USA > Missouri > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County Missouri, early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens, Volume I > Part 17
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the county had an immense area it was settled only by a few scattered com- munities of newly arrived immigrants. People who, while willing to sacrifice to the extent of their ability for the public benefit, were yet so poverty smitten that the entire revenue collected for county purposes, amounted to less than $500 in any one of several years, and barely sufficed to defray thie modest expenditures of the county, and would, even if applied in their en- tirety, have proved totally insufficient to pay for the needed buildings.
Again there continually loomed up the question of where the permanent county-seat would be located. It was inevitable that the great territory in- cluded in the county limits should be divided and subdivided, as other counties were carved out of its overgrown domain. What shape would the bound- aries finally take? Would Springfield be near enough the center of the territory covered to hold the seat of government, or would the little town find itself off to one side, and so forever debarred from her ambition of being the county-seat ?
However, on the 5th day of January, 1835, the Legislature of the state passed an act appointing Jeremiah Slone (Sloan), George M. Gibson, of Barry county, and Markham Fristoe as a commission "For the purpose of selecting a permanent seat of government for the county of Greene."*
These gentlemen duly met and selected Springfield as the "Permanent seat of justice, for the County of Greene." That was supposed to settle one part of the problem confronting the County Court, but in no way cleared up the weighty question of raising the funds needed for erecting the county buildings.
And then there appeared the good angel of Springfield, and of Greene county. John P. Campbell, often mentioned in previous chapters of this work, and often to be mentioned in later parts of this history, came to the rescue. His proposition was that he would deed to the County Court, with- out cost to the court, a fifty acre tract for a town site. That this site was then to be laid out into lots, and these lots were to be sold, all proceeds above the expenses of survey and sale to be deposited in the county treasury for a fund to erect the buildings needed by the county.
This plan, so simple and practical, at once met the approval of the court, and at an extra session called for the purpose, on the 18th of July, 1835, a plan submitted by Mr. Campbell, and, we are told, a duplicate of the plan of the town of Columbia, Tennessee, where he had lived before coming to Missouri, was adopted. D. B. Miller was appointed a commissioner to lay off the town and sell the lots.
PERMANENT COUNTY-SEAT.
Now although, as we have seen, the commissioners appointed by the state had duly decided that Springfield was to be the permanent county-seat,
*Chapter 349, page 432. volume 2, Territorial Laws.
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there were not lacking those who wished to set aside that arrangement and move the seat of government elsewhere. Thus the matter of selling lots seems to have been held in abeyance for some months. We find that early in 1836 a petition was circulated by Josiah Danforth asking that the county -- seat be located upon a site he offered upon his farm, some eight miles east of Springfield. This petition, of course, had to be acted upon by the General Assembly of the state. The representative in the Legislature that year was. John W. Hancock, and, being a canny politician, Mr. Hancock refused to- take sides in the controversy, but bound himself to work in the Legislature for that site whose advocates could send in the longest petition. That put the Campbell men actively to work, and they sent in a petition so largely in the majority as to forever settle the question in the favor of Springfield.
(1). Chapter 349, Page 432, Volume 2, Territorial Laws.
So on the 27th day of August, 1836, a deed from John P. Campbell and Louisa T. Campbell, his wife, was executed, giving to Greene county for county-seat purposes fifty acres of land, whose metes and bounds are given as follows : "Beginning at a point at the middle of the channel of the branch running through the northwest quarter of section 24, township 29, range 22, where the west boundary line of said quarter section crosses said branch ; running up said branch, meandering the main channel thereof, eastwardly to a point where the north boundary line crosses said branch; thence with said line eastwardly to a point north of the spring which the said John P. Camp- bell uses, on said quarter section; thence southwardly to a point immediately east of said spring, ten feet; thence south 237/2 degrees, 23 7-II poles, to a black oak tree; thence east and south for complement in the proportion that 80 bears to 100, so as to include the quantity of fifty acres."
