FIRST LODGE.
The first term of court held
in Guernsey county was in session but one day, and there was not one
case for trial. The second term held a one day session also,
and disposed of six unimportant cases. This court met at
Cambridge, on Monday, Apr. 23, 1810. Present, Hons. Jacob
Gomber, Robert Speer, and Thomas B. Kirkpatrick,
associate judges of the county. There being no county officers
the judges proceeded to appoint as follows: C. P. Beatty,
clerk, Robert Johnson, recorder; Samuel Herricks,
prosecuting attorney. The commissioners appointed by the
General Assembly to fix the permanent seat of justice for the
county, made their report, in which they "beg leave to report unto
your honors, that having paid due regard to the interest and
convenience of the inhabitants of said county, do hereby declare
that the town of Cambridge in said county is the most suitable place
of Guernsey." Signed by Isaac Cook, James Armstrong,
and William Robinson. S. W. Culbertson presented the
petition of Josiah Bowers, an insolvent debtor, praying for
relief. Ordered by the courts that the fourth Monday of August
be appointed for the final hearing, and that notice thereof be given
in the Muskingum
[Pg. 431]
Messenger. License was granted John Patterson to retail
merchandise, also to Abraham Clements and Christian Wier
to keep houses of public entertainment. It was ordered that
each township should be entitled to two justices of the peace.
The court then adjourned. That our early settlers were not
litigious is shown by the fact that though justice of the peace for
twenty-one years 'Squire Thomas Oldham only had three suits
brought before him.
FIRST GRAND JURY.
The first grand jury was
empanelled, and the first criminal business was transacted, at teh
second term, which began on Monday, Aug. 27, 1810, and adjourned on
the Tuesday following. The names of the first grand jurors are
as follows: Z. A. Beatty, foreman; John Hanna, Loyd
Talbott, Thomas Cooke, John McClenahan, Andrew Marshall, Wyatt
Hutchinson, John Beham, George J. Jackson, John Moffatt, Isaac
Grummond, W. Talbert, Stewart Speer, George Metcalf, and E.
Dyson. Two true bills were found for retailing liquor
without a license. One of the liquor dealers pleaded guilty and was
fined six cents and costs. The prosecuting attorney was
allowed $25 for his services at this term of court.
THE NEW COURT HOUSE.
The building is to be about
one hundred feet square. All of the exterior walls are to be
of stone. The superstructure is of small, greenish-colored,
rock-faced stone from Cumberland, and is to be trimmed heavily with
white sandstone from Zanesville. The cornice work is to be of
galvanized iron, painted and sanded in imitation of stone trimming.
The basement, which rises ten feet above ground, is to contain
steam-heating apparatus, gas machine, fuel-rooms, etc. The
first floor proper is to have four outside entrances and five
handsome stone approaches. This floor is to contain the
offices of treasurer, recorder, auditor, commissioners, probate
judge, and prosecuting attorney. In the main corridor, which
is twenty feet wide, two fine double pairs of iron steps lead to the
second floor, which contains the court room, sheriff's and clerk's
offices, and room for the jury, witnesses, library, etc.; and in the
centre, where the corridors cross them, is to be a rotunda extending
up under the dome, which will be roofed with stained glass.
The building to the square is to be fifty feet high, flanked at the
corners with pavilions, the crestings of which rise to a height of
seventy-five feet. The main front is to be carried up in the
centre above the balance of the building, and will end in a broken
pediment, surmounted by the large figure of justice. Then,
rising from the centre of the building, is the main dome, which will
be one hundred and fifty feet above the sidewalk. The style of
architecture is of modern renaissance, and in construction the
building will be fire proof, all of the corridor floors being of
encaustic tile, underlaid with brick arches and hydraulic concretes,
supported upon rolled iron beams. The floors in the various
rooms are to be of wood, overlying the fire-proof work, so that it
will be impossible for fire to get from one room to another.
The roof, cornices, dome, etc., are to be constructed of brick,
stone, slate, and iron, so that a destructive five will be an
impossibility. The building is to cost $85,000.
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