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The Court House

The voters of Griggs County, at an election held June 2, 1883, authorized its commissioners to issue bonds to the amount of $30,000.00 for building and furnishing a courthouse and jail.

On January 7, 1884 the bonds were issued and arrangements were made for their sale.  The commissioners accepted the offer made by Mr. T.J. Cooper of any block they might select, in the Cooper's Addition to Cooperstown, and $1,000.00 cash, and chose Block 3 as the location for the new building.

The lowest bid received for construction of the building was submitted by Alex.  Moffat, of Sanborn, for the sum of $20,980, which bid was accepted.

The May 23, 1884 Courier reported:

More progress was reported in the June 20, 1884 Courier

The original courthouse building measured 91 feet long, 48 feet wide, occupied 3,077 square feet of ground, and was three stories in height.  The basement was 91,2' feet above ground and T2 feet below ground level.  The main story was ten feet high, and the upper story was 16 feet 6 inches high, and the top of the finial on the tower swung in the air 98 feet from the ground.  Originally, it contained three fireproof vaults, one each for the register of deeds, treasurer, and clerk of court.  The original color of the interior was an olive drab, trimmed and shaded by a darker tint.  The woodwork was grained in imitation black walnut and oak, which was painted by T.O. Skattebo, a resident of the county.

The building originally had three brick jail cells with windows.  It was heated by a steam heating boiler, tested to 150 pounds pressure.  The Cooperstown Courier of December 26, 1884 said of the new heating system:

The Courier article listed the cost of the building at $20,980.00 and listed additional expenses that brought the total cost to date to $29,212.28.

The July 17, 1885 Courier reported that a fine sidewalk had been built in front of the courthouse and leading up to the entrance with convenient hitching posts for horses.  The latter ornaments would serve to protect the shade trees that will surround the building.

R.C. Cooper submitted a bill on January 4, 1887 in the amount of $499.95 for fixing up the courthouse grounds, fencing, etc. done in 1886; and in the April of 15, 1887 Courier the following notice appeared:

The trees were planted in the courthouse yard in 1891.  According to Myrtle Porterville, local historian, those young trees were transplanted from the Sheyenne River valley, and the early residents used those young trees as pickets to tether their domestic animals, and the animals in tugging on their ropes as they grazed caused the young trees to grow very crooked.  During the 1960's and 1970's many of those crooked trees were cut down and some were replaced.

The commissioner's proceedings of October 2, 1899 tell of a petition being presented with 39 signatures of residents and businessmen of Cooperstown requesting the installation of telephones in the courthouse.  Four telephones and an extra drop were furnished by A. Groff, superintendent of the telephone company, for $80.00 per year.  On August 30, 1904, the county commissioners ordered that a 30-light gas lighting plant be installed in the courthouse.  Then, on April 7, 1908, the commissioners hired Platt Electric Company to wire the courthouse for electric lighting and install fixtures.  A bill for this work was submitted and allowed in the amount of $385.00 on July 7, 1908.

The county auditor was, on April 1, 1918, instructed to purchase and have erected a flag staff of iron, not less than 65 feet high above ground.

A bid in the amount of $2,210.00 was accepted May 11, 1918 to erect a vault in the Register of Deeds' office, and upon completion, the existing vault was to be turned over to the county judge's office, and the vault was approved at the October 6, 1918 meeting.

By 1885 there were three English speaking church congregations in Cooperstown, the Congregational, the Methodist, and the Baptist, neither of which had as yet built a church.  The county commissioners, possibly intending to show no partiality to any one church group, on April 7, 1885, made the following:

All three churches had built their own churches by the fall of 1886.

Many meetings, programs and training sessions have been held in the courtroom, which is still being used for the same purposes to date.  Some of the events that took place in the court house were: a meeting of the stockholders of the Creamery; a Teachers' Institute, compulsory for all teachers in the county to attend, and which lasted an entire week in 1888; church Christmas programs for the various denominations and masquerade dances.  In 1895, the Lutheran congregation planned to build a church and the ladies of the church held a social to raise money by setting up a large tent on the courthouse lawn from which they sold ice cream and other refreshments.  The band played, and croquet was played by torchlight.