There appears to be an omission in the records of the county pertaining to the matter of the original court house. We have seen that the court convened for its first term March IIth, 1833, in the house of John P. Campbell. In the June term of that same year we find it provided that "The house of John P. Campbell be the place of holding courts until other- wise provided by law."
Nothing further is said about a court house until at the June term, 1834, a bill is allowed Mr. Campbell in the sum of $59.48, "For fees in transact- ing county business proper, ink, quills, etc., from December term' 1833 to- June term 1834, and for office rent from March term 1833 to June term 1834." That evidently indicates that the Campbell house was still the only court house. At the appeal term of the court. July 19, 1834, the general election to be held in August following is directed to be held "At the court house, in the town of Springfield." On the same day it is ordered that "There. be built a bar in the court house in the town of Springfield," and then a bar is described of proportions which seems entirely too large to find space in
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the room of a pioneer log cabin, especially as specifications for eight benches are also recorded.
But unless there is some record missing, the house of John P. Campbell was the place where this bar and benches were installed, for there is certainly nothing on record of any other place of meeting for the courts until the construction of the buildings from the proceeds of the sale of lots.
When Mr. Campbell had first made his proposal to give the county a site for a county-seat the court had appointed, July 18, 1935, Daniel B. Miller as a commissioner to lay out the town and sell lots. At this session of the court Mr. Campbell's plan, spoken of before, was approved "and received as the plan of the town of Springfield. And the county commissioner for Greene county is hereby ordered to lay off the town of Springfield according- ly, viz: to lay off the public square and one tier of blocks back from said square. The square to contain an acre and a half, and each block to contain one acre and a half, and to be divided into six lots or parts by said commis- sioner, or by some person for him." The size of the square was afterwards increased to two acres.
As we have seen the attempts to change the county-seat to some other location delayed matters for over a year, but after the location was finally settled in favor of Springfield we find that in August, 1836, Daniel B. Miller was ordered to "Employ a competent surveyor to lay off the town tract of Springfield, donated to the county by John P. Campbell, and to file plats and field notes of the same." Mr. Miller was also ordered to sell two lots as soon as surveyed, by advertising for two months, by three insertions, in the Missouri Argus, published at St. Louis, and the Boone's Lick Demo- crat, published at Old Franklin, Howard county, and also by setting up hand bills at the county-seats of Greene, Pulaski, Barry and Polk counties." Two lots were ordered reserved, one for a building site for a clerk's office and one for location of a jail.
October 31st of this year, 1836, Mr. Miller filed plats and field notes of the survey of Springfield. The court ordered that "lot 18, block 5, where the present court house is situated, is hereby reserved from sale at present."
On November 9th Commissioner Miller made a settlement for all lots sold up to November Ist, to the amount of $649.88. Bidding on lots was said to be spirited, all now having become convinced that Springfield would per- manently retain the county-seat. Miller was allowed $131.51 as the total cost of survey and sales to date.
Early in 1837 Mr. Miller made a further deposit in the treasury of the county, to the building fund, of $847.73, proceeds of sale of lots since his first settlement.
The County Court now decided that they were warranted in beginning to erect the new building that they stood in such need of. They therefore
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appointed Sidney Ingram superintendent thereof, and directed him to pre- pare and lay before them a plan for a court house. On the 28th of November Mr. Ingram's plans were submitted, examined and approved. And a court house was ordered erected in the center of the public square of Spring- field. This was to be a two story brick structure, forty by thirty-four feet. And the sum of $3,250.00 was appropriated for paying for it.
FIRST COURT HOUSE BURNED.
This, the first building in Greene county especially put up for a court house, was a substantial and useful edifice. It was a credit to the community at the time it was built, and served its purpose well for more than twenty years. And it was finally destroyed by fire when its successor was nearly ready for occupancy.
