Centennial of the Madison County Courthouse

When Madison County was established in 1812, Territorial Governor Ninian Edwards designated the home of his friend Thomas Kirkpatrick as the County Seat. Kirkpatrick was also appointed as a judge. A log cabin courthouse was built on a newly designated public square where the Mannie Jackson Center for the Humanities now stands. That log cabin was replaced a fefw years later with a new “donation courthouse” in 1825. When a new courthouse was needed, they moved a mile south on Main Street to create a new courthouse square in 1857, the same location where the current courthouse was built in 1915.