(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

First Wirt Courthouse Burned

Col. Thomas Tavenner contributed the first square of land where the Wirt County courthouse is now standing, and whose deed for it was the first deed recorded in Wirt County.

In the organization of Wirt County there was quite a contest between Beauchamp’s Mills (now Elizabeth) and Palestine, and a considerable portion of the money with which the courthouse was built, was obtained from private subscriptions. The County Court was composed of the justices within the county, who received no compensation whatever for any services, civil or criminal.

By that body was appointed a committee who let the contract and superintended the construction of the courthouse. That committee consisted of the late W.P. Rathbone, Isaac Tavenner and William Lockhart.

The contractor was Lysander Dudley, his apprentice being H.W. Tucker. Peter VanWinkle, son-in-law of Squire Rathbone, drew the plans, for which the County Court allowed him $10.00.

In the winter of 1861 Capt. Park with a body of Confederates bombarded the town from the cliff of rocks on the north side of the Little Kanawha River, which was defended by the citizens, who armed themselves for that purpose and returned the fire until the Confederates retired. On that occasion the late D.M. Miller received a wound in his knee that disabled him through life.

A few years since, when Park was asked the object of his retiring [from shelling the city], Capt. Park stated he was acting upon orders to burn the courthouse in retaliation for the destruction of the Boone County courthouse in the southern part of the state; that he retired on information that Daniel Wilkinson, so well-known in Parkersburg, had removed the records in a wagon toward Parkersburg, which frustrated his design, and rendered his effort futile.

Around the old building cling memories of the past. It served the public for political meetings, addressed by statesmen who assisted in the formation of West Virginia and influential in its organization, sheltered the Federal troops as barracks, was occupied by different denominations in early struggles for church organizations, and its courts were presided over by Judge David McComis, Matthew Edmondson, William Jackson and Arthur I. Boreman, while a part of the old state. It survived more than half a century, its fate decreed during the Civil War, by a fire.

The fire was discovered about 5 o’clock on a Sunday morning, by the cries of two boys who were in jail, and they awoke Jailor Bumgarner who gave a general alarm and almost the entire population was soon on the scene.

The jailor saved most of the effects, but loss of Circuit Court records was great, for they were licked up by the flames. The fire started in that part of the courthouse where Clerk Hoffman’s table and desk were located.

Judge Moss came from Parkersburg Monday morning, having gone home [from Elizabeth] Saturday evening, and after a consultation with the court officials and attorneys held a short session of court in the public-school building.

Again, the courthouse had to be built, and again there were discussions of moving it, but upon finding in the deed that Col. Tavenner made, when it ceased to be used as a courthouse, the land would revert back to the heirs. It was again built on the same ground.

The Parkersburg News,

June 28, 1953

A follow up: Wirt County was formed in 1848 from parts of Wood and Jackson counties.

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.