The origin of the fire that thus consumed the court house of 1837 is worth recording here. The day, in 1861, when the first Northern troops marched into Springfield was naturally a time of intense excitment in the entire region. Union men and secessionists had already struck blows, some of them on both sides, in most cowardly and bloodthirsty fashion too, and the passions which have always rendered civil wars the worst of all wars flamed in men's hearts. Naturally when these troops were approaching the Unionists were elated, and the Confederates correspondingly depressed.
There lived in Springfield at the time a harmless insane man named Peter Ernshaw, and the common excitement worked upon his weak brains until he was wildly exhilarated. When he knew that the troops were near at hand he went out and met them and marched into town with them, leaping, dancing and shouting as he came. All day his excitement grew until at night someone, probably some of the soldiers, shut him up in one of the vacant rooms of the court house, both for his own protection and to keep him from harming others. In some way the poor fellow had possessed himself of matches, and late at night he set fire to the room where he was confined, and perished in the flames which quickly destroyed the building.
In the engraving in this history, showing the funeral of the dead of Freemont's Body Guard, in October, 1861, the ruins of this court house will be noted to the right of the picture.
It was at the term of County Court held on August 28, 1858, that the first steps were taken by the court towards the erection of another court house. The twenty years that had passed since the court house, in the center of the public square of Springfield, had been completed had been a period of rapid and steady growth for both Greene county and the city of Springfield. This can best be shown by a comparison of the income derived from tax-
(II)
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ation by the county in 1838 and 1858. The records give these figures as follows :
1838 the entire receipts of the county treasury were five hundred and eighty-two dollars, thirteen and a fourth cents (582.1314). Twenty years later, in 1858, the assessed valuation of the county was $3,882,045, on which was collected a total tax of $22, 118.62. Of this tax the county received $12.923.03. That is to say, in twenty years the income of Greene county had increased more than twenty-two fold. All this increase of taxable property meant a corresponding growth in population, and that of course meant greatly augmented county business and necessitated undertaking the build- ing of a new court house commensurate with the growing importance and wealth of the county.
So at the August term of County Court a board of commissioners was appointed by the court to select a suitable location for the building of a new court house and jail, and to choose plans and report the probable cost. This commission consisted of W. B. Farmer, Warren H. Graves and Josiah Leedy, and the exact wording of the order setting forth their duties is as follows :
"Regular term of County Court, August 28, 1858, ordered by the Court that W. B. Farmer, W. H. Graves and Josiah Leedy be, and they are hereby appointed a Board of Commissioners on Public Buildings, and they are here- by instructed to view all the localities in the City of Springfield that may be considered suitable for the erection of a Court House and jail, together with what said lots can be bought for. And also a plan or plans for said buildings, to be built separately or in connection. Also the probable cost of the same. and that they report to the October term of this Court."
October 4th the commissioners made their report, and advised the pur- chase of the lot owned by Charles Sheppard and J. B. Kimbrough, located on the northwest corner of College street and the public square. The same day the court appropriated $3,000.00 to pay for the lot thus recommended, and the deed was procured and placed upon record. That day, also, the follow- ing order was made :
"Present James W. Gray, P. J. Joseph Rountree and J. R. Earnest. justices, A. G. McCracken, clerk, and H. Matlock, sheriff.
"Ordered by the Court that there be and is hereby appropriated out of the treasury, of any money not otherwise appropriated, the sum of forty thousand dollars for the purpose of erecting a Court House and jail in Greene county."
Next day we find : "Ordered that the sum of $163.25 be, and the same is hereby appropriated, to pay the bill of architect and expenses of J. Leedy for procuring drawing and detail of the plan for jail and court house."
It is unfortunate that the name of the architect who furnished Mr. Leedy with the plan of this building is not on record. For certainly, who-
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ever he was, he made a dignified and well balanced design. Men who have been trained in the arts of architecture have repeatedly pronounced this build- ing as almost a perfect model of that particular style of architecture. A fine picture of this court house appears in this history.
