Courthouse Clock - Jasper County Courthouse - Newton, Iowa - Town Clocks on Waymarking.com

This information was copied from

CHAPTER VI
COUNTY GOVERNMENT, continued
Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa
B.F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912


THE PRESENT COURT HOUSE

This building, second to but few, if any, on Iowa soil today was dedicated April 6, 1911, and cost the county in round figures the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, which included the fixtures etc.

The first act of the board of supervisors looking to the erection of this splendid courthouse was in 1998, when the board called an election for the purpose of getting an expression of the people on this subject. Popular consent was easily obtained. In February 1909, a contract was let; work commenced April 1, 1909, and the building was dedicated Thursday, April 9, 1911. Judge Horace E. Deemer, of the supreme bench of Iowa, delivering the speech.

The building is one hundred twenty feet and eight inches long and eighty feet wide. The tower is one hundred forty feet high from the curbing on the street below. There are sixty rooms and four vaults in the structure and an electric clock in each suite of rooms in the building, regulated, by the master-clock in the rooms of the auditor's office. The contract price for the courthouse was $140,825.71; the heating plant, $15,590; architect and superintendent, $7,900; furniture etc., $36,000, making a total expenditure of $200,225. This magnificent, building is constructed of the celebrated Bedford (Indiana) stone, the best building limestone to be found in the country. A minute description is needless here, for be it remembered that long after the pages of this county history are worn and turned yellow with age, in all human probability this building will stand in all its massive beauty.

It may be well, however, to add this concerning the new (1911) temple of justice: The four emblematic paintings are by Edgar Cameron of Chicago, and are each illustrative of some incident in Jasper county's history. On the south side of the rotunda is a scene of a prairie fire and a herd of buffalo; on the east is a group of United States soldiers camping on the banks of Skunk River, west of Newton, in the early forties; on the north a scene of the departing Indian and the coming of the white man, his cabin and domestic surroundings; on the west side may be seen the soldier boys leaving for the front in Civil War days, in which are to he seen the teams and the relatives of the newly enlisted men, with waving flags as they bid home and loved ones "good bye." These paintings are all real works of art and add materially to the charm of the building.

The filing cabinets and book racks are all steel and fitted with sliding fronts, dust and light proof, for the preservation of papers. In addition in those offices needing them are large fireproof vaults, as large and light and comfortable to work in as the office rooms proper.

On the first floor is a room set apart for the exclusive use of the Grand Army of the Republic, in which there is everything attractive. In its border of mural decoration are painted the names of nineteen of the important battles of the Civil conflict, including Manassas and the windup at Appomattox.

Another special and modern feature of this courthouse building is the spacious, elegantly equipped ladies' rest room, on the first floor, easily accessible to the street. Here the ladies from town and country may while away an hour and rest.

On the same floor is an assembly room, which is finely furnished and here farmers and others may hold public meetings. This easily seats two hundred persons.

The clock in the tower is the latest achievement in timepieces. It is fitted with an automatic attachment so that every day it winds itself and each night it turns on the electric lights, which show through its eight-foot dial to the four sides of the public square. One thousand two hundred dollars of its cost was made up by private donations of Jasper County citizens. Aside, perhaps, from the Des Moines (Polk county) public building, nothing in all Iowa compares with this beautiful, modern courthouse. The following gentlemen were associated in the production of this, Jasper County's latest public building: Proudfoot & Bird, architects; James Rowson & Son, contractors; Norman A. Price, superintendent; Frank Sellman, auditor; supervisors during its construction, D. S. Fleck, chairman of the board, W. O. Livingston, J. F. Klise and C. F. Sauerman.

At the dedication of this building there were one hundred and twenty names entered in a book provided for the occasion, showing those present at the exercises, who had seen the erection of the old courthouse of 1858. In this "book of fame," as it was appropriately styled, the oldest man to sign his name was C. A. Dotson, of Colfax, aged ninety years and who came to Jasper County in 1848. The youngest man to sign was J. A. Blackwood, aged fifty-five years and who was three years old when the old courthouse was erected. Then another feature of this record book was the signing of the same by the oldest living settler in Jasper County, the venerable R. F. McKinney, who is not the oldest person, but the oldest settler now living in the county, he having arrived here in 1846, at the age of seven years, three years after the first white man had invaded the county's domain.

John B. Owens, of Newton, aged seventy-three, signed with the same pen which was used by him on a like occasion for the 1858 court house, having retained the same during all these long, eventful years.

The chapter on "Reminiscences" in this volume will contain an article from the ready, graphic pen of J. H. Fugard, of Newton, which will round out the history of Jasper County's last two courthouses. (See index.)

Status: Working Display: Mounted Year built: 01/01/1911 Web link to additional info: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
Photo of clock.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   06/05/2020 iconions visited it