The Courthouse
Courthouse
Built in 1885 by DW Gibbs after the original 1806 courthouse was torn down.
Can anyone guess the style? Answer: Second Empire with touches of Italianate.
Does anyone sense something missing on the building? The tower collapsed in 1912. Then was hit by lightning in 1926. This is what is left.
Can anyone guess the style? Answer: Second Empire with touches of Italianate.
Does anyone sense something missing on the building? The tower collapsed in 1912. Then was hit by lightning in 1926. This is what is left.
Below: A bell installed in the courthouse in 1913.
Below:
Stereogram photo of the northeast corner of Butler County Court House yard with street sprinklers treating the dust, ca. 1895. From the George C. Cummins “Remember When” Photograph Collection. Donated by the family of George C. Cummins. Photo used courtesy of the George C. Cummins "Remember When" Collection at the Hamilton Lane Library, Hamilton, Ohio.
Stereogram photo of the northeast corner of Butler County Court House yard with street sprinklers treating the dust, ca. 1895. From the George C. Cummins “Remember When” Photograph Collection. Donated by the family of George C. Cummins. Photo used courtesy of the George C. Cummins "Remember When" Collection at the Hamilton Lane Library, Hamilton, Ohio.
The fire of 1912
March has been a month of tragedy in Hamilton history, most notably the 1913 flood which claimed mere than 200 lives in the community. A year and 11 days before that disaster, three firefighters died while battling a fire in the Butler County Courthouse.
Most of the courthouse escaped serious damage in the brief, but fatal fire of Thursday, March 14, 1912, because it was discovered in the middle of a workday when there were plenty of people around to spread the alarm and help remove valuable records.
The fire also altered the habits of Hamiltonians who relied on the courthouse to remind them of the time. "The big bell that hung in the tower and every hour tolled the time of day is forever stilled," a newspaper reported
Most of the courthouse escaped serious damage in the brief, but fatal fire of Thursday, March 14, 1912, because it was discovered in the middle of a workday when there were plenty of people around to spread the alarm and help remove valuable records.
The fire also altered the habits of Hamiltonians who relied on the courthouse to remind them of the time. "The big bell that hung in the tower and every hour tolled the time of day is forever stilled," a newspaper reported
Riding bikes on the steps:
"Hamilton has in her midst a bicycle rider who is bound to come to the front sooner or later with his feats of skill and daring," proclaimed a Hamilton newspaper in 1897.
"The person," said the Daily News, "is William Ely, who . . . rode down the courthouse steps before the wondering gaze of many people. The feat was accomplished a week or more ago by 'Racycle Lawrence,' but Mr. Ely was the first Hamiltonian to undertake and successfully accomplish it."
"The steps facing Front Street were first ridden down successfully, after which the High Street steps were tried and ridden down three times successfully," the newspaper said.
Racycle Lawrence -- obviously a sobriquet -- was a barnstormer for a bike manufacturer. He had descended the steps of the Butler County Courthouse as part of an advertising campaign for the Factory & Office Supplies Company, 147 N. Third Street. The store's newspaper ads boasted that it had "the largest stock of wheels ever displayed in Hamilton."
The fascination with riding down the courthouse steps was part of the bicycle craze that gripped Hamilton, Butler County and the nation in the 1890s.
The pages of local newspapers in the spring and summer of 1897 reflected the popularity of cycling. Activities ranged from competitive sport and social events to exhibitions -- such as the courthouse steps feat, a test of both rider and bicycle.
Bicycles with large front wheels, small back wheels and hard tires had been around for half a century before the 1890s.
"What launched the bicycling fad of the '90s was the 1884 safety bicycle, with its pneumatic tires, medium-sized wheels of equal diameter, chain linkage, adjustable handlebars, cushioned seat, coaster brakes and comfort and ease of riding," said Charles Panati in his book on fads.
An 1896-97 state directory listed 34 bicycle manufacturers in Ohio, including the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, in Dayton.
A column called "Wheel Notes" was a regular feature in the Hamilton Daily News in the summer of 1897.
It reported such news as "Will Duersch and Jake Schwab rode a tandem (bicycle) to Oxford Sunday," and "Harry Semler, George and Charles Duersch wheeled to Miamisburg Sunday on Semler's triplet." A June edition gave details of the Butler County Cycle Club's Sunday run to the Cincinnati zoo.
Among the races and competitive events in the summer of 1897 was the July 3 field day sponsored by the Middletown YMCA, highlighted by a 15-mile road race with a $125 Racycle as first prize. Among the dozen events were a half-mile contest and a one-mile tandem bike race.
Hamilton entrants finished 11th and 15th in the 15-mile dash to Blue Ball and back, won by a Sidney bicyclist in 52 minutes and 36 seconds.
In Hamilton, the season climaxed with the Butler County Cycle Club's annual Labor Day competition at the Butler County Fairgrounds.
