From: KyArchives [archives@genrecords.org] Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 2:00 AM To: Ky-Footsteps Subject: Chapter.Ix.County.Clerk's.Offices,.Etc.1887.Henderson.HISTORY-Books Chapter Ix County Clerk's Offices, Etc. 1887 Henderson County KyArchives History Books Book Title: History Of Henderson County, KY CHAPTER IX. COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICES, ETC. IN the two preceding chapters I have given a complete history of the county jails and court houses, beginning with the rude log hut used in 1799 and ending with the present magnificent building, standing in beautiful prominence on Court Square. Doubtless this has proved uninteresting, and many may say it might have been left out. It is a material part of the county's history, however, and in the judgment of the local historians, if their work is to be accredited, is most worthy of being perpetuated. The county has greatly changed since the lonely debtor sat in gloomy suspense in his prison room, situated in a log cabin, no better, and perhaps not so good as a majority of the stables of the county, brooding over a reckless disregard of credit extended him. Indeed has the county changed. Where wolves and wild animals roamed unmolested, where flocks of wild fowls picked berries from the uncultivated hillsides and valleys, we now see green fields dotted with improved breeds of cattle and sheep. Where by-paths, trails and traces used to guide the hunter through the forests, we now see a cleared country, with main roads and cross roads, webbing the county from its extreme northeastern to its extreme southeastern corner. In place of bringing the mails from Hopkinsville on horseback once a week, the iron horse now rushes over his iron roadway, exchanging the mails as often as once, twice and thrice a day. We might go on and enumerate until wearied and worn, lay down and "nap it" for a new beginning. The clerks' offices of the county, as yet unassociated with any chapter of this work, are no less important in many respects than those already mentioned. The records kept by the first clerk of the county failed to mention his official habitation. Whether he abode his time at Bradley's Tavern or in one secluded corner of the old school house, or carried his office in his coat tail pocket, is a matter of which we shall never know more than we now do, unless some expert spiritualist should hold converse with the spirit of that departed and long ago pulverized official. Even then should this cunning manipulator of messages from the spirit world meet the historical grievance, so common to all compilers of ancient records and traditionary testimony, face to face, it is likely that he would soon discover his inability to enlighten his anxious auditory. Old age in human kind is a terrible infirmity and terribly damaging to the faculty of memory. Presuming that old spirits are as averse to the worry of recalling long lost events and as inaccurate in dates and locations as old mortals, we are prone to believe from experience had with the latter class, that the entranced medium would meet with but little headway in his spiritual interview, for the gentleman from whom he could hope to get his information has been dead, lo, these eighty-three years. The question naturally arises, "is the memory of an old spirit brighter than that of an old mortal?" and this question I decline to entertain, leaving it to our learned theologians, determined at all times to give a hearty amen to what they may say concerning it. But about the first clerk's office: it must have been a shabby affair, for we learn from the records that Mr. John D. Haussman, the first clerk of the county, presented a bill to the first Court of Claims in November, 1779, amounting to thirteen dollars and eighty-nine cents for office rent and clerk's services, from the time of his appointment in the previous June. Twelve years after this, and some years after the death of Mr. Haussman, Ambrose Barbour, Clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions and County Court, presented a bill to the court, then sitting as a Court of Claims, in November, 1811, which read as follows: Ambrose Barbour vs. County- To office rent since November l, 1810, one year $20 00 This account includes house rent and office articles, such as chairs, tables, etc. To paper, ink, quills, etc 17 00 From this it is reasonably safe to conclude that office rents, tables and chairs were cheap in those days, or else paper, ink and quills were reasonably enormous. In 1813 the first Court House was built, and an order passed some time prior to that eventful year, was enforced-that is, that the office of the clerk of the court should not be over a square from the court building. Upon the application of Mr. Barbour he was permitted to remove his office into the second story of the new Court House. Here he continued until his death in 1822. Harrison H. Grixby succeeded to the office and held this room until his death in 1824. William D. Allison succeeded to the office, and five years afterwards was successful in securing from the County Court an order directing the building of suitable offices for the purpose of the courts of the county. A committee consisting of Wm. D. Allison, Edmunds H. Hopkins and one or two others were appointed to draft a plan and report. This was done, and the plan adopted by the court, with instructions to the committee to receive bids and contract for said work. A short time thereafter the contract was awarded to Mr. James Alves, and the work of building commenced. The building cost nine hundred and fifty dollars, and was completed a few months after it had been contracted for. A large majority of the readers of this book remember it, for it stood as an ell with two rooms extending out from the main building in the direction of the Public Square, and was used and occupied up to the year 1866, the time the Court House now standing was completely remodeled. When this old-time depository of record evidences was rased to the ground one of the principal land marks of the county was destroyed; the prestine headquarters of social gatherings, the meeting place of jokers, the auditorium where gathered musicians and mirth-provoking masters, the seclude of con-vival hospitality, all of these and more too, found a welcome pastime within the walls and beneath the roof of this primitive judicial additament. If bricks could only talk, if