USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 13
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The crowded condition of the court house, however, became so acute by the spring of 1875 that something had to be done, and the commissioners, acting under the provisions of the legislative act of April 3, 1868, ordered an addition to the court house on March 31, 1875. The act of 1868. did not specifically mention Greene or any other county in the state, but was a gen- eral act which allowed county commissioners to make additions to public buildings under their jurisdiction. The plans and specifications for the addi- tion adopted on April 21, 1875, provided for a brick addition, thirty-seven by seventy-five feet, two stories in height, the same to be erected to the rear and contiguous to the court house. The contract was let on May 5, 1875, in ten separate parts and this makes it a difficult matter to figure up the total cost of the addition. The only one of the ten separate bids, which gave a total, was that of Drees & Thornhill, who bid in the carpenter work at $7,878. The other bids were let by piece, by the yard, or the perch, etc. The
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
heating plant was a separate contract, let on May II, and went to Brooks, Light & Co., of Dayton, in the sum of $2,195. The furniture contract was bid in by Drees & Thornhill on November 15, 1875, as follows : Clerk's office, $354.14; probate judge, $411.34; recorder, $422.04; auditor, $457.07. As near as can be figured from the separate payments made to the various con- tractors the addition cost about $20,000.
THE PRESENT COURT HOUSE.
The history of the present beautiful court house goes back several years before it was actually erected. On September 27, 1883, a committee ap- pointed by the county commissioners to examine the court house, reported that it was in a bad shape and needed some very important improvements to make it safe. About the middle of the previous month the roof over the court room had fallen in and there were many in the county who thought that the county should build a new court house at once rather than go to the expense of repairing the old building. It was necessary, however, to fix the old building temporarily, pending an election on the matter, and Frank Smith was given a contract at $540 to repair the roof and the plaster in the court room. On August 24, 1883, the commissioners decided to call for a vote on the question of erecting a new court house, asking the taxpayers for per- mission to tax them $125,000 for a new building. It was to give the public at large an idea of the condition of the old building that the committee just mentioned made a report on the advisability of a new building on September 27, 1883.
VOTE OF 1883 ON NEW COURT HOUSE.
The county papers during the fall of 1883 argued in favor of the new building and called on the taxpayers to vote for it. The vote was taken at the regular fall election on October 9, but it is quite evident that the sentiment of the people was against the project. There was not a single township in the county that favored the building, the city of Xenia being the only precinct in the county to cast its vote of a new building. The vote by town- ships was as follows :
For Against
For Against
Bath
156
382
Ross
20
295
Silvercreek
105
420
Caesarscreek
18
238
Springvalley
72
275
Cedarville
116
393
Sugarcreek
34
317
New Jasper
49
199
Xenia township
245
325
Jefferson
104
208
Xenia city
1,122
298
Miami
71
466
Total
2,198
4,184
Majority against
1,986
Beavercreek
75
377
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
This overwhelming vote against the new court house stopped all the agitation for the time being in regard to a new building and it was seventeen years before the question was again brought to the front. Little of interest concerning the court house is found in the records during these years, 1883- 1900. A short time before the agitation of 1883, the commissioners had in- stalled the first telephone in the building under an order dated June 6, 1881. On December 4, 1883, the commissioners ordered telephone "boxes" placed in the auditor's, clerk's and treasurer's offices, for the use of which the county agreed to pay eight dollars per month. The first telephone of 1881 was ordered installed in the clerk's office, and the second order seems to indicate that it was not until two years later that the first telephone was actually in- stalled.
The first electric lights in the building were installed pursuant to an order of the commissioners dated November 8, 1890. Two lights were ordered for both the auditor and treasurer, the wiring and fixtures to cost twenty-five dollars, and the county to pay one dollar and fifty cents for each light per month. The contract for the "lamps," as they were called, was with the Xenia Gaslight and Coke Company.
BUILDING OF PRESENT COURT HOUSE.
