Thebes Courthouse - Thebes, Illinois
Posted by: 
iconions
N 37° 13.192 W 089° 27.570
16S E 281776 N 4122097
This is a wooden sign placed by the Town of Thebes describing the very historical Thebes (former Alexander County)Courthouse. It is located at Oak and 5th Streets in Thebes.
Waymark Code: WME1KZ
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 03/21/2012
Views: 8
Text of marker:
This Courthouse, completed in 1848, was the County Seat of Alexander County until 1864 when the County Seat was moved to Cairo.
The building was constructed with local sandstone, hewn timbers, hand sawed boards, plaster, and with a split shingle roof.
Dred Scott was imprisoned here in the dungeons below. He was a fugitive slave for whom the Judge's Decision was made establishing a Negro's right to his own person.
From Wikipedia on the Thebes Courthouse:
(
visit link)
Thebes, like the city of Cairo, also in Alexander County, is named after the Egyptian city of the same name. This part of southern Illinois is known as Little Egypt.
Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Legend says that Dred Scott, a slave whose Supreme Court decision set back black rights by declaring that African-American slaves had no claim to freedom, may have been imprisoned in the courthouse jail.
The Mississippi River at Thebes is in excess of four feet deep, which enabled the town to become a busy steamboat port. Union troops passed through Thebes on their way to attack the South during the American Civil War. Thebes Bridge is an important railroad bridge opened for rail traffic in 1905 and still in use today.
In literature, Thebes is the home village of Captain Andy Hawks, his wife Parthenia Ann Hawks and daughter Magnolia in the Edna Ferber novel Showboat.
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