they could only be interviewed, what a wealth of wit and humor now lost forever, would be disclosed. Each brick could a tale unfold, whose very telling would revive old memories and cause even the stoic indifferent to loosen the pegs of his boots in convulsive laughter. But it is too late, Old Time has consigned most of these humorous incidents to the tomb of the Capulets, while those yet remembered come in such a questionable shape as to render their accuracy a matter of very great doubt. Hundreds of men have gone from their old retreat happier than the sporting lamb, bearing with them the legal warrant to blend two souls into one; hundreds have gone therefrom confident in the justice of law, while there are others who have left it with broken purses, if not broken hearts. All of the vicissitudes of life have been witnessed there, and it is a pity that those old walls, for old acquaintance sake, might not have been permitted to stand for generations to come. In 1866, when the internal design of the Court House had been completely changed, and the Circuit Court room and jury rooms removed into the second story of the building, the Circuit and County Clerks' offices were located in rooms on the first floor. Nine years afterward it was deemed necessary to make a change occasioned by the growing demands of the county, and thereupon, at the August meeting of the County Court, 1875, a committee appointed at a former court to consider the advisability of such change, and a suitable plan, reported. The report of the committee was adopted, and, "upon motion of Thomas Spencer, a sum not exceeding three thousand dollars, to be appropriated out of the levy of 1874, was set aside for the purpose of building an addition to the Court House and improve the vaults for the safe-keeping of the records of the county. Judge P. H Lockett and P. B. Tribbie were appointed a committee to procure plans and report. Judge P. H. Lockett, J. M. Stone, David Banks, Jr.; J. E. Denton and G. W. Smith were appointed a building committee to contract for and superintend the building of said addition, and authorized to draw orders on the Sheriff of the county for the payment of the same as the work progressed." The contract was let to P. B. Tribbie, and a short time thereafter a Handsome two-story wing was built, and the lower wing set apart for the office of the Circuit Court Clerk and the records of his office. Adjoining this room was built, at the same time, a large, roomy and conveniently arranged brick vault for the safe-keeping of all the records and papers of the office. This building, a two-story one, planned with an eye to symmetry of architectural design and harmony with the main building, added greatly to the appearance of Court Hill, but rather left it in an unfinished appearance. It was said by many, who professed to possess a knowledge of architecture, and a taste for harmony in such matters, to resemble too closely, a cow with one horn. PRESENT BUILDING. This complaint, however, was soon remedied, and all causes for fault-finding was entirely removed. The office of the County Clerk became cramped, the vault had rapidly filled up and was growing too small day by day; other offices were needed, and above all, a room was badly wanted for the purpose of the sessions of the County Court and the semi-annual terms of the grand jury. To this end, therefore, and for the additional purpose of completing the original architectural design of having one handsome and roomy building for all purposes of the county, at the October court, of 1880, the following order was made: "On motion it was ordered that the County Judge appoint a building committee to investigate into the necessity for building a wing to the Court House, for a County Clerk's office and grand jury room, said committee to report at the February term of this court, whereupon the following were appointed such committee: Samuel R. Hopkins, J. M. Stone and J. W. Eakins. At the March, 1881, term, the committee reported that they considered the building of a clerk's office and grand jury room a necessity." This report was received and approved, and by a unanimous vote of the court then sitting, it was determined to build the same. The following order was then passed: "Ordered, that an additional levy of five cents on the one hundred dollars be made to pay for the addition heretofore ordered, and that Samuel R. Hopkins, J. W. Eakins and J. M. Stone, be appointed a committee to procure a plan and let out the building of said addition. That Judge P. H. Lockett and J. M. Stone be appointed a committee to borrow a sufficient sum of money to pay for the same, until the amount levied at this term can be collected by the Sheriff of the county." P. B. Tribble furnished the plan and specifications, and upon examination, the same were adopted by the committee. John Mundo being the lowest bidder, the work of building was awarded to him, and W. H. Sandefur appointed superintendent of the work. This addition cost the county a little over two thousand and two hundred dollars, and was completed and occupied by the County Clerk before the fall of 1881. It has been said of the County Clerk's office, that it has adjoining a magnificient fire-proof vault, large enough to accommodate the business of the county for many years to come. This completes the public buildings of the county, so far as the courts and their necessary adjuncts are concerned, and leaves the county at this time the possessor of an imposing structure, which it is presumed will serve all purposes for years to come. In the one main building and the two wings, are now located the offices of the Circuit and County Court Clerks; the County Judge, with a fire-proof vault for all the records of his office; the Sheriff, County Treasurer, Master Commissioner, and the two City District Magistrates. In the second story of the west wing is a handsome room fitted up for the use of the meetings of the County Court and grand juries. In the second story of the main building, are the Circuit Court and jury rooms. Submitted by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY, BY EDMUND L. STARLING, COMPRISING HISTORY OF COUNTY AND CITY, PRECINCTS, EDUCATION, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, LEADING ENTERPRISES, SKETCHES AND RECOLLECTIONS, AND BIOGRAPHIES OF THE LIVING AND DEAD. ILLUSTRATED. HENDERSON, KY, 1887. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/