86 



When Col. Ward laid out the town he dedicated a square in the 

 center of it for public county buildings. A frame house on what is 

 now Court street, standing on the lot next west of Mrs. Keller's was 

 first occupied as a Court House in 1806 and continued to be temporarily 

 occupied until a new Court House was built in the Public Square, in 

 1814. That new Court House was a spacious brick building, facing 

 to the south. The Court room was on the first floor in the north part 

 of the building; the main entrance to it was from the hall coming in 

 from the south door, on either side of which were the Clerk and 

 Recorder's ofiices; the other county ofiices were in the second story. 

 Part of the second story was occupied as a Masonic Lodge, for many 

 of the prominent early settlers were greatly given to Masonry. No 

 fence surrounded the Court House, it was easily accessible; it was the 

 place of all public and political meetings, and for the elections of town 

 and township, and much of the marketing was done on the north side 

 of it; and people h'om town and county were wont to gather about it 

 and discuss politics and business generally. My first acquaintance 

 with it in a business capacity was as far back as 1832, when as a boy 

 I wrote in the Recorder's office. On the north side of it was a well, 

 from which the water, pure, and bright and cold, was drawn by 

 windlass until in "modern times" that sweet old "moss-covered bucket" 

 was compelled to give way to the unhappy invention of a pump. The 

 old CourD House disappeared about 1840 ; the old well remains, how- 

 ever, but was covered from human sight and human taste when the 

 town threw off the rustic but sensible village garb and put on city 

 airs,- including oppressive taxes and other evils that style usually 

 begets. My first acquaintance with lawyers practicing in that Court 

 House was in 1835, when I began the study of the law under Israel 

 Hamilton. The lawyers then residing here and practicing were Moses 

 B. Corwin, John H. James, Israel Hamilton, Daniel S. Bell, Samuel 

 V. Baldwin, Richard R. McNemar — Geo. B. Way came soon after. 

 Amongst the distinguished resident lawyers of the past had been 

 James Coolly, who went as charge de afiairs to Chili, in 18 — , and 

 died there. His widow still lives in this city. He was a man of fine 

 ability. C. P. Holcomb was here for a while and so was Henry 

 Bacon. Hon. Joseph R. Swan was the President Judge, and Ohio 

 has never had a better, a purer, or more learned one. 



Gen. Return J. Meigs had his headquarters here in the spring of 



