Although it’s one of the largest and finest in the state, the story of the Wayne County Courthouse in Richmond isn’t so much about the structure itself, but the circumstances that led to its construction. Nearly sixty years of contentious animosity between factions of the county’s population, vociferous legal battles, and violent artillery fire made up what locals call the “courthouse wars.” They culminated in the massive Richardson Romanesque building we see today.
Wayne County was organized in 1810, and the community of Salisbury became the county seat one year later1. However, residents of a village called Centerville began scheming almost immediately to relocate the seat of government to their growing town. Back then, being named the county seat carried significant weight for a burgeoning community! The state legislature soon determined that if Centerville could build a better courthouse than Salisbury’s, they could claim the county seat.
State officials went to both towns to compare the structures as Centerville’s prospective courthouse neared completion. Sensing defeat, residents of Salisbury refused to let them go inside their eight-year-old courthouse! Officials were forced to count the bricks of each building from the outside, reasoning that whichever courthouse had more must be better2. Centerville won the county seat in 1820, but the decision was fought in court for years.
Salisbury withered, but Centerville’s new status as county seat caused it to take off like a rocket. In 1867, a 20-cell jail and sheriff’s residence was finished in Centerville for $80,000, complete with a $10,000 decorative iron fence3. Unfortunately, by 1873 it was clear to many in the county that Richmond, several miles east of Centerville, was better positioned to be the seat of Wayne County thanks to its own explosive growth4.
The thought of losing its prominent position as the county seat was too much for the residents of Centerville to handle- they’d only recently narrowed Main Street from its original 100-foot width to keep up with the increasing business that the title brought! Residents mounted a spirited public awareness effort to keep the courthouse in town, but 55% of voters approved a petition to move the county seat to Richmond.
The jail, the fence, and archived documents housed in the sheriff’s residence were removed in short order and sent to Richmond. Nevertheless, Centerville refused to comply. A group of vigilantes mounted one last stand by dragging the town cannon, a sixpounder known as “‘Black Betty5,” to a strategic spot across the street from the sheriff’s residence. Aiming at the front door, they fired a load of scrap metal in a valiant, violent effort to interrupt the removal of its documents while others attacked with rifles with sidearms.
Although the cannon fire blew the jail’s door from its hinges and blasted several large holes into the front of the building, the effort proved futile. The rest of the documents were all relocated under the watchful eye of the National Guard. In 1873, a brick courthouse was built in Richmond near the reassembled jail and decorative iron fence6.
The hastily-assembled courthouse in Richmond didn’t last long. Erected to replace it in 1893, the current building in Richmond is gargantuan. It’s so big that building it took six hundred railcars of limestone and three million bricks! A hundred and twenty-five stonecutters worked onsite to cut all those boulders, which required steam-powered hoists to lift.
The three-story tall building measures about 214 by 128 feet, giving it roughly 82,000 square feet of usable space, or about the size of an average Marsh Supermarket. Although the limestone construction gives the courthouse a monochromatic appearance, exterior details like its Romanesque arcades, projecting string courses, dormers, and steep gables break up the monotony and add a sense of delicacy to the massive structure. After decades of drama, the building’s colossal weight seems to have been designed to anchor Richmond’s place as the seat of Wayne County once and for all. It truly dominates downtown.
Today, Richmond remains the commercial center for an entire region of Indiana and western Ohio. Unfortunately, Salisbury didn’t have much reason to exist after the county seat moved to Centerville. The town quickly vanished, and its residents packed their bags and moved to Richmond, taking an old log courthouse used from 1811 to 1812 with them7. That first courthouse was later disassembled again and moved to Centerville, where it still stands today.
In 2023, Centerville is more of a bedroom community than a boomtown. The old courthouse burned down years ago after stints as an organ factory, a general store, and a grocery. The 1867 sheriff’s residence, commonly believed to be the former courthouse, was expanded to the east in 1924 when it was used as a Masonic Hall. It was enlarged again in 1999 and now serves as the Center Township Library. You can still see shrapnel holes scattered around the building’s front door8!
The Salisbury courthouse and the sheriff’s residence in Centerville aren’t the only reminders of Wayne County’s courthouse wars. After several years of use in Richmond, it’s said that the iron fence that surrounded Centerville’s courthouse square was moved to Bryan Cemetery at the intersection of Willow Grove and Ruby Roads9.
The stories of Indiana’s settlement are full of all kinds of geopolitical maneuvering and malfeasance, but from the outrageousness of counting a courthouse’s bricks to determine its grandiosity to residents opening fire on their own sheriff’s residence, Wayne County might just take the cake! The courthouse wars may have ended a hundred and fifty years ago, but the log courthouse, the library in Centerville, and the fence at Bryan Cemetery serve as reminders of a notorious period in the county’s history. Towering over downtown Richmond, the current courthouse acts as an exclamation mark!
TL;DR
Wayne County (pop. 67,893, 24/92)
Richmond (pop. 36,345)
33/92 photographed
Built: 1893
Cost: $435,807 ($11.6 million in 2016)
Architect: James W. McLaughlin
Style: Richardson Romanesque
Courthouse Square: Shelbyville Square
Height: 130 feet
Current Use: Courts and some county offices
Photographed: 8/23/15
Sources Cited
1 Fox, Henry Clay. Memoirs of Wayne County and the City of Richmond, Indiana. Madison. Western Historical Association. 1912. Print.
2 Nunemaker, Jessica. Little Indiana- Small Town Destinations. Bloomington. Indiana University Press. 2016. Print.
3 “War for the County Seat” WAYNET. Waynet, Incorporated. 2018. Retrieved 3/19/18.
4 Spahr, Walter E. History of Centerville, Indiana. Richmond. Wayne County Indiana Historical Society. 1966. Print.
5 Wonning, Paul R. Exploring Indiana’s Historic Sites, Markers & Museums. Versailles. Mossy Feet Books. 2016. Print.
6 Enyart, D. (n.d.) Indiana County Courthouse Histories. The Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center [Fort Wayne]. Web. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
7 Lafever, Carolyn. Wayne County, Indiana: The Battles for the Courthouse. Stroud. History Press. 2010. Print.
8 “Wayne County, Indiana’s Courthouse” WAYNET. Waynet, Incorporated. 2018. Retrieved 3/19/18.
9 “Bryan Cemetery” We Relate. WeRelate.org. Retrieved 3/19/18.
