yellow color.” Winscott noted this paint survived intact from 1818, until the fire of 1852. [This may have been the Spanish brown called for in the contract with James Knight that had faded when Winscott remembered it, or a yellow paint paid for by the commissioners in March 1818.]
“The first story was occupied as a court room, the floor being divided into two equal parts, by a high matched board structure. Passing through the front portal, there was but one doorway for entrance, and you found yourself in what was termed the lobby, paved with hard burnt brick. Out of this opened two gateways into the sanctum or bar, where were admitted only the officers, lawyers and others having business to transact in court. In the center, against the east wall, stood the judges’ stand, flanked on either side by a capacious fire place and hearth for burning wood, the common fuel of the day.”
“The second floor was divided into four compartments, the two rear rooms being for the grand and petit juries, and the Clerk’s office in one the Recorder’s office in the other of the two front rooms.”
“A pointed, single roof, in the center of which was raised a dome or cupola, was what surmounted the walls of the building. In this cupola was hung the bell, the sounding of which not only gave notice of the hour for the meeting of court and the alarm of fire, but often toiled the march of a funeral possession.”
This courthouse remained but slightly modified until destroyed by fire in 1852. Beginning in 1820, and about every two years, the commissioners authorized payment for courthouse repairs. A new lightning rod was added in November 1823, costing $1.50. In September 1825, the commissioners authorized a platform for the judges’ bench to be built and added a table for the clerk. Most of the activities for the next thirty years involved the public square. In August 1829, a county pump was authorized and five years later, hay scales were added. In May 1835, a public well was mandated, and three years later a market house was permitted on the southwest corner of the square. In May 1839, the commissioners authorized the enclosing of the public square which was done by November 1840. Finally, in June 1845, the commissioners prohibited ball playing from occurring in the public square.
In addition to court, the courthouse was used for all sorts of public and religious meetings, gatherings, even for commercial purposes. On August 24, 1833 the Brookville Lyceum met at the courthouse at “early candle lighting.” Brookville’s first photographer rented space in the courthouse for his daguerreotype studio. But by June 1844, the commissioners limited the use of the courthouse for purposes more in keeping with its original purpose.
The building itself apparently required but few modifications. On February 23, 1848, the court ordered improvements to the courtroom. This included “some better seats than the present ones be provided for the judges,” and that those seats be “made about twenty-four inches lower.” They ordered “one air tight stove be placed on the North side in place of the fire place, and that raised seats be placed on the west side of the front.” Finally, “that a cheap carpet be provided to cover the floor within the bar,” and “that the stairs leading to the upper rooms be covered with the same cheap carpeting.”
This building lacked one vital element. It was not fireproof. On May 5, 1829, the Commissioners authorized construction of a two-room fireproof building on the public square for the clerk and recorder. The records are not clear if this structure was built, but in 1833, one George Holland advertised in the Brookville Inquirer that his law office was “one door north of the clerk’s office.” In January 1838, the clerk’s office at Anderson, Madison County burned and C. F. Clarkson, editor of the Indiana American, argued in favor of a fireproof clerk’s and recorder’s office. Nothing happened and when the courthouse in Dubois county burned in August 1839, he again argued the need for a fireproof building for the records, noting two weeks later that Dearborn county was erecting a fireproof structure for the clerk and recorder. Finally, at the June 1843 session, the county commissioners, authorized a fireproof building the public square, “to front with the Court house, equidistant between the Court House and the Gaol.” The building measured 60 feet by 18 feet and had four equal sized rooms for the clerk, recorder, treasurer and auditor. It was to be completed by November 1, 1843. The structure served its purpose saving the public records from destruction in the fire, and upon completion of the current courthouse, was torn down in early July 1857.
