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COURT HOUSE AT BROOKHAVEN BURNED
The following is taken from the Brookhaven Leader, and is a
very good account of the burning of the Lincoln county courthouse on
the 9th of November 1893.
The alarm of fire was sounded shortly after 2 o'clock Sunday night,
and the slumbering populace of Brookhaven who heard and responded, soon
discovered that the court house was in flames. S. F. Magee, W. P.
Hubert, Eugene Ree, Alice Winston and a few others who were first to reach
the scene say the front and rear hall doors were open and that the fire
began on the stairway or in the court room near the head of the
stairs. Some of the first on the ground say the smell of coal oil was
easily distinguished.
The flames spread rapidly, and the crowd, which began to assemble
rapidly, busied itself about saving the contents of the offices, as all
hope of extinguishing the fire was vain. The only offices which it
was safe to enter were the sheriff's and chancery clerk's. From these
all the books and papers outside the chancery clerk's vault and the
sheriff's safe, with a part of the furniture, were saved. Nothing
whatever was saved out of the offices of the circuit clerk, county
superintendent or the court room. The circuit clerk on Saturday
evening had moved all the circuit court records upstairs to be ready when
court convened Monday morning and these were all destroyed. All other
books, indictments and legal papers were left in the fire-proof (?) vault
where, until Monday afternoon, they were thought to be safely preserved.
There is, as yet, no satisfactory proof as to the origin of the
fire. At first general suspicion laid it at the door of the white
caps, and probably a majority are still of this opinion, but there is no
more real reason for supposing that white caps applied the torch than some
others. In fact, there were other persons equally as much interested
in the destruction of certain records as any white cap could possibly have
been. Many believe that some such person as this was the real
criminal. Others, still think the fire the result of carelessness or
accident, in which midnight gambling and a keg of beer or a jug of whisky
figured. Some of the Negro prisoners in jail say they heard the approach
and departure of horses just before the alarm, but such testimony,
unsupported by other evidence, is not to be relied upon. The Leader
mentioned these as the various theories it has heard advanced. It is
hoped a full investigation by the grand jury, heartily seconded by other
ministers of the law and all good citizens, may result in discovering the
real cause of the fire and fixing the responsibility or guilt where it
rightfully belongs.
Up to Monday afternoon it was thought all the county books and
records in the brick vaults, built to be fireproof, were safe, but when the
walls began to cool, they cracked and the air coming in on the smothered
hear, caused the contents of the vaults to at once ignite. Every
effort possible was made to extinguish the flames, but in vain, as only a
limited supply of water could be had, and before dark, the whole of the
splendid new county records, obtained at a cost of thousand of dollars,
were in ashes.
The destroyed building was insured for $5000 and the records and
furniture for $2500, the total of $7500 insurance being divided equally
between the Phoenix of New York, the Aetna and the Liverpool and London and
Globe. This is the second court house burned in this county in the
last ten years, the other having been set on fire on the morning of Jan 1,
1884.
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