Panati reported the number of safety bikes in the U. S. rose from 20,000 in 1884 to 10 million by 1895 -- "a truly remarkable figure considering that bikes were never cheap," ranging from $50 to $150 in the mid 1890s.
Cycling was so firmly established in the U. S. in 1900 that the editors of The Literary Digest predicted that the automobile would "never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle."
886. March 9, 2005 -- Public whipping drew crowd to courthouse square:
Journal-News, Wednesday, March 9, 2005
Public whipping drew crowd to courthouse square
By Jim Blount
A public whipping of a criminal in the courthouse square in Hamilton attracted a curious early morning crowd in the early 19th century. The culprit was a horse thief in what is reported as the only legal use of the punishment in Butler County. The exact date isn't listed, but the account in the 1882 county history identifies the judge and the sheriff involved. It also explains the humane role of the sheriff's wife.
Circumstantial evidence places the case to between 1813 and 1817. James McBride was elected Butler County sheriff twice, in 1813 and 1815. Judge Francis Dunlevy was appointed to the common pleas bench in 1803 and served 14 years.
Dunlevy's circuit included more than Butler County. It extended from Hamilton and Clermont counties on the south to Miami and Champaign counties on the north. His work required crossing both the Great Miami and Little rivers "at every season of the year, then without any bridges, in all that time he only missed one court," said the 1882 history. "He often swam these rivers on horseback, when very few others would have ventured to cross them."
The 1882 county history said "a boarder at the tavern of William Murray, on Front Street, went one morning to the stable of the tavern to see to his horse. He found the stable and the stall, but the horse was missing. The sheriff was informed of the facts, and the officers were put upon the scent.
"After a few days' search, horse and thief were found at Lebanon, and at once brought back to Hamilton. The thief, whose name was William Gray, was taken before the court, Judge Dunlevy presiding, and his guilt plainly proved.
"In those days Ohio had no penitentiary, and punishment of criminals was generally a public cowhiding. Judge Dunlevy sentenced Gray to 39 lashes on his bare back, to be inflicted by the sheriff in the courthouse square, allowing the culprit a few days to prepare himself for the ordeal," said the 1882 history.
Why 39 lashes? Possibly because some New England colonial laws had set the limit at 40 lashes. That maximum is believed to have been based on a Biblical source (Deuteronomy 25:2 and 25:3: "And it shall be, if the wicked man [be] worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten . . . . Forty stripes he may give him, [and] not exceed . . . .").
It was Sheriff McBride's responsibility to secure the whip and to administer the whipping. "In those days," the 1882 history said, "cowhides were the only whips in use, and could be found in bunches of 25 and 50 hung up for sale in every grocery. Selecting a good stiff whip, the sheriff returned home and laid it by."
Apparently without his knowledge, the sheriff's wife, Hannah Lytle McBride, took action.
"She thought the punishment excessive and anti-Christian, and thought she could devise some method to render the punishment less painful," noted the 1882 history. "She thought that if the stiffness should be taken out of the cowhide, the blows would be less painful, and the idea no sooner reached her brain than she put it into execution. The cowhide was placed in a pan of grease and thoroughly soaked and then tied up and placed away in greasy rags."
"The day before the culprit was to undergo his punishment," the account continued, "Mrs. McBride turned over the doctored cowhide to the sheriff."
The day before scheduled whipping, "people began flocking into the village from all points within a radius of 60 miles. They came in wagons and on foot from Connersville, Liberty and Brookville, Indiana, and from Warren and Montgomery counties, Ohio."
Some of the visitors missed the spectacle because "Sheriff McBride arose from his bed before it was light and hastily made all the arrangements necessary, and before the sun was fairly up William Gray was tied to a scaffold post on the south side of the courthouse, which at that date was not finished," said the 1882 history.
"The doctored cowhide was brought out, and the horse thief received his 39 lashes while yet half the people were in their beds. Several of the blows brought the blood to the surface, but owing to the wit of Mrs. McBride the punishment was by no means as severe as it could, and perhaps should, have been.
"Notwithstanding the early hour, however, the punishment was witnessed by a large number of persons who had reached the square early, anticipating such a move on the part of the sheriff."
After the whipping, Gray was held in jail several days while his back healed. When released, he was ordered to leave Butler County. He was the first and last person subjected to a public whipping in the county, according to the 1882 history.
Above: Workers installing new lighting, Hamilton, Ohio, completed January, 1931. Fred Timmers, Policeman. Herb Getz, Jack Kellogg and George Franch on boom. Marion Hardy holding tag line. Rialto Theater visible on the left rear of photo. Photo from the George C. Cummins “Remember When” Photograph Collection. Donated by the family of George C. Cummins. Photo used courtesy of the George C. Cummins "Remember When" Collection at the Hamilton Lane Library, Hamilton, Ohio.