On Tuesday evening, about 11:30 PM, February 24, 1852, a fire started in Dr. Dutton’s daguerreotype studio in a frame building across from the courthouse. Among the seven structures destroyed in the fire, causing about $15,00 in damage, was the courthouse.”That venerable and aged pile–with its primitive architecture, and old associations is now nothing but blackened walls,” reported Clarkson, Editor of the American. With its loss, the county began immediately to plan for a new building.
The commissioners rented space in the German Methodist Church, which still stands on Fourth street, and authorized bids for removal of the rubble. On June 11, 1852, the commissioners resolved “to entertain propositions for the erection of a suitable Court house, corresponding with the wealth and status of this County” and hired Edwin May, who had just designed the Shelby County Courthouse. “And now comes numerous citizens of the County of Franklin and urge the Board to adopt the plan and specifications above recorded, and the Board after due deliberation and having the welfare of the Citizens of this County in view,” do adopt the plan. The cost was estimated at $26,000. Construction on the foundation began September 3, 1852 and the cornerstone was laid with Masonic ceremonies October 28th. In June 1853, the foundation was completed and the courthouse itself was dedicated October 5, 1855, or three years and eight months after the fire. The county officers moved in on November 2nd and the courthouse bell, weighing 1,500 pounds and costing $700, arrived the following August.
The construction was not without its moments. In 1853, a Mr. Bradley criticized May’s architectural ability. May picked up a nearby hatchet and gave him a glancing blow to the head. May was fined $5 for assault and battery but the editor of the Franklin Democrat commented “And this is the penalty for splitting open a fellow man’s head? What a mockery is law in Indiana! Man is suffered to use a deadly weapon upon his fellow man, and five dollars is the penalty. Cheap!” If May had been charged with attempted murder, our Statehouse in Indianapolis would be of a much different style. [Mays’ lawsuit over drunken workers]
Unfortunately, no photographs exist of the first brick courthouse or the building as completed in 1855. But for both we are fortunate to have verbal descriptions that can permit our imaginations to conjure up the pride our ancestors had in the beauty of the building.
While nearing completion, the editor of the Franklin Democrat described the interior. “This edifice, the best Court House in the Union, is now nearly complete. The County Offices are all on the ground floor.—On entering the Hall from the eastern outer door, the first inside door to your right is the business room of the Clerk’s Office. The room immediately west of this is the receptacle of the musty records of the past. Coming out of the business room of the Clerk’s office, you pass across the hall into the Auditor’s Office. Entering the hall again, the next door to your left, as you approach the west, is the Recorder’s Office. Leaving the Recorder’s Office and progressing west-ward, you arrive at two neat little offices immediately under the tower. The one to your right is presided over by the County Treasurer. The cozy little office to your left is occupied as a Sheriff’s Office.”
“These offices are perfectly fire proof, well ventilated and lighted by outside windows, and arranged for firing up in good old-fashioned, shin-toasting fireplaces, or by stove, as may suit the fancy of their occupants.”
“Leaving the official department of the Court House, and stepping west-ward, you find yourself in a beautiful arcade at the west end of the building and at liberty to rise in the world by turning to the right or the left, and ascending flight of neatly arranged stone steps which leads you up in the counterpart of the arcade. Turning to the east you pass under the tower again, between two neat jury rooms and find yourself at the threshold of the Court Room. You observe, immediately facing you upon your entrance, the bench. To the right of his Honor you observe a life sized portrait of Benjamin Franklin. To the left of the Judge’s seat is an emblem of Justice, a female figure of the size of life. Glancing to the ceiling, to your right you see the portrait of an old-time English Judge, “Edward Coke. Immediately east of his portrait is none other than Justice Joseph Story. Casting your eye to the north-eastern portrait in the ceiling is none other than Sir William Blackstone. Looking to the west of Blackstone is Chief Justice John Marshall. Don’t make yourself feel simple by attempting to set your hat in some of those nice niches in the wall. They ain’t there. What you conceive to be nicely moulded niches in the walls are only imitations. They are some of the tricks of art performed by Sen. Pedrette, the Italian Fresco painter, that Mr. May employed to put the finishing touch on the neatest Court Room in all Christendom. As for that rosette in the center of the ceiling, it is not going to tumble on your devoted head, It is made fast. After gazing all round, what do you think of the new Court House? Don’t you consider it the Court House of the Union?”
