MACON COUNTY, GA - Newspaper  Burning of Courthouse  1857

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:
Rebecca Sue Wester <rswester@cox.net>

Georgian & Journal,
Oglethorpe, February 26, 1857. It reads: 

A COURT HOUSE BURNT--GREAT EXCITEMENT--VALUABLE DOCUMENTS LOST

The court house of Macon County was totally consumed by fire
on last night, about midnight, evidently the work of an
incendiary, as no fire had been in the court house for
several days. The records of the Clerk Superior and Inferior
Courts, and Court of Ordinary are all destroyed--not a
single record was saved from any of these offices. When
discovered, the stairway was in flames, and the top of the
building falling in so that it was impossible to save
anything. There is considerable excitement among our
citizens, as the greatest confusion must be the consequence.
There is no clue to the perpetrator of the deed. Much
sympathy is felt for the worthy Clerk, Superior Court, who
loses many valuable private papers,& c.
Very respectfully,  W.H.W. 

NOTES:
The indictment says that Harley was mad about something.
After the ashes cooled, the next census is missing Harley,
and lists Cary as the oldest son in the household, although
he had 2 older brothers. A man in Utah who did some research
for me on Cary assumed that Harley was in prison. However, a
Harley Barefield of matching age, showed up in Texas census,
with sons John and Giles (the older 2 sons) another wife and
more children. I'm not absolutely sure, but it really looks
like Harley and the older sons took off after the jail house
fire and started a new life in Texas. After Cary's first
wife died and he remarried (my g.grandmother) in Georgia,
they moved to Texas.