Image:Jackson County (WV) Courthouse.JPG
From West Virginia (WV) Cyclopedia
The Beaux Arts-style courthouse for Jackson County stands at the county seat at Ripley, WV.
According to the West Virginia University Institute for Public Affairs and Political Science, the decision to locate the seat of justice for Jackson County at Ripley was determined by a council appointed by the Virginia General Assembly. The first courthouse was completed in 1838; the current courthouse building was completed in 1858.
"When Jackson County was formed, the residents of the county could not decide where to locate the county seat. The people who lived along the Ohio River near the Ravenswood settlement favored that location. The people who lived farther inland objected. The General Assembly appointed an independent commission to make the final decision. The commissioners were John McWhorter, of Lewis County, John Miller, of Kanawha County, William Spurlock, of Cabell County, Cyrus Cary, of Greenbrier County, and John McCoy, of Tyler County. They choose Ripley.
"Ripley was originally owned and settled by William, John, and Lewis Rodgers. They received a grant of 400 acres in 1768 where "Sycamore Creek joins Big Mill Creek" (the current site of Ripley). The land was later sold to Jacob (and Ann) Starcher, most probably in 1803. At that time, Captain William Parsons was one of the county's most prominent citizens. He arrived in the Ripley area shortly before 1800. Jacob Starcher laid out the town in 1830, and named it in honor of Harry Ripley, a young minister who was to be married, but drowned in Big Mill Creek, about one and a half miles north of the town, shortly before the ceremony took place. In 1832, the Starchers donated eight acres of land to the county, two acres for the location of the county courthouse and jail, and six for the general use of the new county (a public school and a cemetery were later located on the land). The town was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1832.
"In 1832, James Smith was commissioned to build the county courthouse and jail. The jail was to be 34 feet by 17 feet, and the courthouse was to be 36 feet square. The one-story brick buldings were completed in 1833 at a cost of $3,700. Nicholas H. Bonnett was commissioned to build a new, larger two-story courthouse in 1854. He completed the project in 1858 for $8,993. In 1917, after attempting repairs to the courthouse's heating system, the county commission decided to move its meetings to the lower hall of the existing I.O.O.F. building while a new courthouse was being built. They rented the space from Herbert Skeen and W.F. Boggess. The new courthouse, still in use today, was completed by the Prescott Construction Company in 1920. An addition was built in 1961 at a cost of $350,000."
Image history
Legend: (cur) = this is the current image, (del) = delete
this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version.
Click on date to see image uploaded on that date.
- (del) (cur) 04:01, 26 Dec 2010 . . Dsibray (129108 bytes)
Image links
The following pages link to this image:
_Courthouse.JPG){kind=link}
