Natrona County WY Archives History - Books .....Natrona County's Two Court Houses 1923 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wy/wyfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 5, 2005, 6:58 pm Book Title: History Of Natrona County, Wyoming NATRONA COUNTY'S TWO COURT HOUSES From the date of Natrona county's organization in April, 1890, until July, 1895, the county officers occupied two rooms on the second floor over Robert White's saloon, on Center street. The terms of the district court were held in the town hall. In the early spring of 1895 the board of county commissioners, with Charles K. Bucknum as chairman, wisely decided that a new court house was needed, and accordingly a contract was let for the construction of a two-story frame building to be covered with seam iron. The dimensions of the building were 24x36 feet and the size of the brick vault was 8x12 feet. The cost of this building, complete, was $477. There were eight rooms in the building, and the county clerk and clerk of the district court, the board of county commissioners and the brand commissioners occupied the two lower rooms on the south side, the county surveyor and treasurer occupied the two lower rooms on the north side; the county attorney and the sheriff were in the rooms on the south side, upstairs, and the terms of the district court were supposed to be held in the two rooms upstairs on the north side, but as these rooms were too small to accommodate these proceedings, they were generally vacant. The county surveyor occupied any of the rooms that suited him best, and he generally could be found in one of the rooms with the county clerk. From this very convenient and commodious arrangement it can readily be seen that there was plenty of room for all and some to spare. This building was located on the west side of David street, between Yellowstone Highway and Midwest avenue. In the early days the population of the county was from 500 to 1,000 and the assessed valuation was in the neighborhood of a million dollars. But in 1906 the county had grown in population and wealth, and the people felt that they must have a court house in keeping with their size and money, and on March 1 1906, at a meeting of the Casper Booster's club a committee consisting of Patrick Sullivan, W. A. Blackmore, C. M. Elgin, Oscar Hiestand and E. F. Seaver, was appointed to meet with the board of county commissioners and request that preliminary arrangements be made for the selection of a site and the erection of a suitable court house for the county. Petitions were circulated requesting the commissioners to submit to the electors of the county, at a special election, the question of whether the board of commissioners should be authorized to issue coupon bonds in the sum of $40,000 for the purpose of raising funds with which to build a new court house. The election was held in November, 1906, and 676 votes were cast for the bonds, with 139 against. Everything up until this time, apparently, had been going smoothly, but there were some people in the county then, as there probably are now, who were always and completely out of tune with their environments. Some of these people had lived in the county almost from the beginning of its organization and they had nearly always opposed everything and everybody that looked progressive, and it was surprising that matters had progressed so far without friction. But when the selection for the site of the new building was to be made by the board of county commissioners the war clouds commenced to thicken, and it was soon found that the taxpayers were wallowing in the mire of personalities and the intricacies of the law, from which the majority extricated themselves from the cataclysm with difficulty. No doubt there were a few men on both sides of the question who were self- centered, case-hardened, hidebound and utterly uncharitable, while there were many others who were unquestionably honest and sincere. It was a bitter contest, and everybody was active; the men on each side "bowed their necks and stiffened their backs," and were determined to make a fight until their last chance to win had gone. Three sites were favored, one on north Center street, where the building was finally located, one on south Wolcott street, eight blocks south of what was then the center of the town, and the other on David street, where the court house at that time was situated. On January 1, 1907, the $40,000 bonds were issued, and the board of county commissioners, consisting of L. L. Gantz, C. C. P. Webel and C. A. Hall, met in special session for the purpose of deciding upon the location for the new building. A great many people were present at this meeting and some heated argument was indulged in. Petitions were presented favoring the three sites, and after patiently listening to the argument, carefully perusing the petitions and diligently studying the situation from every angle, it was decided the north Center street site was the one favored by the greatest number of taxpayers, and the commissioners unanimously decided that this was where the building should be. But this was far from ending the controversy, as will be seen later. C. A. Randall, the local architect, was instructed to draw plans and specifications for the building, and by the time they were finished the summer months were far advanced, but the blood of the defeated factions was still boiling. In November, 1907, at a meeting of the board of county commissioners the contract for the construction of the building was awarded to Schmidt & Esmay of Douglas, the price being $44,274, the building to be completed November 1, 1908. The contractors commenced at once to excavate for the foundation and carry out their part of the contract, but on December 20, 1907, Silas Adsit, through his attorney, Alex T. Butler, filed a petition with the clerk of the district court asking that an injunction be issued by Judge Carpenter restraining the board of county commissioners of Natrona county and Schmidt & Esmay, the contractors, from constructing the court house at the north end of Center street. The petitioner alleged that when the board of county commissioners claimed that a majority of the taxpayers favored that location, and when they said that it was a suitable and plausible location, they did not tell the truth, and that the commissioners decided upon that location for the purpose of cheating and injuring the petitioner and deteriorating the value of his real estate in the town of Casper, and that the commissioners were in collusion with speculators that owned real estate near the proposed site. He further said that the records of the county would be imperiled by the overflow of the Platte river and the continuous blowing of sand, and that the grounds could not be beautified because of the lack of water and the abundance of sand. After making numerous and divers other charges he concluded his petition by claiming that all the actions of the county commissioners in regard to selecting