In the latter part of December sealed proposals for putting up the new structure were submitted to the court, and on Christmas day the contract was awarded to Josiah Leedy for $36,000. The highest bid having been $45,000. Leedy was given until the end of 1861 to complete his contract, for it is of record: "Said J. Leedy is to be paid as the work progresses, the last payment to be made on the last of December, 1861."
The method of advancing money to the contractor was original. for we find it said : "Ordered by the court that Josiah Leedy have the loan of any sum not exceeding $8,000 out of county revenue, without interest, he giving bond and approved security for the same. And that a warrant or warrants issued in his favor for the same, in sums to suit his convenience, at any time while court is in session."
Thus were the interests of the court and the convenience of Mr. Leedy effected to the entire safety of the money invested, and the aid of the con- tractor in promptly meeting the necessary bills.
By the time the court met in its December term, in 1859, it seems to have gotten into deep water in its building operations, for we read: "De- cember 19, 1859, Benjamin Kite, superintendent of public buildings, files a report that, owing to the organization of Christian county, and heavy costs in criminal cases against Greene county, it is found that the County Court cannot meet the liability and defray the ordinary running expenses of the county. That to protect the public faith the County Attorney be directed to prepare a bill and send to our representatives in the Legislature, requesting them to have it passed, allowing the Court in its discretion to borrow the sum of $16,000." This bill was passed by the Legislature on January 10, 1860. The minutes of the June term of the County Court of 1860 tells of the appointment of R. B. Owen and J. W. D. L. F. Mack, as agents of Greene county, to negotiate a loan of $10,000, under the terms of the above law.
So the work progressed until the spring of 1861. Mr. Leedy was evi- dently well up with his contract, for by this time he had the building finished on the outside and some of the offices ready for occupancy. Three'rooms were finished April Ist and the clerks of the County, Circuit and Probate Courts moved into them at once. He would certainly have had the building complete by the end of that year, according to contract.
But the spring of 1861 brought much more pressing matters into Greene county than even the completion of a new court house! Beauregard's guns were thundering against the walls of Sumter, in Charleston Bay, and at the sound the dark clouds of civil war swept over the land from Atlantic to
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Pacific. Through that four years of storm the new court house, in its un- finished state, served the contending armies alternately as a hospital for the wounded, a prison for sympathizers, of one side or the other, and as a bar- racks for soldiers. Under many successive coats of paint upon the solid cot- ton rock pillars, in the front of the old building, are cut the names, companies and regiments of many scores of men, on the one side or the other in that great conflict. Forty years ago those pillars were veritable autograph albums of military names, but in the course of time most of them have been erased and replaced by those of the army of loafers, whose own particular resting place, the portico of the old building, has ever been.
HISTORIC COURT HOUSE TORN DOWN.
Within a week of the writing these lines (June, 1914), the last brick of the old court house and jail has been torn out of its resting place of more than half a century, and the historic old building is henceforth but a memory, and on its site is to rise a modern merchantile and office "skyscraper." The only things which will be preserved as mementoes of the old structure are the pillars, which are to be set up upon the lawn in front of the present "New Court House," there to bear silent witness to the solid character of work done by old Josiah Leedy in the days "before the war."
I have mentioned the jail of the county several times, and a word about it is not out of place here. The first jail, as has been stated, was a solid log affair built by public spirited citizens, even before the first court house was erected in the center of the square. The county had no money for the purpose at the time, and a jail was badly needed, for, say what we may, there were bad men even in "the good old times" we hear so much about So the jail was built and donated to the county. Evidently, however, the first County Court considered the gift as an obligation due to the men who made it, for the first money paid out from the sums received for town lots went to repay the men who had paid for the jail in the "several amounts contributed by them."
When the court house of 1858 was built it had a wing projecting along the side of College street, at the west side of the building. A two story edifice, the lower story of which was used for the jail and the upper story for the residence of the sheriff or jailer. After a while the entire building was needed and used as a jail.
