COURTS AND COUNTY BUILDINGS

CALEDONIA COUNTY

      Court House at Danville.— When Caledonia county came into existence as a political division there was the usual rivalry among the towns to secure the county offices and buildings. Peacham and Danville were the strongest in presenting their claims, and Danville secured the prize. Two of her citizens, Mr. DOW and Mr. HARTSHORN, offered to give land for a site for the buildings and a common, and therefore they were placed where "Danville Green" village now is. The line separating DOW's and HARTSHORN's land passed north and south through the village. The original court-house was erected upon the corner or the streets northwest of the common, and was constructed of wood. It contained a large room in which court sat, and two smaller rooms for the accommodation of jury and lawyers. The precise date of its erection we have been unable to learn; but the county court docket of January 7, 1797, the first court term held in the county as then existing; records that they "met at the court-house in Danville, Monday, January 7, 1797 and adjourned to Daniel SMITH's," from which we may understand that it was then unfit for occupancy. The next record concerning the court-house which we find is an order of the court, January, 1801, accepting the court-house, "provided it is painted and a stove procured by January term next." Various records appear showing the appropriation of money at subsequent dates for the repair of the court-house, and some years before the county seat was changed to St. Johnsbury the building was removed back to its present position and raised up, giving tbe town a ball on the ground floor, while tbe court-room was fitted up above, and the pillars on the front were added. A "gaol" was built and accepted by the court at the January term, 1799, which also fixed the limits of the gaol-yard wherein persons arrested for debt could remain. It is remarked by persons who lived in the early part of this century, that parties who became amenable to the law regarding delinquent debtors, that they paid their debts by taking up their residence within the jail limits, which were extended in 1810 to "one mile north, east, south and west from the gaol." This gaol was of logs, hewn square, and notched at the ends so as to interlock with each other, and pinned together. The docket of the January term, 1807, records the drawing of orders for $3,000.00, in favor of David Elkins, for building tbe gaol. This is understood to have included the jail house in which the keeper was to live. 

      The second jail was built by subscription, and cost about $2,000.00. It was built of immense granite stone, some of them twenty feet in length, quarried in Danville, hewn and dowelled together. The notorious counter-feiter "Bristol Bill," was once confined in this jail, and tried here and it is said that the authorities at Boston sent an officer to Danville to warn them of his desperate character, and get him sent to Boston for safe confinement, who, after inspecting the jail, returned, saying he was safer here than there. When he came to trial, Bliss N. Davis was state's attorney, and "Bristol Bill" became so enraged at him that he stabbed him in the throat, and barely missed taking his life, as is more minutely mentioned in another place. The stone jail was built under the supervision of Mr. Ira BRAINARD, who now lives in Barnet, at the age of eighty-four years, and who is authority for these statements. It went into disuse when the present one at St. Johnsbury was built, and when the North Congregational church at St. Johnsbury was erected, the old jail was demolished, and the material used in the foundation of the church. It was customary for the committee or grand jury, when called upon to inspect the jail, regularly to report it as “insufficient," as a measure of relief to the jailer if any prisoner should escape. It was ordered by the court, in 1838, that a "picket post " fence should be built around the jail, and, accordingly, a solid fence of plank was built about ten or twelve feet high, each plank sharpened to a point at the top. 

      At the December term, 1842, the court ordered the appropriation of $1,000 to purchase land and erect a building for the office of the county clerk and the safe keeping of the records. This appropriation augmented by others to amount to $1,390.00, was used in building the brick structure which stands just west of the court-house; and since the removal of the courts, has been used as a library building. 

      The growth of St. Johnsbury, the construction of the railroad through the town, and other causes, made it desirable that it should be made the shire town, which was done, and the court-house in St. Johnsbury was erected and first occupied by the court in the December term, 1856. The contract to construct it was taken by the Fairbanks firm, and the expense was shared by the town, which has a commodious hall on the ground floor, and the county, which has its court room and jury-rooms upon the second floor, and county clerk and judge of probate offices, with vaults for the records, upon the ground floor. This court-house is of red brick, tastefully and conveniently built, heated by furnaces, and is in every respect a credit to the county. The voluminous growth of the records must soon necessitate an increase of the storage capacity of the vaults for their accommodation and protection against fire. The court-house is finely located in Court square, at the corner of Eastern avenue and Main street, upon the brow of the steep bluff which descends eastward, overlooking the eastern portion of the village. The entrance to the building is at the north end, and directly before the door, about forty feet distant, has been erected the beautiful soldiers' monument, bearing the names of St. Johnsbury's sons in the civil war. The county jail, on Cherry street, is a substantial building, well suited for keeping in custody those who transgress the laws of the commonwealth. The Supreme Court holds its sessions at St. Johnsbury on the second Tuesday in May, and the county court on the first Tuesday in June and December. The following lists give the principal officers of the county from its organization to the present time, with the years in which they served:—
 
 

ASSISTANT JUDGES

ASSISTANT JUDGES

SHERIFFS

STATES ATTORNEY

PROBATE JUDGES

TREASURERS

COUNTY CLERKS

COUNTY SENATORS

Transcribed and provided by Tom Dunn, 2003.

Source: 
Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex, Counties, VT., 1764-1887,
Compiled and Published by Hamilton Child; May 1887, Pages 5-124.