The first definite step toward the erection of the present building fol- lowed the report of J. W. Knaub, the chief inspector of the state under the department of the Inspection of Factories and Shops. His report, dated January 26, 1900, was filed with the commissioners on January 31, 1900. The report absolutely condemned the old court house and left the county nothing to do but radically improve the building or erect a new one. The commissioners were unanimous in advocating the erection of a new building, and decided to ask the General Assembly to pass a bill providing for a spe- cial tax for this purpose.
The General Assembly, with the act of March 21, 1900, provided the ways and means under which the building could be financed. The act pro- vided for the submission to the qualified voters of the county the question of taxing themselves to the extent of two hundred thousand dollars for the erec- tion of a new court house. The act also provided for a building commission of four members, two from each of the two leading political parties, which was to have the general supervision of the construction of the building. The election was set for April 2, 1900, and resulted as follows :
For Against
For Against
Bath
212
348
Ross
95
136
Beavercreek
189
202
Silvercreek
I37
411.
Caesarscreek
78
I44
Spring Valley
104
197
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
Cedarville
238
231
Sugarcreek
IOI
16I
New Jasper
108
90
Xenia township
389
102
Jefferson
74
209
Xenia city
1,666
177
Miami
201
366
Total
3,582 2,674
Majority for new court house. 908
The total number of votes cast in 1900 on the proposition was 6,256, whereas in 1883 there were 6,382 votes cast. As might have been ex- pected it was the vote of Xenia that settled the question, since every township in the county except Cedarville, New Jasper and Xenia voted against it. The cost of the election was $62.10.
DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION.
As soon as the commissioners had a certified result of the election they reported the fact to the judge of the common pleas court, Thomas E. Scroggy, and on April 4, 1900, he proceeded to appoint the four men for the building commission. He chose John Little and Albert Wickersham, Repub- licans, and Henry Barber and William W. Ferguson, Democrats. Little died on October 16, 1900, and on the 22d of the same month Judge Scroggy ap- pointed his son, George Little, to fill the vacancy. This commission took complete charge of all the details connected with the erection of the new building, and it should be recorded as a part of the history of the county that there was not a single word of criticism found with their work from the be- ginning until they were finally discharged. In fact, the statement has been made that the Greene county court house of today is one of the very few in the state, if not the only one, that was built without a breath of scandal con- nected with it. When the final cent was accounted for, the building was not only paid out of the funds set aside for the purpose, but there was actually over $12,000 left in the building fund. Certainly, Greene county has every reason to be proud of its court house, and it owes a debit to this building commission which can not be measured in money. The commission, by the way, served without pay, and any one who goes over the voluminous records which they left to show what they did, will realize that they did an immense amount of work during the three years that they officiated.
It is not profitable to follow the construction of the court house in detail. The building commission has left a complete record of the steps, one by one, which they took in getting the work under way, and the subsequent steps taken until the building was completed and turned over to the county. The first thing was to find temporary quarters for the transaction of the county busi- ness while the building was in process of construction. On April 16 and 17, 1900, the following quarters were secured for a period of two years with the privilege of renewing the lease if the new court house was not ready for occu-
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
pancy by that time : The building of C. M. & W. A. Galloway, corner of King and Main streets, for the court room, clerk and sheriff at an annual rental of $365; two rooms in the Florence hotel (now the Manhattan hotel) for the probate judge at an annual rental of $300; three rooms in the Steele building, corner of Main and Detroit streets, for the recorder at an annual rental of $620; three rooms on Greene street, adjoining the Citizens National bank, and owned by Mary P. Millen and John M. Davidson, for the auditor, treasurer and county commissioners, at a rental of $293 annually.
On the day on which the commission found a place for the county offi- cials they let a contract to John McGary to demolish the old court house, agree- ing to pay him $1,675 for the work. The old stone pillars in front were care- fully taken down and are now found at the entrance to Woodlawn cemetery. All the brick and stone in the building were carefully taken down and used in the present building, the county receiving about a thousand dollars for the brick and stone, together with such of the interior woodwork and old furni- ture as could be sold. All this money went into the building fund. McGary was to have the old court house torn down by July 1, 1900.