In 1889 Hon. E. C. O'Day, then representing the Springfield District in the Legislature, procured the establishment of the Springfield Criminal Court, and, the county being sadly in need of more office room, a two story brick building was put up upon ground presented to the county for the purpose, on the northwest corner of Robberson avenue and Center street. The upper
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story of this building was used for the purposes of the Criminal Court, and the lower story as a jail. In the course of a few years the jail became so crowded that it became necessary to fit up the entire building for the needed additional cells, and the Criminal Court was removed to the third story of the Diemer block at the corner of Commercial and Jefferson streets. It re- mained here for some time, but at last a case arose in which an attorney in defending his client raised the point that the location of the court, being out- side of the original "seat of justice" of Greene county, invalidated the verdict against the defendant. This claim being sustained by a higher court, the Criminal Court was hastily removed to the south, and shared the old court- house on the Square with the Circuit Court, which had never been moved from that location.
The location of the jail and Criminal Court upon the lot at Center street and Robberson avenue had, however, an important bearing upon the final settlement of the much debated question of the location of the new court house, that everyone acknowledged the county was compelled to build as soon as possible. This importance was recognized at once, by both parties to the controversy. Indeed it was the sole reason for the presentation of that particular lot to the county, for the purpose of erecting the new jail.
Dr. E. T. Robberson, always an active worker in any cause to which he gave his adherence, and John H. Bouslog, who at the time was a promi- nent citizen of Springfield and a property holder on Center street, were the leading spirits in the plan to procure a lot and give it without cost to the county for the location of a jail. The court accepted the gift, one member, Judge Hosea G. Mullings, dissenting to the action. Then followed some efforts to enjoin the expenditure of county funds for erecting the jail on that location, all of which efforts failed of their purpose, for, as has already been said, the jail was built there and the Criminal Court held there for some time.
The question of building a new court house grew in importance, as the old building on the square, day by day, became less fitted for accommodating the rapidly growing business of the county. Indeed, the old building had served its purpose long and well. So long, in fact, that the county had out- grown it far more than the county of 1838 had outgrown the log house of John P. Campbell, or the county of 1858 had outgrown the court' house in the middle of the Public Square. So badly had the county offices over- crowded the court house that the matter of a new shelter for the courts and county offices was the subject of perennial debate for a score of years. But a new element had entered into the equation. A mile and a half away to the north of the Square a new town had sprung into existence, as will be told in detail in another chapter. Never large enough to be a formidable rival of the older city, it was nevertheless active, much more than in propor- tion to its size, in reaching after those things which its people desired.
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A LONG CONTROVERSY.
For years, whenever the question of the new courthouse was broached, the matter of its location instantly sprang up. The new town and its friends urged a location to the north of the square; the old town and its adherents as strenuously advocated some point near the old building. Thus there was a prolonged deadlock. After nearly eighteen years of separate corporate existence, Springfield and North Springfield were at last, in 1887, united under one city government, and the one name of Springfield. The vote for consolidation had been all but unanimous, and many enthusiasts thought, and said, that all our troubles about the location of a new court house were now at an end. As a matter of fact, they were just fairly getting started !
The united city had been divided into eight wards. The four south divisions covered a large part of what had been the old city of Springfield. The north four wards took in the northern portion of the old town, and all of the original Northi Springfield. In this division the four south wards had a vast majority of the wealth of the city, and the north four wards a majority of the votes. The first trial of strength came up over the location of the government building, which Congress had allowed to Springfield as the result of the labor of Hon. William H. Wade, who was then our Congress- man. The older portion of Springfield naturally wished to have the new postoffice at some point close to their center of business, the Public Square. The north end argued with much plausibility that the postoffice should be near the center of population, which would mean somewhere in the neigh- borhood of Boonville and Center streets.
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