County HistoryBartholomew County CourthouseFour court houses have served Bartholomew County since its creation by the Indiana General Assembly on January 9, 1821. The first court house was Luke Bonesteel's small double log cabin on the banks of White River at the foot of Lindsey Street. It stood on lot 119 of the original plat of the Town of Tiptona, named in honor of General Tipton, Indian fighter, veteran of the Battle of Tippecanoe, donor of 30 acres of land for the town site, and one of the sponsors of the new county. The other sponsor was General Joseph Bartholomew, pioneer, commander of the Indiana Militia at Tippecanoe, and in whose honor the county had been named. On February 15, 1821, Jesse Ruddick, William Ruddick, and Solomon Stout, the newly elected commissioners of the county, met in Bonesteel's house for the first time, and on February 26 bought the cabin for $50.00 to serve as the court house for the new county. The next month the commissioners, for no recorded reason, changed the name of the county seat from Tiptona to Columbus, and John Tipton was so angered at their ingratitude that he left, never to return. In December of 1821, a contract for a new court house was let to a Giles Mitchell. The building was to be of brick, two stories high, forty feet square and 25 feet in height, surmounted by a cupola topped by an iron rod at least 10 feet in length on which were mounted a round wood ball painted a bright yellow and a weather gauge made of wood in the form of a fish. In 1825 Mitchell was released from his contract which was then awarded to a Mr. Jones. The work drug along because of financial difficulties of the county, and in 1829 William Chapman was awarded a contract to make further repairs, the money for which was to be raised by an early version of a local option tax. In 1829 a poll tax of 25 cents, specie, per person was levied by the Board of Justices of the county under a special enabling act of the Legislature, so that Chapman was able to complete the wood work by 1831. In the meantime the house purchased from Bonesteel had been sold in 1824 and the county's business was conducted in rooms rented by the Commissioners wherever they could be best obtained until the new court house could be used. The county quickly outgrew this building, and in February of 1839, John Elder, reputed to be one of the finest architects in the state at that time, submitted a proposal to construct a new building for $8500. Construction was begun that year on the new building, which was set facing north in the middle of the Public Square. It was also a cupolated brick building with stone trimmings and fire proof vaults, two stories high and covered with pine or walnut shingles. |