the site and awarding the contract for the construction of the building was illegal, and for these things he asked the court to issue a perpetual restraining order, enjoining the commissioners from paying out any money for the construction of the court house. For some of the allegations contained in the petition which reflected upon them, the contractors and the architect made arrangements to bring action against Mr. Adsit, charging him with libel, and asking for damages to the amount of $100,000. When the matter of granting the temporary restraining order came before Judge Carpenter, he said he would readily grant the order when Mr. Adsit should procure a good and sufficient bond, in the sum of $18,000, but until the bond was presented the contractors would continue uninterrupted with their work. The matter came up for final hearing the last week in February, and on account of the petitioner being able to secure only one name on the bond, it was declared to be insufficient, and the court refused to grant the injunction, but this did not settle the controversy. The objectors had not yet exhausted all their means to stop the progress of the building, for after the excavation for the basement had been completed, and a great deal of material was on the ground, and when the contractors had hired a large force of men, J. M. Carey refused to deliver to the county a deed for that portion of the ground he owned upon which the court house was to be built, and work on the building was then temporarily suspended. Shortly after the site for the building had been selected by the board of county commissioners, a contract was made with Mr. Carey, through M. P. Wheeler his Casper agent, for the purchase of the lots, and at the same time a number of other lots which would be used for the court house grounds were purchased from other parties. The contract for the purchase of the lots from the Carey company were drawn up and properly signed by the Carey company agent, and the agent of the individuals who were purchasing the land and were going to present it to the county, free of charge, for court house purposes. And it was agreed that full payment would be made when the deed was delivered. Shortly after this contract was made Mr. Wheeler was compelled to undergo a dangerous operation, and before he could return home from Chicago the time agreed upon for the payment of the lots had expired, and Mr. Carey at once canceled the contract and withdrew the lots from the market, although the money was tendered him for the payment of them according to the contract. A delegation immediately went to Cheyenne and waited on Mr. Carey, and he agreed to come to Casper the first week in April and make an investigation of conditions, and at a mass meeting held in the town hall on April 3, at which Mr. Carey and a large number of citizens were present, much argument was presented for and against the building of the court house on the proposed site. Mr. Carey did not at once give his decision in regard to the sale of the lots, but after returning to his home in Cheyenne he wrote to the board of county commissioners, protesting against the court house being built on the north Center street site, "unless the property is first donated by us, purchased of us or procured by condemnation proceedings." A number of citizens and taxpayers put up a bond to the county commissioners guaranteeing title to the north Center street site, regardless of the protest of Mr. Carey, and at a special meeting of the town council an ordinance was adopted which vacated and closed to public use the land provided for a court house building and a court house yard on north Center street. Some of those who were opposed to this site were present at the council meeting and they threatened to throw "the members of the town council in jail, as they had thrown the members of the school board in jail, and if this street was blockaded, they said they would tear up and blockade and fence the alleys and the streets anywhere in town that they chose. The majority of the members of the town council and all the members of the board of county commissioners, together with about fifty substantial taxpayers, were determined that the work on the building should proceed, and they personally guaranteed to the city and county and the contractors the payment of all the expense of court proceedings and any other expense that might arise, and the contractors again commenced work on the building, and continued without interruption, but were annoyed with a great deal of objection until the building was completed. The cornerstone was laid by the grand master of Masons on Monday, June 22, 1908, and the building was finished February 10, 1909, but was not occupied until March 13, on account of the new furniture and jail fixtures not arriving before that time. The formal opening of the building was on March 17, 1909, when the Casper band furnished music, and a reception was held from 3 o'clock until 5 in the afternoon, and, although it was declared that "everybody in town" was at the reception, those who made such a strong resistance against the building being erected on this site, must have been out of town that day, for they were not at the reception. But even after the new building was occupied the rancorous feeling had not been smothered and on November 9, 1909, Judge Carey wrote a letter to the board of county commissioners in which he said that "upon examining the location of the new court house in Casper we find that you have used a street that was dedicated by us for public uses, without our consent. You have also destroyed the means of ingress and egress to property belonging to us in blocks fifty-four and fifty-five. We are entitled to some compensation for this and we want to hear your proposition and what you propose to do." In due time an agreement was reached between the board of county commissioners and Mr. Carey as to the price he should have for his lots upon which the court house was built and the amount of damage to blocks fifty-four and fifty-five, because of the closing of Center street. The county commissioners informed the men who had agreed to bear all the expense of the amount to be paid to Mr. Carey and the bondsmen raised the money and turned it over to the county commissioners; the county commissioners then paid Mr. Carey, and thus ended for all time the Natrona county court house controversy. Additional Comments: History of NATRONA COUNTY WYOMING 1888-1922 True Portrayal of the Yesterdays of a New County and a Typical Frontier Town of the Middle West. Fortunes and Misfortunes, Tragedies and Comedies, Struggles and Triumphs of the Pioneers and Illustrations BY ALFRED JAMES MOKLER Publisher of the Natrona County Tribune from June 1, 1897, to October 15, 1914 R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO (1923) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wy/natrona/history/1923/historyo/natronac5gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wyfiles/ File size: 14.5 Kb