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Does anyone have a historical record of Izard County that might indicate what the dates of construction were for the first county Courthouse at Athens in the 1830s or 1840s?
I have a photocopied page from "A History of Izard County, Arkansas" by Karr Shannon, A.B., LL. B., Columnist and Feature Writer at Arkansas Democrat, Little Rock, Arkansas. Published by Democrat Publishing and Lithographing Co, Little Rock Arkansas. 1947. The paragraph that has to do with my family is this:
"When the courthouse was erected at Athens, no provision was made for heating the room. So late in the fall it was decided to build a chimney. A meeting was called for the purpose of making the necessary arrangements. At this meeting some extravagant persons who were in favor of progress advocated the building of a stone chimney. They declared that old Peter Young and Sol Hess were both skilled in this kind of work and could build a chimney of stone that would look much better than one built of "stick and clay" and would last forever. Jim Creswell took a very decided stand against the motion, and in bursts of oratory, declared that he was not in foavor of "grinding the people to death with taxes." He also said he was in favor of holding to old landmarks and building chimneys of stick and dirt as all had been accustomed to, and which would be much cheaper. The arguments of this staunch servant of the people were too logical to be disregarded -- so the first courthouse ever built in what is now Izard County had a stick and dirt chimney."
I'm descended from "old Peter Young" in the paragraph above and knowing when the courthouse was built might give me some sort of idea as to how old "old" Peter Young really was. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the book Mr. Shannon wrote in the 1940s and the one page I do have doesn't give any dates.
Thank you!
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