The B. B. Brown family in 1883 brought to Cooperstown a large, heavy grand piano from Pennsylvania, which was the first piano in the area.  The editor of the Courier, in June 11, 1886, made the following comments on moving the piano:

Various excerpts taken from the record of commissioners' proceedings indicate it must have been a problem for the commissioners to decide if, or how much, to charge for the use of the courtroom, and which rules to implement.

 

September 8, 1890:

July 11, 1892:

November 17, 1894:

January 10, 1895:

May 18, 1895:

November 18, 1895:

January 17, 1899:

November 13, 1900:

This new courthouse in the 1880's was a huge, tall structure in comparison to other existing buildings, so it stuck out like the proverbial "sore thumb" from the bare prairie with no trees, and few, if any, buildings surrounding it.

The courthouse through the years has been a witness to happy times, when a child has been adopted, or an alien received his citizenship.  It has also witnessed sadder times, when a prisoner has faced a penitentiary sentence, or a marriage has been dissolved and children face separation from a parent-, or when parental rights are terminated and children face separation from both parents.  There have also been amusing incidents, such as the enthusiastic lawyer vehemently expounding his case to the jury with an occasional hard blow on the table for emphasis.  With each blow of his fist, the water glass made a very noticeable move toward the edge of the table.  Finally, came one blow too many and the glass went crashing to the floor.  After a moment of utter silence, the lawyer stooped to pick up the pieces.  The judge suggested he leave it, since it "couldn't fall any further."  Whereupon the embarrassed lawyer muttered that he didn't want his opponent stepping on the glass and suing him, which broke the seriousness of the moment.

One of the officials at the courthouse (I was told it was Ben Tufte) owned a hunting dog that quite often accompanied him to his office.  One evening when Mr. Tufte left the office he unwittingly locked the dog in the building.  The dog apparently tried his best to free himself, since the door in the old state's attorney's office in southwest corner of the building still contains the deep scratches the dog left there.

The floor in the present Clerk of Court's office still shows where a bullet lodged when an "empty" gun a sheriff was examining discharged accidentally after ricocheting off the tin covered walls.

At various times visitors have stopped by the courthouse to chat.  One such visitor mentioned that his father had worked at the local lumberyard when this visitor was a young boy, and came home to report that a load of special fancy lumber had gone to the courthouse.  He had assumed that it was used in the courtroom but was disappointed to see so much of the woodwork painted so that he could not identify where that wood had been used.  My memory falls me as to the variety of wood, but I believe he said it was "curly mahogany."

Another time, a visitor told us his father had worked in the local creamery when it was located on the east edge of town.  One visitor identified himself as the son of Ole Skrien, an early resident living east of Cooperstown along the Sheyenne River.

The trademark of one courthouse employee was his habit of pushing his eyeglasses up on his forehead, then forgetting they were there, would go from office to office searching for his glasses, until someone would finally tell him where they were.

Anyone closely examining the construction of the courthouse will notice several boards of Birdseye maple in the floor of the Register of Deeds office.  The ornate hinges and doorknobs, and the hand painted vault doors are other very interesting items to take the time to examine.  The heavy framework visible in the attic of the building is also impressive, as well as the view of the surrounding countryside from the tower windows, although the steps leading to the top of the tower are no longer in the best condition.

A 26' by 47' fireproof addition to the west side of the court house was added in 1959 to house the auditor's office on the main floor, and the offices of sheriff and social services in the basement.  The original bids accepted totaled $28,576.44 for the general, electrical, and plumbing and heating contracts.

The courtroom was extensively remodeled, and various windows have been replaced, ceiling lowered, walls paneled throughout the building in the last twenty-five years.  Also, an entry was built at the rear of the building since the energy crunch came into being.  A new coal stoker was installed in 1978-79, bids for which were opened on December 16,1977 and the bid of Frostad Plumbing & Heating, Valley City, was accepted in the amount of $126,755.00 with final payments thereon approved on March 20, 1979.

The courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lillie Simenson

Source: Cooperstown, North Dakota 1882-1982 Centennial page 15