The old court house sat on the knoll where Scotts Store on Main Street is today and the jail was at the back. The roads were wagon paths at the time.
In the early days of Harlan County the people tried to live peacefully and earned their daily bread by honest work such as logging, farming, blacksmithing or any way to make an honest dollar.
Much activity went on in the large jail yard. Every day a group of men could be seen engaging themselves in an interesting game of marbles. An old timer recalled that "Felix Lewis and Green Ward were "among the champion players."
City Divides North, South
Harlan was more or less a dividing line line between the North and south. Both sides came into town scouting, robbing, looting and left a feeling of unrest among the pioneer families.
They had great deal of trouble when court was in session. The militia was sent in on a few occasions to see that everything was peaceful. Sometimes families gathered together and made"palets" on the floor for their children to sleep on.
A group of militiaman are shown in the picture which was made in the early 1890's. Joe S. Kelly, the jailer lived across the road from the old court house in the Riverside Hotel, one of the first hotels in Harlan. The rambling house with the long front porch was near the spot where Alex Store is today.
No Cooking Facilities
The jailer sent the food to the jail in buckets as there were no cooking facilities in the jail. Wood fires in the "grates" was the only heat. During the term of court, Col. Clark, commonwealth attorney and Judge Boyd of Whitley County, visited at the hotel and held court here. Col. Clark was said to have been a colonel in the war and fought on the North side.
Few natives remember that Col. Clark used his "style b" to mount his horse. Jim L. Howard was sheriff at the time.
The militiamen pitched their tents on Clover Street near the river bank. That was their headquaters. One of the soldiers was accidently killed during their stay here.
Woman Prisoner Yodles
In the early 1890's a two story stone jail was built in Second Street where Cherry building is now. A house was also built for the jailer, who was P. Hensley at the time. When the prisoners were transferred to the new building the old one was torn away.
Sometimes a few women had to be places in jail. "The first yodelling we ever heard was a woman standing in the jail window," an old timer recalled. Every day about supper time the children slipped around to where they could view the window then she would appear and yodel. That was the most unusual singing they had ever heard.
When the third court house was completed the old one on Main Street and the little clerks office, that stood outside the court house were torn away.
Some of the stones from the old jail were used to build the rock wall around the Annex on Mound Street. The holes in the stones where the pins fastened them together are still in the rocks.
Little did they know that the knoll upon which the first court house sat was an Indian mound of graves. They didn't know that tommy hawks, beads, Indian money and othr relics would be unearthed someday.
Sunday December 14, 1953
Volume 51 Number 292
Pages 1 & 3
