Courthouse photo taken in 1903
Logan Banner, Moments in History by Bob Spence.
Shown at the right of today’s column is the courthouse built in Logan in the 1870s and torn down in 1905. This photograph is on loan from Ronna McClure and many thanks and appreciations are extended to her.
It is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which is the remarkable clarity of the scene. Though not a lot is known about when and by whom the photo was made, it is possible to report a few intelligent guesses here.
Most likely it was the work of Julius Gaussoin, who was the only photographer whom we know was living in Logan before the turn of the century. It is thought that sport once belonged to Naaman Jackson. That is because there is a note on the back written by a man’s hand that says this is what the courthouse looked like when I went to Logan in 1903.
An open question is the time of the photo. It looks as though it was very early – possibly as early as the late 1870s. This is because it looks so new, because the ground is torn up and there is no fence, and because there is a house in the background that nothing is known about.
The photo was taken from the corner where the Logan Mercantile now stands. So the house with the columns in the background stood where McCormick’s store is now. We know that James Nighbert had a store on that site in the early 1880s.
Another interesting question is who the man is walking on the right-hand side of the building. If anyone recognizes him, we would appreciate hearing about it as soon as possible.
Background on the building is easier to trace. As mentioned once before, the court records make it clear that a brick building was on the site in January 1862 when the Yankees arrived and burned it down. The structure was removed in 1866.
At that point, the court hired John Reece Browning to haul the old bricks away and then hired John William Straton to build the courthouse. He finished the work, it is thought, in 1875.
Until that time, court had been kept in Pauline Cartwright’s hotel. (That may be the house in this photograph.) The hotel did not have a good reputation. It was, or had been, what was once quaintly called a house of ill repute.
When the new courthouse was being planned to get away from that embarrassment, the Logan County Court sent the U.S. Government a bill for quartering it troops one day. That was because the soldiers occupied the courthouse before they burned it. It is one of my favorite Logan County political stories and one of the great all-time typical records of the way Logan Countians think.
In the 1890s, Henry Clay Ragland wrote that the courthouse and the adjoining jail had become a public disgrace and argued that it would be a matter of civic pride to clean it up. This was done. Yet in just a few years, the community made its decision to remove the old building.