Construction of the Pulaski County Courthouse, 1874

Previously:

Click here for a list of my other Pulaski/Rockcastle/Laurel County KY articles

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These are some articles which relate to the construction of the courthouse in Somerset completed in 1874 and in use up until 1974, pictured left. I don't know the date of this drawing, although the cars out front give some idea.

(Image credit: http://courthousehistory.com/ )

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[January 19, 1872] -

A fire in Somerset, Pulaski county, Ky., last Sunday, burned twelve of the best houses in the village, including the Court-House. Loss, $75,000. [1]

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[September 6, 1872] -

IMPROVEMENTS.

Notwithstanding the destructive fire here some months since, the spirit of improvement has been shed broadcast over our town again.  The burnt district is being rebuilt; the brick work of the business blocks almost completed, and other buildings now under contract.

SOMERSET.

is the city of the mountains, and contains nine dry goods stores, three grocery stores and confectioneries, one boot and shoe store, and a No. 1 drug store, one National Bank, two hotels, Masonic college, six churches, four Sabbath schools, and not a single whisky shop. We have but little use for a courthouse, yet as it is fashionable to have one, our honorable county court will take some decisive steps toward rebuilding this fall. [2]

Desks, Benches, and Chaos in the House of Representatives

WHY THERE IS CONFUSION 
ON THE FLOOR.
Wichita Daily Eagle, Jan. 13, 1891

The House of Representatives originally had a seating arrangement of assigned desks.  These desks were not only where members participated in the daily agenda, but also served as their personal office space where they wrote letters, conducted research, and talked with other members.  This arrangement resulted in a lot of general confusion.  The most popular solution to this problem was to replace the desks with benches to keep the members from carrying on all manner of business on the House floor. It was thought this would reduce noise and increase collective participation. Two unsuccessful propositions for benches were made in 1842 and 1847.  A third proposition in 1859 succeeded, to begin in 1860.  The benches were changed back to desks after only twelve weeks due in part to an increase in fighting among members in the days before disunion.  However, criticism of the desks continued, and subsequent propositions to change to benches were made in 1878, 1883, 1889, and 1901, until the measure finally succeeded in 1913.

Below are a five newspaper articles (or excerpts of articles) which fill in some of the more colorful details of how desks augmented the chaos of congress. 

Source for this introduction: Pgs 1106-1107 of Volume 5 of Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United States by Asher C. Hinds, Clerk at the Speaker's Table, published 1907 and available on google books here. Also, due to the length of this blog post, all screencaps of articles have been placed at the very end with captions indicating their origin.

SEEN BY A CANUCK.

A Visitor From Canada Writes of the House of Representatives.

 [Toronto Globe republished in Macon Telegraph of Macon, GA on Feb 20, 1899]

From the Toronto Globe.
To the visitor in the house of representatives who has been accustomed to the severe discipline and strict decorum of British legislatures the degree of liberty indulged in by the members seems somewhat strange.  There is a continual hum of conversation, a constant moving about the floor, the frequent formation of groups of members for consultation and, what would doubtless be regarded as treason by the attendants in the gallery of the mother of parliaments, applause from the spectators at times.  The American politician is often accused of over-vehemence and a disposition to shout when ordinary tones would better serve the purpose.  After an hour in the big chamber of the popular house, with its continued din, one can well understand that the member of congress comes naturally by his strident tones and strenuous manner.  Without them he would never be heard by his chattering colleagues, and to the galleries he would speak only by gesticulation.  The official reporters suffer greatly from the noise.  Instead of sitting at their desks in front of the speaker's chair, they find it necessary to skip about to whatever section of the house a speaker may be in, dropping into a vacant seat if convenient, but more frequently leaning against a desk, pad in hand.  Unhappy indeed is that mortal in the middle of whose 'take' there is a change of speakers.  He may have crept close up to 'the member from Michigan' on the extreme left of the huge semicircle in which the seats are arranged, and may have to make a run like a baseball player for his home base to the other side to catch the opening remarks of 'the member from Arkansas' as he rises to interpose an objection. 