May’s architectural style, one source calling it Norman style and another Italian, had one major fault. The flat roof constantly leaked as did the roof of his courthouse in Shelbyville. Every few years both sets of commissioners required extensive repairs to prevent such leaks. The Franklin County Commissioners, in 1877, made a major decision to correct this problem once and for all. And that decision made for a most interesting footnote in the history of the courthouse that ultimately destroyed the grandeur of the courtroom.
At the June 1877 Commissioners meeting, the Board heard two proposals for placing a new roof on the courthouse and expanding the cupola for a clock. These plans were submitted by local resident, John B. Moorman, “a practical mechanic,” and an architect from Richmond, a Mr. John A. Hasecoster. Evidently the plan of the latter was accepted under the superintendency of a John B. Moorman. The work was advertised for bids on July 19th and the bids were opened September 7th. The workmen began about October 1st using bricks delivered September 24th. On October 18th disaster struck!
This disaster also was documented with photographs. “Mr. Ed. B. Mason, our wide awake photographer, no sooner than the dust had settled has made two sets of photographs of the courthouse. These included three stereoptican size and three 8″ X 10” showing views under the ruins, from the top of the ruins and the damage to the whole building. Unfortunately, only one print is known to exist, that appeared in G. Henri Bogart’s historical sketch of the courthouse in 1907. It is captioned “court room after collapse of roof.”
This was not the first photograph of the courthouse. Mr. Bogart commented in his history he had searched in vain, in 1907, to find a photograph of the first courthouse. The first surviving photograph of the courthouse was taken in September 1869, by Thomas W. Cowley. The print that exists in the Brookville Public Library is mistakenly dated “1864” and for some reason the Franklin County Historical Society has a question mark on its program rather than the date “1869” as I had told them. Both the American and the Democrat reported Mr. Cowley’s arrival from Pennsylvania in June 1869, and that he provided both editors with pictures of the courthouse “just taken” during the third week of September 1869. If one looks at the cover of your program, you note that there is a ladder and scaffolding in the photograph. In July 1869, the commissioners let a bid for painting the exterior of the courthouse and work begun in late July. Both papers report the progress of the painters, Frederick Metzger and Raphael Gall. [One of the problems of putting something in print is that it is forever given a degree of “sanctity” that later research rarely can remedy. Most history is correcting the mistaken historical interpretations of the past.]
The 1882 Franklin County Atlas has a sketch of the Courthouse, complete with clock, and there are a number of excellent photographs of the Courthouse taken by Ben Winans and friends around the turn of the century, including pictures of the courthouse undergoing remodeling in 1910-1912. But I leave that topic to your next meeting with “Don and Ben.”
After the 1877 disaster, courthouse repairs continued, including repair to the roof. In 1889, a new tin roof replaced the one put on in 1877, and to the present, leaks in the roof have plagued our courthouse. Also, in 1889, a new $700 clock was installed by the Howard Watch and Clock Company of Boston. In 1898, the Civil War cannon Hackleman monument was erected, and in 1907, the recently installed fountain in the courthouse square was “arid,” lacking a properly cemented basin.”
Courthouses seem to have a life of from 50 to 75 years before growth in population or improvements, as a sanitary system, elevators, electricity American with Disabilities Act, or computers requires a new building or the remodeling of the old. The 1817 courthouse was replaced, due to fire, in 1855. In 1907, G. Henri Bogart wrote: “There was been quite a bit of agitation pro and con as to the advisability of a new court house in recent years.” He continued, saying the offices were totally inadequate to do the business, and “the court room has no retiring rooms, no sanitary facilities. Indeed no nothing.” He concluded, “I do not know that any actual steps looking to such alterations of the courthouse will be undertaken for years.” But he was wrong.
