Recently in courthouse Category

Lewis Miller drawing of York's square in 1799.

I recently posted a Lewis Miller illustration of "wicked boys" taking a wagon apart and reconstructing it on the roof of the market house in 1804. I was asked where that market was.

Click here to read that post.

It was in Center Square, right smack in the middle of downtown York. You can see the location in the Lewis Miller drawing illustrating that area in 1799.

See below for a brief history of markets in the center of York, drawn from Prowell's History of York County and Lewis Miller's Chronicles of York.

Tom Thumb ad illustration makes him look really small.

I recently noted that people in York County have always seemed to turn out in droves for whatever entertainment came to town.

In May 1849 the biggest little sensation to hit the circuit appeared at the York County courthouse. He was none other than Tom Thumb, nicknamed "The Little General," and being promoted by the fantastic showman P.T. Barnum.

The lengthy ad in the York Gazette described the little man as one "Who has been received with the highest marks of ROYAL favor by Queen Victoria, and all the principal Crowned Heads of Europe, and who has performed before 6,000,000 or persons during the last six years..."

William Wagner Drawing of 1830 York County Courthouse.

I'm certainly not advocating crime, but when you think of it, salaries for all those policemen, jailers, judges, and attorneys do add to the economy. Building and upkeep of the prisons and courthouses, feeding the prisoners, and all the other fees associated with the justice system also supply work for a lot of people.

I haven't checked the probably astronomical costs today, but take a look at the crime and court related expenditures below from the 1825-1826 York County budget report, as published in the York Recorder. They make up quite a chunk of the costs for that year.

Lewis Miller drawing of the new courthouse, 1839.

I recently wrote about a thief stealing the copper spouting off the York County courthouse in 1874. That was the York County’s second courthouse, completed in 1840.

Click here to read about the spouting heist.

York County residents, as always, had plenty of opinions where that new courthouse should be and kept a keen eye on the cost. The first courthouse, the one in which Continental Congress met, had to go, they said, because it sat in the middle of Center Square, and traffic was picking up.

I'll tell you more about the cost of the 1840 building itself in a future post, but for now, I’ll quote the Gazette editorial of February 13, 1838 when, after much wrangling, a site was finally chosen: