The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-07-27
THE NEW COURT HOUSE.


by assuming an attitude hostile to the erection
of new court house. AS Judge Cation has
been regarded as a man of sound judgment
by the community at large, his letter, If based
upon facts, should have some weight especial
ly with those who were lukewarm towards
what every impartial citizen cannot hesitate to
pronounce an indispensable need The letter
i'm question is a reckless combination OF dis
connected assertions, not one borne out by
facts, as we shall presently show. 1t was evi
IDENTIFY written without previous thought, an
argument not written from the head of wise
man, but from the pocketbook OF man who
loves his money
To say that the present old rookery, which
courtesy in its bitterest irony calls the court
house of La Sale county, sis as good today as
it was thirty years ago. as the Judge puts it,
is the very height Of absurdty. If the distin
guished gentleman had consulted the county
records carefully, as | have done, he would
have discovered that the present court house
and Jail, since the building was accepted by
the county commissioners Jan. 8, 1S42, has
cost La Sale county, for the structure as de,
livered by Flagg, the builder for repairs, I'M
provements bonds issued, interest, patching,
changing, re-rooting and incidentas trife
over one hundled and nine thousand dollars! a
little over three thousand dollars for every
year of its existencel
To say that brick and frame building thir-
o1l to IL Sim NV
bosh on the face OF the assertion. Is the Judge
himself as good as he was 36 years ago? La
Sale county was then in its infancy she had
to strain every nerve to get as good public
building as the court house was then, but our
county has out-grown swaddling clothes. Thir-
ty years ago her population was not twenty
thousand all told; now her census will show
from eighty to eighty-fivc thousand people
With this enormous gain Of her inhabitants
and wealth and business Of every sort there
has been proportiOnate increase OF work to
be done by the different county officers In
1888 the total assessed value of all property in
La Sale county was about 100000; now ii is
over thirty millions of dollars For the first
fifteen to twenty years after the organization
of this county, in April, 1881, pretty much all
the work in the different offices about the court
house was done by one clerk, a part of the
time by DAVID Walker, and afterwards by Jo-
seph cloud, who occasionally called to his
aid 0ne assistant! Now the circuit clerk needs
one or two; the recorder from two to four; the
treasurer from one constantly to three or four;
the county clerk all the time four and some OF
the time ten or twelve. Thirty years ago the
time set by the Judge when this paragon OF a
court house was perfect, from which degree OF
excellence it has never rcceded, the countys
financial affairs were administered by three
county commissioners, now their place is filled
by forty-two supervisors The law compels
this body to meet at the court house, but it is
well known fact, existing for ten or fifteen
years that they go through the form of meet
ing here to organize to fill the letter of the law,
and in so doing crowd out the county judge
or some other officer, for the time being stop
ping his business, and then, tor want OF room,
adjourn to meet wherever they can find aroom
to squeeze into. They do their work by com
mittees, and cOmmitteerooms must be found
about town here and there, suffering every
Inconvenience and materially retarding their
business, necessarily protracting their sessions
at their own and the peoples expense, simply
for the reason that the present court house is
too small 1t Is as contracted in extent as
shabby in every detail, and as far from fitting
La Sale county as Judge Cations old breeches
of twenty years ago would comfortably enclose
his ample figure now.
Every Office in the court house is packed
from floor to ceiling with valuable books, pa
pers and records Every nook and corner is
crowded with important books, papers in vast
bundles are piled upon the floors, every desk
| is full and withal the offices are so small and
lovcr-crammed and jammed full of records that
the clerks have not elbow room to do business.
Clerks who record deeds, figure up taxes, enter
up iudgmcnts-in fact who write any record
should have quiet rooms by themselves to
insure accuracy and to secure to the people a
lust amount of labor for the salaries they re
ceive: but crowded as they are, they are con
stantly interrupted by people coming to do
business-farmers far from home ~ hurry do
not stop to urge their business upon every one
in an office till their errand is done. The pres
ent court house affords no Office for the county
surveyor, none TO the county superintendent OF
schools none to the coroner, and the county
for years has had TO pay Office rent for two of
them outside of the court house.
To return to our parallel between the bust
ness done in the court house 20 to 30 years ago
and at present. In 1898, thirty years ago, there
were about fifteen decd and mortgage records
in the recorders Office, now there are exactly
t,ro huadred, besides 80 chattle mortgage re.
cords, and the vault filed with induces, maps,
plats, and other accumulated records. Then