1st Court House 
       Drawn by Mrs. Paul D. Ewing from a pencil sketch by S. M. Burgess

In the Tingle Tavern Guernsey county was organized April 23, 1810.  Here the early sessions of court were held.  It stood on the site of the present Odd Fellows' Temple, Wheeling Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Street.

                    
                                                      Old Court House

                                                         Chapter II      
                                             Stories of Guernsey County
                                                   by William Wolfe

                                                Court House Stories

                                             Locating the County Seat

     A desired Honor.--To be the seat of government of any political unit, whether nation, state or county, is a distinction that many cities and towns have desired.  When it came to locating the capital of the United States there was trouble that was finally settled by choosing a city that did not then exist;  and when a few years later Ohio was seeking a place for permanent headquarters, a number of towns presented reasons why they should be chosen seat of Guernsey county.    
     When the county was formed by an act of the legislature, March 10, 1810, the question of what town should be the county seat was immediately given consideration.  The authority for making a choice was vested in a committee appointed by the legislature, composed of Isaac Cook, James Armstrong and William Robinson.
     At that time the county was largely a forest with very few settlements in it.  There were no railroads; in fact, there were very few roads of any kind.  The main thoroughfare was Zane's Trace which passed through the county from east to west.  It was generally agreed that the county seat should be located on this road.
     Cambridge and Beymerstown Considered.--The two most important towns on Zane's Trace in Guernsey county were Cambridge and Beymerstown (now called Old Washington).  Much bitterness was engendered, as each town wanted the honor and worked hard to get it.  The three men upon  whom it devolved to make the choice must have realized the great responsibility, for the choice would  be one that would determine the future of the two towns and effect  that of the entire county.  That they did consider the matter seriously is shown by their written decision, which was made public on April 20, 1810, one month and ten days after the county was created:

     "That, having paid due regard to the interest and convenience of the inhabitants of said county, we do hereby declare that the town of Cambridge is the most suitable place for the permanent seat of justice."
     That settled it.  what greater advantages Cambridge possessed were not started in the decision.  It could not have been the roads, because the two towns had the same advantages in that respect; it could not have been the railroads, because there were no railroads in those days; it could not have been the coal fields near Cambridge, because they were not only not developed, but were unknown at that time.  Both were little towns about the same size and both  were on Zane's Trace.  Beymerstown was nearer the center of the county as then constituted.
     Proposition of Beatty and Gomber.--Perhaps it was the proposition of Zaccheus A. Beatty and Jacob Gomber to donate the grounds and furnish a suitable set of buildings ready to roof, if the county seat should be located at Cambridge, that decided the question.  Had somebody over at Beymerstown offered as much or more, perhaps Old Washington, instead of Cambridge, would be the seat of Guernsey county government today.
     An ill feeling resulted from the decision of the committee, that continued for many years.  Efforts of the Washingtonians to wrest the honor from Cambridge were made many times.  They did not cease until work on the new court house was begun in 1881.
Old Court House - Begun in 1810 and completed in 1818.  Repaired and enlarged in 1854.  Offices of auditor and treasurer were in small building at left; clerk and recorder in building at right.  The present jail may be seen in the background.  This picture was taken in 1879.  Standing in the foreground from left to right are W. E. Boden, John Robins, William Smith, James Buchanan, Capt. John Bell, Robert Hammond and children, William Hanna and Charles Rabe.
                                        The Old Court House
     The Gift of Beatty and Gomber.--When Zaccheus A. Beatty and Jacob Gomber offered to furnish a suitable set of public buildings, as an inducement for having the county seat located at Cambridge, they meant the buildings to be a court house and a jail.  Whether this was their own personal donation, or whether it was that of Cambridge which they represented as a committee, we do not know.  However, as these two men had platted the town four years before  making the proposition, from lands of their own, and had donated an acre in the center for "public use," they were evidently men of considerable means, and it is probable that the gift was largely their own.  Work on the court house was begun immediately after Cambridge was chosen as the county seat; it was ready for occupancy the next year.
     Old Court House Described. -- It stood on the site of the present court house.  Near it was built a log jail.  The court house was a brick structure facing what is now Wheeling avenue.  It had large double-entrance doors on the south and north, with circular tops, circular transoms, and projecting belfry above, which projected a tall spire surmounted by two wooden balls and a weather vane in the shape of a fish.  It was eighty-seven feet from the ground to the top of the spire.
     This must have been an attractive building for Cambridge and Guernsey county at that time.  Just a few years before it was built the first settlers  had come to Cambridge, and the most of the homes were log cabins.  So well was it constructed that it served the county for seventy years, or until the present court house was erected.  Only once did it undergo extensive repairs;  this was in 1854, when the spire was rent by lightning.  In restoring it the commissioners made some other improvements on the building.
     Completed in 1818--Although some use of the building was made the year after it was begun, it was seven years (August 8, 1818), before it was accepted from the hands of the contractors.  It was opened for court in August, 1813.  The upper story was finished first, and it was here that court was held.
     Several reasons may be given for the slow progress made in the construction of the court house.  When the work upon it began, the county had a population of approximately 3,000, and a tax duplicate of only $20,000.  The people were scattered and the few farms that had been entered were given low values.  The most of the land in the county belonged to the federal government and was not listed for  taxation.  Beatty and Gomber had agreed to furnish the buildings "ready to roof."  The cost of the rest fell upon the county, and there was not much money for public works.  Then the work on the court house was retarded on account of a lack of building equipment.
     Used For Many Purposes.---All sorts of meetings--civil, religious, military, social, political, etc.  were held within its walls.   All denominations of Christians were permitted to hold special services there.  Among the pioneer preachers who conducted meetings in the old court house were Dr. Joseph Doddridge, the historian; Lorenzo Dow, the eccentric itinerant; Dr. Durbin and Bishop Morris.
     Until the Town Hall was built, conventions and political meetings of all parties were held there, and speeches were made there by many eminent politicians.  Included amongst these were Senators Tom Corwin and Tom Ewing; Governors William Allen and Wilson Shannon; John A Bingham, Joseph R. Giddings and Richard M. Johnson.  General William H. Harrison, was given a reception in front of the building in 1836.  Senators Wade, Chase, Sherman and Thurman, and Presidents Hayes and Garfield spoke within or upon stands in front of the old court house.
     On a number of occasions noted Indians traveling to Washington, D. C., over Zane's Trace or the National Road, stayed over night in Cambridge and met the people at the court house.  Judges of more or less eminence sat upon the bench there to dispense justice.
     Court Square Improved.--For thirty years after its construction the old court house stood upon the open square without a tree or shrub to shield it from the burning sun, or to break the force of the storms that beat against it.  In winter it was surrounded by a sea of mud.  Almost every night great road teams which did the carrying of the county, and emigrant wagons on their way farther west over Zane's Trace or the National Road, would be quartered within the yard.  It was the public parking lot.
     Not until 1841 did the people of Cambridge consider a beautification of the court square.  Then a spirit of improvement and civic pride sprang up.  This led to the enclosure fo the grounds and planting of trees.
     Served Seventy Years.---The old court house will be remembered by those only who were born back in the early 70's or before that decade.  It was within this building that the county machinery was kept moving through two or three generations.  Within it many interesting proceedings were enacted, that played an important part in the history of the county.
     But the growing population of the county neccessitated larger and better quarters for conduction county business.  The old court house was beginning to show the effects of time.  Seventy years after it was built a new one was considered.        

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