Macoupin County - Newspaper excerpts about the
first county courthouse
© Transcription 2008 Missi Darnell
(Transcription excerpts donated by Missi
Darnell for use on
the
Macoupin County IL site.)
First Macoupin County Courthouse
1829
Newspaper Excerpts relating to that courthouse
Oct 12, 1897 - Edwardsville Intelligencer
(Excerpt)
Carlinville is likely to have a prolonged lawsuit on
its
hands. In 1829 Seth
Hodges and Ezekiel Good donated to Macoupin county 30
acres of land in
Carlinville for county purposes with the proviso that if
used
for other purposes
it should revert to the owners or their heirs. The land
was abandoned years
ago by the county, the court house and jail being erected
on another site. Now
the heirs of the donors of the land are consulting the
records with the
intention to recover the property. Some of the residents who
were in Carlinville
in the 30's say that the public square and a large part of
the business
portion of the city is situated on the tract.
The Alton Weekly Courier Feb 26, 1857
Excerpt from Carlinville Free Democrat
Reminiscences of Macoupin
The first County Commissioners' Court of the new
county,
composed of Seth
Hodges, Wm. Moore and Thomas Davis, sen., convened on the
12th day of April
1829 at the house of Joseph Borough, about a half a mile
east
of the present
court house in this place and completed its organization by
the appointment of
the late Tristam P. Hoxsey, once so well known, and now is
kindly remembered,
their clerk.
On the first day of June 1829, John Harris, Jos. Borough,
and Seth Hodges,
Commissioners appointed by the General Assembly for that
purpose, reported to
the County Commisioners that they had selected a part of
section 28, twnshp
10, north range, seven west, as a site for the seat of
justice
of the county,
and the Court, on the same day, received a title in fee
simple,
and ordered
the County Surveyor to proceed to lay out the town of
Carlinville, and the
County Court ordered that twenty half lots in said town he
offiered for sale on
the 27th day of August following, and ordered, in
anticipation
of the sums of
money likely to be realized from the sales of lots, that
bids
be invited for
the erection of a Court House for the County, of the
following description,
which is copied verbatim from the Record: "To be built
of
hewn logs, 18 feet
by 24, the logs to face on foot on an average' the
House
to be two stories
high, the lower story to be 8 feet between floors, and
the second story to be 6
feet below, 1 in roof; to have one door below, and one
above, door to be
cased and to have a good strong plank shutter, the
window
to contain twelve
lights or panes of glass, 8 by 10; two good plank
floors,
to be jointed and laid
down rough' roof to be double covered boards, height
poles to be shaven
boards, and crammed on the outside with mud and straw
well mixed together, all to
be completed in a strong manner by the first day after
the 2d Monday in April
next, to be let on a credit of six, twelve and 18
months,
to the lowest
bidder, the undertaker to give bond with appropriate
security for the performance
of his contract."
I may state now, to avoid referring to it again, that
this Court House was
afterwards built by Seth Hodges, Esq. one of the members of
the court, who
appears to have received fourty-four dollars and
thirty-three
cents for the job;
and thus the wheels of justice were set in motion in the
county
of Macoupin;
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