The Wayne County Courthouse At Old Greenville

The Wayne County Courthouse At Old Greenville. . , The last of five Wayne County courthouses located here at Old Greenville was built in 1925-26. Governor Sam A. Baker, a native of Wayne County, laid the cornerstone on May 21, 1925. The building was designed with a concrete basement to elevate it above floods that frequently plagued Old Greenville., Completed in 1926, that courthouse replaced on originally built in 1856. Repairs and a two=story addition on the north side of the 1856 building were made in 1893-1894, to restore that courthouse, which was heavily damaged by a fire on November 14, 1892. That fire also destroyed most of the county's records., The 2nd Wayne County courthouse was also a brick building. Built here in 1849, it too was destroyed by a fire in 1854, just five years after it was built. The original courthouse was a two-story log building erected sometime in the 1820s, a few years after the founding of the county. In the years before that building, the court rented space in a private home., On June 27, 1940, the Wayne County Court agreed to a settlement with the Corps of Engineers for $70,352, allowing the county to build a new courthouse and jail somewhere above lake level., In 1941, the voters decided to retain Greenville as the county seat but agreed to move the town two higher ground two miles to the north. A new Wayne County courthouse was then built at the new town site. It was completed in September 1943 and the building here was demolished in 1946., (Caption on left side photo): , The 5th Wayne County courthouse at Old Greenville was in use between 1926 and 1943. This building was designed by Martin Laubis of Poplar Bluff. It was the largest and most substantial of the five courthouses and was only 14 years old when the Wappapello Dam was completed in 1940. This building as demolished in 1946 after a settlement was reached between Wayne County and the Corps and a new courthouse had been completed at the relocated town site, two miles to the north. Harry S. Truman spoke here on the courthouse lawn during his first campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1934. This was also the site of the 1939 murder trial of the notorious Louise Myers, who poisoned her husband. Myers was convicted of that murder and sentenced to life in prison., (Caption on right side photo): , This 1912 postcard shows the 3rd/4th Wayne County courthouse, which was in use between 1856 and 1926. It survived floods in 1863, 1904, and 1915 and was rebuilt following a fire in 1892. This was the scene of two famous murder trials. Monroe Johnson was tried here after he killed the town's wealthiest resident and leading employer, Hiram N. Holladay in 1899. Johnson caught Holladay in an affair with his wife and shot him to death in her bedroom. Johnson was clearly guilty but the jury sympathized with him and limited his sentence to a $500 fine. Sam Brown was also tried here for the March 20, 1900 murder of George T. Richardson. Brown was an accessory after the fact but may not have been the actual murderer. He was convicted and hung.