SHOWING THE WAY REPRESENTATIVES ARE NOW SEATED AT THE DESKS.
Plan of the 59h Congress.
From The New York Tribune, of New York, NY on Oct. 20, 1907.

It sometimes happens that members lose their tempers in the heat of debate.  The bowie knife and the revolver, contrary to the belief of many of our kinsmen across the seas, are no longer the weapons with which these quarrels are settled.  They have been replaced by the statutes in calf and the inkstand, which are much more convenient and less deadly.  When a row breaks out on the floor and the combatants come to close quarters, it is the duty of the sergeant-at-arms to interpose the mace between them.  The mace is the emblem of the civil power, but it is somewhat different in appearance from ours.  It consists of a bundle of ebony rods bound together with ligaments of silver and having on top a silver globe surmounted by a silver eagle.  It resembles the faces borne by the lictors[?] before the Roman magistrates.  It is known familiarly as "the bird."  Just before the declaration of war with Spain "the bird" did duty in quelling a row.  An excited member had enforced his remarks by throwing the law in the concrete form at his opponents head.  The latter made a rush at his antagonist, mutual friends held them back, while from all sides of the house came the cry, "Sergeant, bring the bird!"  The bird was sent forward to the fighting line as rapidly as possible and hostilities ceased.  The man who would dare to strike a blow over "the bird" has not yet entered congress.

Fists Are Shaken.

[excerpt from "Fistfights in the Halls of Congress" by the New York Herald published in The Ogden Standard of Ogden, Utah on July 2, 1910.]

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1860.
Wichita Daily Eagle, Jan 13, 1891

The most hotly contested Speakership election featured the opening of the Thirty-sixth Congress, in December, 1859.  The bitterness of preceding contests paled before this struggle, which lasted from December 5, 1860.  The tenseness was exaggerated by the seating arrangement in the House.  Instead of the seats and desks of an earlier and a later day, benches were installed, so that the House was drawn into a small compass.  During these days of turmoil and strife the members were thus in closer contact and were more easily impelled by the prevailing passion.  As a consequence there was much shaking of fists under noses, much hurling threats of personal violence and much assuming of insulting and defiant attitudes.

My Painting of my Great-Grandparent's House in Somerset

This is a photo of my great-grandparent's farm house on Hwy 27 in Somerset, Kentucky.  My grandfather and a few of his siblings were born in this house, and my great-great grandfather died in the back room of this house.  I'm not sure when it was built, but it was already built when my great-grandparent's purchased the farm in the 1920s.  My family's cemetery is also on this property.

This is my painting of it I just finished a few weeks ago...
















Previously:
Click here for a list of my other Pulaski/Rockcastle/Laurel County KY articles

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High-end Homes in Lincoln, Nebraska, 1902

This one is from The Courier of Lincoln, Nebraska, August 2, 1902...

Colonial Homes Now All The Rage 

Colonial architecture is just now the crying demand in Lincoln.  Architects say they cannot give the public at large enough of it.  And in fact the movement started in the east last year and the year before that.  Colonial styles are in vogue again and the chances are that more or less architecture of that sort will adorn Lincoln in the near future. 

Houses built after this plan are very plain.  There are no intricately shaped panels, no places for dust to accumulate.  Of course all such residences are furnished with everything in the shape of modern  conveniences but  the exterior  is made nearly as possible after the style of the old New England farmhouses.  

Indeed architects from New York are even now traveling throughout New England copying plans of the ancient mansions.  These they picture on paper and go back to the city to reproduce these structures for the homes of the wealthy. 

Hundreds of these homes can now be seen in the most fashionable quarters of all the large eastern cities.  Gradually the style travels westward and the colonial boom has full sway in Lincoln. 

In  this city the popular price for a comfortable home is $5,000.  Real estate, plumbing and fitting the interior of the house are items not included.  With paving, a good lot, up-to-date plumbing and a spacious lawn such a residence costs about $12,000.  In Lincoln it has been found out by dear experience that it is not profitable to invest much more than this sum in a house.  For this reason the prices run about $5,000 for the material plans and construction of the building. 

Porches go back to classic styles.  They are plain and the pillars are as  nearly as possible the dimensions of those of the ancient masters.