Weakley County Courthouse in Dresden, Tennessee

This picture was donated to me from the "Research of Carolyn Hilliard Barton"  - Matt Parham

This photo brought back many good memories.  Our Dad, Grooms Herron, was the Clerk and Master of the Chancery Court, with the office being on the 1st floor, NW corner of the courthouse.  Although he was gone to WWII for the later part of the war, he remained the Clerk and Master, and was in office when it burned shortly after the war.  Being born in 1937, I played in and around the courthouse for much of that time. 

But the purpose of this posting is to relate an example of how times have changed.  Dresden had an old model T (might have been an A) hose carrier fire engine until shortly after WWII.  It would not reliably start, so it was kept at Tom Regan's garage, on the street leading South from the SW corner of the square.  They kept it there so Tom could tow it to a fire with his wrecker!  When I was in the fourth grade the City finally got a new pumper.  The whole school was let out and marched down the hill to the square.  There the City demonstrated the power of the new engine by pumping a stream completely over the Courthouse!  Needless to say, it did not keep the old Courthouse from burning completely, the next year I believe [1949].  But perhaps it did keep other buildings on the Square from going.

Submitted by Dean Herron