Johnston County’s Magnificent New Court House. . . Johnston Dedicates Sixth and Its Last Court House. . . Magnificent Structure Turned Over to Use of People of County. . . Colonel Abell Makes Presentation Address . . . Fine Building Will Last for Generations to Come; Judge Daniels Speaks
By Ben Dixon MacNeill
Smithfield, Sept. 26—Johnston county today dedicated its sixth courthouse since the county was set up 176 years ago and the first courthouse built at Clayton and after all these years has built a house that will probably remove all necessity for further building and dedication for some centuries to come. Johnston county has the finest courthouse in North Carolina.
This Greek temple fashioned of steel and stone and set down in the middle of this thriving county is a far cry from the log courthouse that was built in Clayton in 1747 and before which the citizens of that far gone time buried a witch one day. It is about as fine a building as it is possible for a people to build. It cost $425,000.
Folks Proud of It
Johnston has shrunk in size since 1747 when it covered more territory than a congressional district, but it has multiplied in the measure of its wealth and its population. Fifty thousand people call this courthouse their own and they are mighty proud of it, even that segment of the population that thought spending all that money was more or less foolish.
Dedication ceremonies reflected the simple dignity of the building itself and some of the oratory that was done in its honor took its color from the old Greeks whose artistry in building is reflected in evry line of this courthouse. Judge Frank Daniels, presiding over the term of court, received the building in the name of the people of the county from the hands of Colonel Ed. Abell, who spoke in behalf of the commissioners who built it.
Busy Picking Cotton
Johnston county is probably too busy picking out the biggest crop of cotton it has raised in years to attend dedications of even so fine a courthouse as has been built here, and by their labors living up to the picture of industry that was painted of them by more than one speaker who took the floor in celebratory speech. The crowd was nothing like the crowd that attended the county convention some weeks back, nor the crowd who attended the Thanksgiving services here Labor day.
Six hundred people can sit down comfortably in the auditorium of the building, and approximately that many were there when the ceremonies began at 11 o’clock. Not many country people came. Riding along the roads any where in the county the wayfarer saw the country folks, and saw them in the middle of the finest fields of cotton that are to be found in the State this year, and fields that give promise of making good Judge Stevens’ prediction that Johnston would lead the whole country in the value of its agricultural products. It was third last year.
Began in 1747
Johnston began building courthouses 176 years ago with the aforementioned log house near Clayton. That one lasted until 1760 when another was built on the spot where the new one stands. Another was built on the spot where the new one stands. Another was built in 1802, but it was not until 1841 that they built one of brick. This one served until 1882 and another was erected on the same lot. It got too small as the county grew, but with additions, it was used until last year.
Years back judges who came here to hold court began to complain about the 1882 model, and various grand juries called its dilapidated condition to the attention of the commissioners. Nothing was done about it, and finally the grand jury got peevish and indicted the whole board. Then in 1920 the present board took the situation by the horns and, if a localism may be pardoned, they went the whole hog.
Then the Slump
Along about that time the slump descended upon Eastern North Carolina and a lot of folks got excited about spending $425,000 for a new courthouse at a time when most folks in the county were hard pressed to pay ordinary taxes. It caused an upheaval, but the thing was done and couldn’t be undone. Today with record crops and good prices, and the boll weevil almost a stranger in the county, the Johstonians are beginning to see the wisdom of their commissioners and to brag about their courthouse.
This historical data was recited briefly by Colonel Abell, dean of the Johnston bar in his brief presentation speech. He paid the highest tribute to the five commissioners, D.B. Oliver, P.B. Chamblee, Horace Barbour, J.W. Creech and W.H. Upchurch, who took the decisive step that brought the structure into reality. It was a neat speech, brief, polated and well phrased, and the stranger within the gates of the county seat marvel not at all that Colonel Abell is the leader of the bar.
Preceding the beginning of the ceremonies, the Johnston county bar association held a brief meeting and by acclamation elected Judge Daniels an honorary member of the association. Like honors were conferred a moment later upon Judge W.S. O’B. Robinson of Goldsboro, who practices a lot over here. Both he and Judge Daniels made graceful acknowledgement of the honor paid them. Then the service was opened by Rev. J.A. Russell of Four Oaks, who led in prayer. Then came Colonel Abell’s brief speech.
Honor Judge Daniels
James A. Wellons, one of the leading member of the bar, then addressed the assemblage. He recounted the outline of Johnston’s history as a county, and then presented a roster of each member of the bar from the day of Johnston’s first lawyer down through a long list of distinguished names to the youngest member of the county’s present imposing array of legal talent, giving a brief sketch of each lawyer.
