Winn Parish Courthouses, Winn Parish, Louisiana ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Greggory E. Davies 120 Ted Price Lane Winnfield, LA 71483 Courthouse Is Fifth In Parish History Fire Destroyed Three Right after the legislative act of 1852 that created Winn Parish, three settlements put in a bid for the Courthouse site. They were Gansville, Montgomery, and Tancock's Prairie located two miles southwest of Packton. The result was a compromise at Winnfield and Dennis Mackie was assigned the project of surveying the square. He finished in April, 1854 and since that time fire burned three courthouses. The fourth was razed to erect the fine new building just completed. The Beginning John Watson had a saloon and trading post down in Tancock's Prairie which was a thriving stop on the El Camino Real. All the old timers pass along the story that the first court sessions in the parish were held in Watson's saloon. The frist courthouse which went up was a log house. Sometime thereafter, R. C. Jones moved part of this building down near the L & A Depot where he established his home. Jones became Clerk in 1870. In 1868, fire destroyed the Courthouse and all its records. The people erected another log house back on the Court Square but in 1886 it burned again. this time most all the records were saved. (This is erroneous. No records were saved. It was the fire of 1917 in which all or most of the records were saved.) The offices and records were moved across the street where the A & P Grocery is now, and activites were conducted there until 1896 when a new courthouse was constructed on the square again. (The A & P Grocery no longer stands at the spot. A furniture store currently is housed on this spot, which is next door or north of Sam Brian's Courthouse Pharmacy). This time it was built of brick fired from clay dug from what is not the Huey P. Long Trade School grounds. There was also a jail. In 1917, the courthouse burned again, but the records were salvaged. The clerk opened shop in the jail. The sheriff went to the old city hall building. The tax assessor moved to the Wright property and was located about where the Williams Flower Shop is next to the Bank of Winnfield. In 1922, another courthouse was built which stood until it was removed to make way for the new building. (The above copied from the 1-24-1963 Winn Parish Enterprise-News American. Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, LA.)