This page contains the "This Month in Legal History"
column as published in the current Douglas County Law Library E-Mail
Newsletter. The column features a different event from the history of
law and jurisprudence of Douglas County, Kansas, that occurred during
the month. It is published monthly in the Douglas County Law Library
E-Mail Newsletter and on the Home page of this website.
Archived entries from this and previous years can be accessed by
visiting the This
Month in Legal History Archive page on this website.
March 16, 1857
- Henry F. Parker reports on the courthouse competition in Lawrence,
Kansas.
In 1855, the first act organizing Douglas County, Kansas Territory,
designated Lecompton as the county seat. Lecompton was the headquarters
of the pro-slavery movement in Kansas Territory, and that same year it
became the permanent capital of the territory and the seat of the
territorial legislature. The legislature had been elected by a large
group of pro-slavery men who had come into the territory from Missouri,
specifically to take over polling places, cast fraudulent votes, and so
ensure a pro-slavery outcome in that spring's election. Because of
this, it was know as the "bogus" legislature by Free-State men and
women, many of whom lived in Lawrence, the headquarters of the
Free-State movement in the territory. By 1857, there was movement on
the part of Free-State men to have the county seat moved from Lecompton
to Lawrence. In anticipation of this, plans were being made as to where
county buildings would be located after the change was made.
Apparently, different interests in town were competing for the location
of a future courthouse. Henry F. Parker, a Free-State supporter
originally from Reading, Massachusetts, wrote a letter dated March 16,
1857, to Hiram Hill, another Free-State supporter and businessman in
Williamsburg, Massachusetts. Parker reported to Hill that an unnamed
"they" were trying to find a location for a courthouse in Lawrence, and
that a Mr. Whitman, presumably Edmund Burke Whitman, local agent of the
National Kansas Committee, had offered a square of land containing five
or six acres and $500 for a courthouse. A Mr. Mallery, a Mr. Ditzler,
and one or two unnamed others had "offered the same," presumably
referring to money to build a courthouse on the land Whitman was
offering. Parker wrote that Whitman wanted to know if Hill would do
likewise. This was apparently being done to counter the actions of a
Mr. Babcock, presumably local attorney Carmi William Babcock, whom
Parker indicated was trying to get the courthouse located on his own
land, and who had offered up a large sum of money for that purpose. All
this maneuvering went for nothing, for even though the territorial
legislature moved the county seat of Douglas County from Lecompton to
Lawrence in January 1858, none of the competing interests were
successful in securing a location for the courthouse. In fact, no
courthouse would be built in the county for many years. From 1858 to
1869, the county rented space to house county offices in various
business buildings in Lawrence. In 1869, the City of Lawrence built a
City Hall, and the county rented space there for the court and some
other county offices. By 1899, the county still did not have a
courthouse of its own, so that year the voters of Douglas County
approved a levy for an additional real estate tax to pay for one. In
1902, local banker J.B. (Jabez Bunting) Watkins offered to donate four
lots on the southeast corner of Massachusetts and Quincy (now 11th)
Streets for the construction of a courthouse. The County Commission
accepted the donation and construction began in early 1903, the
cornerstone being laid on July 4th of that year. Construction was
completed sometime in late 1904, and in January of 1905, county
officers began to move in without fanfare. The building became a local
landmark, and on April 14, 1975, the Douglas County Courthouse was
added to the National Register of Historic Places.
From: Historic Lecompton, About Lecompton…;
William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, Douglas County, Part 3, County Organization and Official
Roster; History of Lowell and its people, Volume 2, by
Frederick W. Coburn, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York
City, 1920, p. 675; Letter,
Henry Parker to Hiram Hill, March 16, 1857; Hiram Hill Collection, Kansas State
Historical Society; Expense Sheet, Edmond Burke Whitman to
National Kansas Committee, February 28-August 14, 1857,
Kansas Memory Project, Kansas State Historical Society; Photograph,
Carmi William Babcock, Kansas Memory Project, Kansas State
Historical Society; National Register of Historic Places, Inventory,
Nomination Form, Douglas County Courthouse; Douglas County Courthouse History,
Douglas County, Kansas, website; and, Douglas County Courthouse, Kansas
State Historical Society.
