Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/228

 168 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Iron county in 1857, Arcadia township, Union and Liberty were cut off to form a part of Iron county. Another township, known as Liberty, was later erected in Madison county and a new one created called Hope to^'nship. The county early incurred a debt of more than $12,000 for the erection of the Frederick- town aud Pilot Knob gravel road; the total indebtedness of the county in 1859 was $14,- 946. In the same year its receipts were $4,542, and expenditures $5,931. This shows a gain over the year of 1822, at which time the total receipts were $249.42 and the ex- penditures were $343.72. Jefferson county was created December 8, 1818. Parts of Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis counties were cut off to form the new county. It was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson. William Bates, Peter McCormack, Thomas Evans, Henry Metz, Jacob "Wise and William Noll were commissioners to select the perma- nent seat of justice for the coimty. They decided upon Herculaneum. This decision was made because Herculaneum was the prin- cipal town in the county, though at this time, as Ave have seen, it consisted of only a very few houses. The first court room was in the log cabin owned bj^ a negro named Abe. After a time court was held in the back room of a store occupied by Mr. Glasgow. The officers of the court rented offices in various parts of the town, sometimes holding their delibera- tion, as we are told, in the shade of the trees. The first coimty court met March 22, 1819. The members of the court were H. B. Boyd, Elias Bates and Samuel Hammond. A lot in Herculaneum was donated by James Brj^ant as a building site for the county buildings, and upon this lot a log jail was erected; no effort was made, however, to build a court house. After considerable agitation a vote was taken in August, 1832, on the proposition to establish the county seat at Montieello. When the returns of this election were finally canvassed in 1833 it was declared that the proposition had been defeated, but in Septem- ber, 1834, the returns were again gone over and the court declared that the proposition had carried. Commissioners were appointed to look after the erection of a log court house. Delaj-s, however, occurred and it was not imtil April 7, 1838, that a building site was ob- tained in Montieello. Hugh O'Neil and Sam- uel Merry donated fifty acres of land for this purpose. On February 8, 1839, the general assembly passed an act establishing the seat of justice at Hillsboro, the name IMonticello being changed because it was the name of the county seat of Lewis county. The court ap- pointed John J. Buren as commissioner to erect a court house. The building was of brick and stood near the present public school building and cost $4,600. The first meeting of the court was held in this building in April, 1840. A jail was built in 1841, and in 1865 the present court house and jail were erected at a cost of $16,000. The first circuit court in Jefferson county was held in 1819 by Judge Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, who was judge of northern circuit. The territory now composing Washington county was a part of the Ste. Genevieve dis- trict and so remained imtil August 21, 1813, when Washington county was organized by an act of the territorial legislature. As it was organized it included a great amount of territory, being several times as large as the present county ; its limits were gradually re- duced as new counties were formed and in 1868 its boundaries were finally fixed as they are now. The act creating the county ap- pointed Lemuel Brown, Samuel Perry, John