HOW CONSTRUCTION WORK WAS FINANCED.
A total of $184,000 worth of bonds were sold. The first issue was for $100,000 and was sold on February 28, 1901, to N. W. Harris & Company, of Chicago, for $109,823.20. They were issued in denominations of $500 each, with four per centum interest, bearing date of March 1, 1901, $4,000 being due on March 1, 1906, and the same amount due each succeeding year until the full amount was retired. The second issue was for $84,000 and was sold May 28, 1901, to the Citizens National Bank of Xenia for $90,482. The county therefore realized $200,305.20 on its two bond issues. This amount was supplemented by a loan of $3,000 from B. J. Little, and salvage from the old court house in the sum of $904.97. This brought the building fund up to $204,210.17. The last report of the building commission, with every item of expenditure separately scheduled, showed that the total cost of the court house, including equipment of every kind, also the grading and sodding of the yard, amounted to $191,764.05. This report, therefore, dated May 1, 1903, showed a balance in the building fund of $12,446.12. It is doubtful whether another · court house in the state has been as economically built as the Greene county court house.
The building commission visited several counties in the state in order to get the latest ideas in court-house architecture, in the meantime having adver- tised for plans and specifications for the building. Several architects sub- mitted plans and those of Samuel Hannaford & Sons, of Cincinnati, were finally approved on August 16, 1900. The plans and specifications cover
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
eighty-one pages in the record. The commission at once advertised for bids to be opened on September 18, 1900, but it was not until the 6th of the follow- ing month that a contract was entered into with Hennessy Brothers & Evans Company, of Chicago. The successful bidders agreed to erect the court house according to the proposed plans and specifications for $140,248. The con- tractors immediately began work and by March 15, 1901, were ready for the corner-stone exercises, this date being carved on the stone which featured the exercises of that day. The work was rapidly pushed and by July 23, 1902, although the building was not quite completed at the time, the commission and' contractors entered into an agreement whereby the county officials might move in at any time. They all moved in during the first two weeks of the following month, the vouchers showing that the last bill for moving expense was allowed on August 16, 1902. The final report of the building commission, as before stated, was made on May I, 1903.
SELLING AND LEASING OF PARTS OF PUBLIC SQUARE.
Those who view the public square in Xenia as it appears in 1918 will wonder why the county commissioners ever wished to sell lots off of it in the early history of the county, but such are the facts in the case. And when they found they could not sell, they leased a part of it. So many years have elapsed since the effort was made to sell off part of the public square that it is difficult to arrive at the motives actuating the commissioners. It does show, however, that they did not have a vision as to what the future might bring the county in the way of needed additional room; certainly they did not contemplate the idea that the county would not only need all of the public square donated by John Paul in 1803, but actually be compelled to buy additional ground to provide sufficient room for the jail-and that as far back as 1860.
The year 1817 saw the attempt by the county commissioners to sell some lots from the public square. It is evident that they were goaded to this action by some citizens who wanted to acquire a business location on the square, and, incidentally, the thrifty commissioners wished to add to the county treasury. While the commissioners actually did succeed in selling some lots off of the square, the sale was later set aside and the lots reverted to the county. It seems a bit queer that they should have considered the proposition to sell any of the public square, and it seems still queerer that the lawyers of the city did not inform the commissioners that they had no authority to sell. But things were done differently in those days, a hundred and one years ago. The story of this attempt to sell of part of the public square is given with all facts stated taken direct from the records of the county commissioners.
Before starting their project the commissioners evidently had a survey
I35
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
made of the square, but this plat, if it was made, was not placed on their records. The public square donated by John Paul in 1803 to the county for public purposes was 198 feet in width and 330 feet in length, with the length running north and south. This tract consisted of four lots of equal size, each lot being 6 by 10 poles, or 99 by 165 feet. Our forefathers thought in terms of poles in the early days, the word rod, a measurement of sixteen and one- half feet, never occurring in the early records of the county commissioners. Strange to say the early records of the county do not disclose the agreement between John Paul and the associate judges in 1803 in regard to the public square.
