The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1902-04-10
THE FULTON COUNTY CAPITAL
How McConnellsburg Won in the
Fight for Court House and Jail.

Inc following very interesting artl-
Gle is from the pen of ]. u. Barron,
Esq, editor and proprietor of 'The
Bloomfield Democrat an up-to-date
newspaper published at Bloomfield,
Indiana. Mr.. Barron, or "Jim" as
he is remembered by the older folks
here, spent part of his early life near
this place, his father owning the Judge
Morton farm east of town. .-EDIToR. ]
EDITOR NEwS:-I greatly enjoy
looking over your paper as it
comes to me from week to week.
Although nearly half century
has elapsed since as boy, | left
old McConnellsburg, | see many
family names that were familiar
to me in the long ago, and very
few still remaining that were my
associates in boyhood.
My father moved to McConnells-
burg about the year 1847, pur-
chasing the old Fasnacht farm ad-
joining town onthe east and north
east. The farm is now owned by
Judge Morton. We lived there
then till 1854 when we sold and
moved to Iowa. 1t was during
this period, about 1850, that the
new county of Fulton was organ.
lied. | remember the event well.
There was quite struggle to get
Che bill through the legislature,
us we had the old county of Bed
ford to fight which, of course,
kicked hard against parting with
SO much of It's territory. But we
were able to convince the legis-
lature of the justice of our cause
and finally won. Then came the
contest for the county.
The competing points were Nc
Connellsburg, Licking Creek,
(Harrisonville) and Fort Littleton.
Licking Creek was the most CEN
tral but the place was small and
not desirable location for a
county seat, Fort Littleton was
too much to one side Of the county
but it made the fight with the ex-
pectation of getting a slice from
Huntington county added on.
McConnellsburg was the central
north and south, but only about
mile or so from the Franklin
county line. There was, in fact,
no really good central location.
The enacting bill required the
competing points to furnish the
money to build the Court House
and Jail, at least, $4,000. Lick
ing Greek was unable to raise the
money. McConnellsburg raised
the money, and felt dead sure of
getting the County Seat; but
when the Com missioners met to
decide, Fort Littleton came up
smiling with a bundle of notes
running up to twelve or thirteen
thousand dollars. The McCon-
nellsburg fellows were thunder
struck. They had not dream ed
of such a thing. But they hust-
led around, secured postpone
ment to another day, went home
and raised some more money
came back and by smart effective
work, finally prevailed on the
Com mmissioners to award them
the County Seat.
There was a good deal of feel
ing among the Fort Littleton peo-
pie over the result, as they
thought they had been unfairly
treated, remember the circum-
stance well, because my father
was interested in both places
having a farm at Fort Littleton
which my Oldest brother farmed,
and |, q boy, had to do the plow-
ing for the wheat crop while lie
went round the county as one of
the Committee to hunt up sub
scriptions for the County Seat.
The leading men who were in
strumental in getting the new
county and the County Seat have,
| presume, all long since, passed
TO the other shore, | renem Der
some of them Hon. Mark Dick
son, Scott and Calvin Fletcher,
DR.. S. E. Duffield, Johnston Work,
w, @. McNulty, the Hoke's, Elias
Davidson, aud others whose
names | do not now recall
! will not extend this article
ls,,t 1870. a -, c.s