Then followed addresses in brief by local members of the bar, concluding with Judge Stevens, who has been clerk of the court for 32 years. He had more history up his sleeve, and no Johnstonian could but have been surprised at some of the facts that he related. First that a docket book used to last the county 10 years before it was used up, but now the records of the court will fill a book in 10 months.
Needed Court House
Johnston was beginning to need a courthouse to take care of its business. But that was not all. The county has doubled in population and trebled in wealth in a quarter of a century. That time ago there was not a bank in the county, and now there are a score. Now Johnston stands second in the value of its farm crops in the state and third in the nation.
This year the county is going to the head of the list in the United States and Johnston has the greatest people on the face of the earth, he declared. The courthouse is but a reflection of the greatness of its people and a fitting monument to the worth of Johnston’s citizenship, he declared.
After the Judge, who along with Colonel Abell, claims to have lived 300 years in the county already, came Judge Robinson, W.C. Davis, J.C. Clifford and Clawson Williams, all bringing greetings from neighboring counties and congratulations upon the building of so fine a temple of justice. Judge Robinson spoke not only as a visitor. He had been made a member of the bar in Johnston. He was one of the folks.
Irishman that he is, Judge Robinson is a born orator, with an uncanny gift for apt drafting of poetical quotation. The day was a great day for him, and in this great courthouse he saw the emblems of the spirit that made America. He congratulated the people of the county on its completion and declared it a worthy monument to the splendid qualities of its citizenship.
Stole Judge’s Speech
Judge Daniels complained facetiously when it came his turn to accept the building that all the speakers who had gone before him had stolen away his entire speech and that he might have just grounds for a peremptory bench warrant for the entire bar, charging them with theft of all the fine things he had planned to say about the county and the building.
He had begun the practice of law in Smithfield two score years ago, but a year after the preceding courthouse had been dedicated His interest in the county and his close association with it for more than a generation had left many gracious memories, and it was of these that he would speak. But before he came to that he talked of the meaning of the law and the necessity for getting back to the fundamental respect for it which is the basis of good citizenship.
This great courthouse was not built merely to gratify the pride of a great people, he declared. It is a monument to the law, an emblem of the principles upon which the republic is of the principles upon which the republic is founded. The services had profound admiration. He was glad they had sung Carolina, he was glad that the services had been opened with a prayer. He recalled with pride the material and the mental growth of the people of the county since the days he began to practice law here.
Perhaps the most interesting part of his address to the members of the bar was his intimate history of the bar since he became acquainted with it, his close association with many men whose names are great in the history of the county, the Pous, the Masseys, the Sanders family, the Waddells, and others who have served at the bar of Johnston county. His address was devoted mainly to this biographical sketch of the county’s notable men.
Addresses by Harry Barton, the Greensboro architect who drew the plans for the building, and J.W. Stout, the contractor who built it, preceded Judge Daniels. Afterward Judge Daniels, members of the bar, members of the board of Commissioners and county officers were guests of Mr. Stout at a barbecue served at Holt’s Lake, the county’s lake resort.
Is State’s Finest
Wake and Guilford counties may have slightly larger courthouses than this one dedicated here today, but neither of them have finer. It is built of Indiana sandstone and granite, four stories and a basement, and set in the middle of a quarter square in the center of the town. It was begun a year ago, and is not yet altogether complete.
The first floor is devoted to county offices, the second to the court chamber, judge and solicitor’s offices, grand jury room, etc. The third floor contains offices, and a dormitory for the jury, should it ever get tied up and have to sleep over a verdict. The fourth floor is given over to the jail, and most modern and completely equipped in the State. It would do a welfare officer’s heart good to see it.
Architecturally the building is Greek in design, with huge columns on the north and east entrances. The fourth floor is completely hidden from view from the street. The interior of the building is finished in solid oak, with tiled floors. Indiviudality is the note everywhere, even in the seats in the court room, which bear the J.C.C.H.” in monogram.
The 49,500 Johnston citizens who did not attend the dedication today will probably live to regret it. It will be a long time before there is another in the county, unless perhaps an earthquake should turn this one over. It can’t burn down, because it is fireproof. It is big enough and fine enough for the county seat, even if Smithfield should get as big as Winston-Salem, for London, for that matter.
From the front page of the Raleigh News & Observer, Sept. 27, 1922
PREVIOUS JOHNSTON COUNTY COURTHOUSE
