OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 427 



diyisio:n' TV. 



POLITICAL. 

 THE COURT HOUSE. 



On ]\Ionda,y, August 23, 18o2, the cornerstone of the present Court House was laid by 

 S. Sloan, Architect, and James Crawford, Superintendent, in the presence of the Com- 

 missioners of the county, the Judges of the Court, the members of the Bar, and a large 

 concourse of citizens from the city and county. 



From an address delivered on the occasion by David G. Eshleman, Esq., we gather 

 the following data for permanent record. 



" Immediately after the erection of Lancaster count}-, (in 1739) a violent contention 

 arose as to the most suitable place for the seat of justice. Wright's Ferry (now Col- 

 umbia,) Lancaster and Postlethwaite's — an old settlement and the site of an Indian 

 wigwam in Conestoga township, about 7 miles south of Lancaster Avere the three places 

 most strongly i-ecommended. Postlethwaite's was thought to possess superior advan- 

 tages and was therefore selected. A log Court House, for which Postlethwaite was 

 allowed the sum of seven shillings, and a log jail of equal pretensions were immediately 

 erected, and the Courts held there till August term, 1730, when the increasing influ- 

 ence of the Lancaster party enabled them to procure the removal of the seat of justice 

 to this place. 



"A Court House was then erected in the centre of Lancaster, Avhere the present old 

 Court House stands (1853.) That was built of brick, but it was a small and uncom- 

 fortable structure. The floor was brick pavement, and the interior arrangements gen- 

 erally were of proportionate grandeur. On the top of the house was a small spire with 

 a clock of two faces, one for tlie south and the other for the north. In that house the 

 justice of Lancaster coimty was judicially administered until about 1781, when it took 

 fire and was burnt down. The courts were then held in the house of iSIichaol Ilubley 

 until the i)resent old Court House was finished. 



"The existing Court House (in 1852) was commenced in 1783, and finished in 1785. 

 That house, so far beneath the ideas of comfort and convenience of tlie present age, 

 was at that time considered a magnificent structure. It was sntficient in size and con- 

 veniences, not only to acconunodate the County Court and the Supreme Court of the 

 Commonwealth, but was for many years the Capitol of Pennsylvania, and the sessions 

 of the Legislature were held therein from 1799 until 1812. But times change and we 

 change with them. Our Avants keep pace with our means, and a Court House that was 

 sufficiently large and commodious in 1785, when the population of the county Avas less 

 than 25,000, and the whole assessed value of property Avas only a fcAV hundred thousand 

 dollars, and which could even accommodate the Legislature of Pennsylvania to 1810, 

 is now found to l)e entirely deficient in size and comfort in 1853, Avhen avc exceed tAvo 

 of the States of the Union in population, one State in assessed value of property, and 

 equal the fourteenth part of the Avhole assessed valuation of Pennsylvania. A number 

 of Grand Juries, representing the honest and industrious fanners and mechanics, Avho 

 are justly proud of the Avealth and prosperity of their county, conscious of the total 



