Wayne County’s courthouse wars are some of my favorite chapters of Indiana history. Facing the imminent loss of their status as county seat at the hands of Richmond, the citizens of Centerville shellacked their own sheriff’s residence with cannon fire to prevent officials from removing vital documents! That battle-worn building still stands today as the Centerville-Center Township Library, but a few other scars are scattered around the county.
The first is a remnant from the area’s original courthouse war. The village of Salisbury was Wayne County’s first seat1, and a log courthouse was quickly erected by William Commons2. It lasted but a year before the residents of Centerville decided to try and steal the title for themselves.
Centerville struck a deal with the state legislature: if the town could build a better courthouse than Salisbury’s, the county seat was theirs. Salisbury put up a brick courthouse, but Centerville won and Salisbury dried up. The story of that first courthouse is long and convoluted, but today, a reassembled version of it sits right behind the Mansion House in downtown Centerville.
The best-known courthouse war unfolded about sixty years later. Apart from the town’s courthouse, sheriff’s residence, and jail, the pride of the Centerville’s county government was a decorative iron fence- a $10,000 structure relocated to Richmond shortly after it took over the county seat in 18733. The fence originally surrounded Richmond’s first courthouse4– but local legend says it was eventually moved to Bryan Cemetery on Willow Grove Road5.
Another relic of Wayne County’s Courthouse War is the very spot where Centerville’s civilians rolled out their secret weapon- a cannon named Black Betty6! Centerville is famous for its archway houses7, building additions that offered service access to original structures after the town’s wide main drag was narrowed. Dating back to 18358, the Beckenstoe arch at 139 East Main Street turned out to be the perfect spot to position Black Betty when it was time to defend the town’s records!
Last but not least, the current Wayne County Courthouse stands as a towering reminder of how much things have changed since the chaos of the courthouse wars. Built two decades after Centerville’s citizens rolled out a cannon to defend their claim to the county seat, the massive structure required six hundred railcars of limestone and three million bricks to complete. Although the old Centerville courthouse may have been the source of so much drama, the current courthouse in Richmond stands as the undisputed seat of justice in Wayne County. Today, it remains a commanding symbol of how those long-standing battles were finally settled.
Wayne County’s courthouse wars left more than just broken masonry and bruised egos. They shaped the identity of the county itself! Cannon fire from under the Beckenstoe arch, the fence at Bryan cemetery, and battle scars still visible on the Centerville-Center Township Library are echoes of that struggle that remind us how fiercely communities fought to hold onto their place in history. Centerville’, a defiant spirit lives on in its archway houses and storied streets. All that’s to say that while Centerville’s past past may be settled, its remnants still stand as witnesses to one of Indiana’s most dramatic chapters.
Sources Cited
1 Fox, Henry Clay. Memoirs of Wayne County and the City of Richmond, Indiana. Madison. Western Historical Association. 1912. Print.
2 Enyart, David. “Wayne County” Indiana County Courthouse Histories. ACPL Genealogy Center, 2010-2018. Web. May 6, 2019.
3 Spahr, Walter E. History of Centerville, Indiana. Richmond. Wayne County Indiana Historical Society. 1966. Print.
4 (See footnote 2).
5 Martin, S. (2020, January 12). Out of Our Past: Centerville lost county seat status’s remains center of much local history. The Richmond Palladium-Item. Web. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
6 Main Street Centerville (n.d.). Centerv
7 National Register of Historic Places, Centerville Historic District, Centerville, Wayne County, Indiana, National Register # 71000008.
8 Centerville Archways (n.d.) The 2012 Archway Days Festival. Web. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