Between 1910 and 1912, the Courthouse was enlarged in the front and sides to gain its present configuration. On February 24, 1910, Elmer E. Dunlap, architect, submitted remodeling plans to the commissioners who, on March 7th, adopted the plans and ordered the remodeling. On May 28th, the contract was let to I. W. Millikin of Indianapolis, and after a delay due to a problem in issuing bonds, the work began in August 1910, and the keys were turned over to the commissioners at 5 PM, November 15, 1912. On August 19, 1910, the county offices were moved to the town hall. The exterior front stairway and veranda was torn away, the front extended by 25 feet, and two large additions were added on either side. Modern sanitary facilities, a new courtroom, and expanded offices for all were added. The entire building was cased in new brick, giving the building its current appearance. The courthouse enclosed the 1855 structure on the North, West and East sides, and only a few architectural details of the former structure are visible, generally in the attic.
Again, normal repairs were made until 1972 when the structure’s interior underwent extensive alteration and modernization. The work was completed in November 1973. I have summarized these twentieth century alterations, not because they are not important, but because most of use are familiar with the changes. I also summarize since another issue requires our attention. In my introduction, I stated that a courthouse was both a structure and a repository for records. While the former is a symbol of local pride, the latter protects public and private rights. Therefore, it is proper to discuss the history of the records housed in the courthouse and the importance Franklin County’s public and private citizens have given to the subject. In March 1833, Brookville suffered a major fire, with all the buildings on one square fronting on Main street just northwest of the courthouse being destroyed. The Connersville Indiana Sentinel reported the records of the recorder’s office were lost in that fire. C. W. Hutchens, editor of the Brookville Inquirer, corrected the Sentinel and stated that the records were not burned; they “had been removed a few weeks previous to another part of the town. The records are safe.” As mentioned earlier, the editor of the Indiana American continuously urged that a fireproof building be erected for the safekeeping of the county’s records. In September 1838, the editor wrote: “What do the people of Franklin County say upon the subject of building a fireproof Clerk’s and Recorder’s Office? We merely call the attention of the public to the importance of preserving our records safe.” While the county office building erected in 1843, served its purpose, Clarkson, the editor of the Indiana American, commented in 1850: “A few years since, at a cost of some $1500, was erected a new Clerk’s, Recorder’s, Auditor’s, and Treasurer’s offices. But they are poor concerns–too small for business, and the public records. The Clerk’s office particularly is entirely too small, and now calls loudly for more room. We know not the opinion of our Clerk, but he is evidently cramped, in room for business, and for the records and papers!” Elliott Winscott, in 1889, echoed Clarkson’s opinion. “It might be said that it [the county office building] was a monument to the parsimony and stupidity of the commissioners of the nascent growth of public business, for there was no economy used in its building as the people were rich enough to build better accommodations. Then it was neither fire nor burglar proof.” Within a week of the roof collapsing in 1877, a temporary roof was in place, “to protect the records on the first floor.” Yet a month later rain flooded the clerk’s office. The fate of that office’s records was not mentioned. In 1907, G. Henri Bogart, writing a history of the courthouse, editorialized: “The original building is one of the best fire-proofed structures in the state today, while the remodeling is not up to the average. The offices are totally inadequate to the business and still worse for the preservation and use of the records.” What was true in 1907, is equally true today. But in the last two years the situation and changed dramatically for the good. Thanks go to the current clerk of the Circuit Court, Bonnie Back and her staff, the volunteers, and we hope the efforts of our office. Let me explain.
Franklin county has a virtual complete archives of important courthouse records in a historical building. We of this current generation must carry forward the traditions for a proper courthouse given us by our ancestors, so when the next generation writes the history of the Franklin County Courthouse, he or she can thank this generation for a job well done in preserving both the building and the records.