The commissioners tried to sell more than half of the square donated to the county by Paul. Portions of lots 35, 61 and 62 were divided into lots by the commissioners and it was proposed to sell them to any purchaser who might want them-and had the money to pay for them. There can be no question that the primary purpose of the commissioners in this whole trans- action of 1817 was to add to the county treasury. A local historian, writing in 1881, in speaking of this proposal of the commissioners, had the following to say :
"They thought, and said, that if a portion of the public ground-the pub- lic square-could be sold, and buildings erected thereon, it would bring a fund into the county treasury and enhance the value of the part unsold. While one is led to inquire of what especial benefit to the county the enhanced value land would be, when such land was never to be sold, still he is inclined to approve the motive that prompts action in that direction unless he finds some selfishness at the base. But the commissioners thinking that Greene county in its public square, donated to it by John Paul, had more ground than needed, resolved that part of it should be sold."
SUPREME COURT AVERTS A PUBLIC CALAMITY.
Whatever motive may have been behind the project the fact remains that the commissioners met on January 4, 1817, and directed that parts of the public square be put on sale. The commissioners at that time were John Haines, Samuel Gamble and Thomas Hunter, the latter not being present on the day the sale was ordered. William Beatty, the old tavern keeper, and at the time the director of Xenia, was not only authorized but even ordered to sell the lots set aside for sale. Five lots were placed on sale. Before defining the limits of these lots it should be stated that Greene street was not yet in existence, this street not being set aside until March 20, 1835. There were at least three buildings on the square in 1817: the court house completed in 1809; the stone jail of 1815; the office building erected in 1814. The court house was in the southwest corner of lot No. 35; the stone jail stood exactly in the
I36
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
center of the square; the office building, a brick structure, stood east of the court house, fifty feet back of Main street.
In following the description of the lots which the commissioners contem- plated selling it must be remembered that the original court house square con- sisted of four lots of equal size, each lot being six poles wide and ten poles long, a pole being a rod in length, each lot therefore being 99 by 165 feet. The four lots were Nos. 35, 36, 61 and 62. The language used by the sur- veyor in defining the limits of the lots placed on sale is ambiguous in the ex- treme as may be seen by the following description of the lots as taken verbatim from the records of the commissioners, Vol. IV, p. 92: "31/2 poles in front & Io poles back or deep the east side of inlot No. 35." In plain terms, the lot thu's described lay in the southeast corner of the square, and fronted 573/4 feet on Main street, with a depth of 165 feet. There was no Greene street at this time, so the east line of the lot was the present east line of Greene street. This is the first lot described and is sufficiently clearly defined to make it plain as to where it lay. But witness the description of the other lots.
"Northwestern corner of inlot No. 61, being 3 poles & 2/5 on Detroit Street and 4 poles on third Street ; & 3 poles front and 4 poles back of the said lot Joining & lying to the south of the aforesaid corner-division-also 4 poles on third Street running 6 2/5 poles back, 2 poles in front being part of inlot No. 61 and 2 poles being part of inlot No. 62, also another division beginning at the N. E. corner of inlot No. 62 running with the line of the lot S. 12 E. IO poles and S. 78 W. 1/2 pole N. 12 W. 62/5 poles to third Street, thence with said street 4 poles to the beginning."
There are four separate lots described in the preceding paragraph, but with such ambiguity that it is difficult to define all of them, particularly the last lot. Greene street, as set off by the county commissioners in the spring of 1835, was exactly two poles in width, that is, thirty-three feet, the cutting off of this strip leaving the public square as it is in 1918-ten poles, or 165 feet wide, and twenty poles, or 330 feet long. It will be noticed that if the sale of the lots in 1817 had been allowed to stand that the square would not be quite half the size it is today. Certainly, it would have been a calamity if the supreme court had not set aside the sale of the lots.
