Where can one get a new court house for the sum of $529.89?
That was the total cost of the first Barnes county court house. Situated about where the county jail now stands, the building was authorized on July 29, 1879 by the first Board of County Commissioners.
The contract for the construction of the new building was let to D. D. McFadgen, then the first sheriff. Perhaps there was a conflict of interest here but it was more probalale that carpenters were hard to come by aria the sheriff had little to do since the total population of the county did not exceed 1500.
The following October 6th the Commissioners allowed the payment for the following bills for the erection of the building: D. D. McFadgen, Labor $139.45; Walter F. Jones, lumber $284.48; Weston and Anderson, plastering $87.14; L. L. Humble, painting $6.40 and H. G. Hourne, paints and oils $12.42.
The Clerk of Court occupied the upper story, reached by an outside stairway. The remainder of the County Officials shared the one big room on the first floor. Most of their business, however, was conducted from their places of business or shops or farms - or from their vest pockets, as the case might be.
With the rapid growth of the county and the many land transactions, more space was needed and in 1883 a new court house was authorized by a vote of the people and bonds were to be issued in the amount of $35,000. This amount was to be used to build the new court house and to refund the county indebtedness.
The bonds were duly sold and when the money was received, the County Treasurer, A. M. Pease, absconded with the bond money and all the taxes that had been collected. He was never apprehended and the money was never recovered. However, the Treasurer was bonded and the money recovered from the bonding agents and the building of the court house went forward.
With the completion of the new court house, the old structure was used as a storehouse for a time but was finally sold and moved onto the block north of the court house block, where it was used as a barn first and then as a garage.
Upon the death of Mrs. Musselman, who owned the property, the building was sold to a Mr. Bjornson, who moved it to his farm just west of Howard's Supper Club. Mr. Paul Bjornson then used it as a horse stable until in the 1950's when it was again sold to Mr. Walter Vanurden, who moved it to his farm west of the city on old hi-way # 10. There, some eighty years after its glorious beginning, it was torn down to make room for a modern steel building.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 309