The supreme court in May, 1821, refused to approve the sale of the five lots above described. The county commissioners, therefore, were compelled to call upon the purchasers of the lots for the return of the notes given by them for the lots. No cash had been turned into the county treasury, the pur- chasers evidently not being certain that the sale would be declared legal. William Beatty, who had been directed to sell the lots at public auction, sold them on the second Friday in February, and on the 14th of the month placed in the hands of the commissioners promissory notes in the sum of $3,253. On
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
June 6, 1821, the first meeting of the commissioners after the court decision of the preceding month, James and Ryan Gowdy, purchasers of certain of the lots, evidently being lots Nos. I and 5, delivered to the commissioners three notes which they had given for lots, although according to Beatty's report Ryan Gowdy had been the purchaser of the lot. The complete story of the sale is summarized in Beatty's report of February 14, 1817, which is here re- produced in full :
To the Honourable Court of Commissioners of the County of Greene, Gentlemen: I have proceeded to and have sold the lots in Xenia you ordered me to sell; the persons who purchased and the prices they bought are as follows: John Barber, part of in-lot No. 62, $482; George Townsley, part of in-lot No. 65, $615: George Townsley, part of in-lot No. 62, $315; John Davis, part of in-lot No. 62, $482; Ryan Gowdy, lot No. 35, $1,381; total amount, $3,253. I believe the above statement to be correct.
WILLIAM A. BEATTY, Director of Xenia.
MARKET HOUSE PEREMPTORILY REMOVED.
It is definitely stated in the record that the town had erected a market house on lot No. 62. On this same day, June 6, 1821, the town agreed to remove its market house, or erect a new one. The new building was to be situated on lot No. 62, as follows: "West end of house to be 8 feet from Detroit street, and north side to be 12 feet from Third ( Market) street, 12 feet also allowed on south side of house." The town did build a new market house, and there was such a building on the north end of the public square until sometime during the Civil War. Repeated attempts were made by the county commissioners to get the town to remove the building, but it was sev- eral years after the first request was made before it was finally taken away. It is presumed that the market house was removed as a result of a peremptory order of the commissioners, dated March 12, 1859. No attempt has been made since that time to sell any of the public square, although the county actually leased a part of the square. The commissioners were possessed of the idea that they had to get a revenue from the square in some way, and if they could not sell any of it, at least there was nothing in the law to hinder them from leasing a portion of it-and that is exactly what they proceeded to do.
Few of the older citizens of the county can recall the private buildings which stood on the public square within their memory. The beginning of the leasing of part of the public square to private parties dated from June 8, 1827. On that date the commissioners leased to A. M. Miller and James Collier a part of lot No. 61, the portion leased facing Detroit street beginning 225 feet north of Main street and running 48 feet south, with a depth of 30 feet. On this lot the lessees, Collier and Miller. the former a lawyer and the latter a physician, erected what they chose to call a "law and physick office." Their building was of brick, forty by sixteen feet. According to their lease they
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
were to erect the building, keep it in good repair, and on June 8, 1842, fifteen years later, were to give the county a deed for the building.
But the commissioners were not satisfied with leasing this one lot; they decided that they could lease another. Accordingly, on September 1, 1827, they entered into a lease with James B. Gardiner for a lot immediately south of the one first leased, the second lot facing Detroit street forty feet and run- ning back thirty feet. Gardiner was a printer and he secured the lot evidently with the intention of erecting a building for a newspaper, although his lease stated that he might either put up a building for a printing establishment, or "as he may think proper, offices of law and physic." His lease, like the one granted Collier and Miller, was to expire in fifteen years and whatever build- ing he might erect was to become the property of the county at that time- September 1, 1842. Gardiner had established a paper in Xenia, The People's Press and Impartial Expositor, on May 24, 1826, and it continued to be pub- lished until it was consolidated with the Xenia Gasette on January 1, 1829. It is presumed that it was this People's Press, etc., which found a home on the public square following Gardiner's lease in 1827. His building was to be an exact duplicate of the one erected by Collier and Miller.
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