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I am Tom Freeland,
a lawyer in Oxford, Mississippi. The picture in the header is my law office.
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Sad news: Courthouse fire at Walthall
The courthouse in Webster County burned today (photo by Robin Gary Lowry on Facebook). It’s a courthouse without a town, almost, between Calhoun City and Eupora. It was an elegant courthouse that will be missed.
Update Here’s an aerial shot pulled off Google Maps to give an idea just how all-by-itself this courthouse is. The beige rectangle just above the middle of the picture is the courthouse, and the yellow line on the left/West is Highway 9.
 January 17, 2013, 3:00 pm | Tags: Walthall, Webster County Courthouse | Category: Law: National, Mississippi Legal |
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23 comments to Sad news: Courthouse fire at Walthall |
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Is there such a thing as an accidental courthouse fire?
Anderson – Bahahahah!
Reminds me of the story about my great-grandfather who was a big wheel in Charleston back in the 1920s. He backed a man for mayor, and he got him elected. Thereafter, the mayor had all sorts of “financial difficulties,” and the folks from Jackson announced they would be appearing the next morning to audit the city’s records.
That night, a fire broke out in the Mayor’s office. Luckily, it was confined to the filing cabinet that contained all the financial records in question!
John Pittman Hey
As my favorite lawyer joke goes, “How do you start a flood?”
My father had a client who called certain kinds of fires “selling it to the Yankees,” in reference to the Connecticut location of many fire insurance companies.
(as someone who, just this morning, had the seal between the toilet tank and the toilet seat fail, thereby assuring the floater valve would not ever detect a full tank, I can tell you one way to start a flood, but do not recommend it. It really caused this whole day to, uh, go down the toilet (well, not down the toilet at all. All over the floor. I guess I should be glad this happened just about 10 minutes before I headed out to work and not immediately thereafter)).
From WATP
Webster County Fire Coordinator Barry Rushing said many of the county records were salvaged in spite of the flames.
Read more: http://www.wapt.com/news/mississippi/Fire-guts-courthouse-in-Webster-County/-/9156860/18172710/-/o9j2lrz/-/index.html#ixzz2IGhezXmb
Well … this always works better than putting it to a vote for a new courthouse.
I just gave a suspicious glance at the power surge protector under my desk. WCBI reports:
>>
Fire investigators believe a faulty power surge strip on the first floor of the courthouse sparked the blaze.
Arson is not suspected.
Efforts are underway to preserve records from the courthouse vault by freeze-drying them.
<<
Last time I looked at power strips at Walmart, I was taken aback by (1) the various ratings of the strips for different functions and (2) how expensive the better ones were. Used to be, a power strip was a power strip.
[...] completely under control until 7 o’clock. Tom Freeland at the North Mississippi Commenter posted an update yesterday [...]
Maybe someone “protected” the powerstrip by laying the Judgment Roll atop it.
“It’s a courthouse without a town, almost… .”
The post office is across the street as is the volunteer fire department with the old tennis court where we all gather to see election results posted on the fence. The lady who charges $9 for a haircut is across another street (but don’t park in her lot). The Baptist Church sits between the courthouse and Hwy 9. The nearest body shop is 1/2 block away and the other body shop is only 1 block away. The “Store” with great plate lunches is just around the corner, with the car wash on the opposite corner next to the used appliance store.
What more do you need for a town?
I drove past twice yesterday. The folks who were milling around looked like they’d just come from a funeral.
I rode the bike down to Walthall today (Sunday, Jan. 20) and shot some pix. Smoke continues to rise from the gutted shell of the courthouse. And I can’t get the odor out of my nostrils. I was treated to a quick tour of the former jail, which now serves as the meeting room for the board of supervisors. It’s a steel box with brick veneer exterior. It might … or might not … be interesting to see how Webster County moves forward. Certainly, there’s no justification for a new courthouse in Walthall, but county politics in Mississippi ….
It’s justified to build a new courthouse in Webster County if insurance pays for it. But Webster County is poor. Do they even know how, or remember how, to raise county revenue? And would they do it if they knew how? It will be interesting to see what happens here.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Webster County’s population is smaller now than it was when the courthouse was built.
You got that right, Cbalducc. It peaked at 14,553 in 1910, just before the courthouse was built, and went down every decade until 1970 (except 1940; it went up 2000 during the thirties?!?), settling around just under 10,300 and staying the same since.
There are eight smaller counties…
I think Mississippi has too many counties. A lot of them have lost population since the mid-20th century. Consolidating counties would save A LOT of money, but it is a political nonstarter.
Has anyone been to Paulding in the southeast part of Mississippi? It is one of Jasper County’s two county seats (the other is Bay Springs) It was an important town during the 19th century, even being called the “Queen City of the East” (St. Michael’s is the second-oldest parish in the Catholic Diocese of Jackson). However, it declined when the railroad bypassed it in the 1880s and probably has less than a hundred residents now. They did get another courthouse in 1972, however:
http://goo.gl/maps/avKmM
Yes, Jasper County is where one goes to obtain a $36M verdict.
Issaquena and Sharkey counties are tiny, under 2k each. I always wondered why Benton was carved out of Marshall and Tippah.
Issaquena County has about 1,400 people. Of course, back in the day it was far more populous.
Sharkey County currently has about 4,500 people. In 1990 that number was just over 7,000. At one time it had as many as 15,000.
Sharkey and Issaquena Counties share virtually all government functions outside the courthouse. The public school, library, hospital, and various other offices are all in Rolling Fork, and many are named “Sharkey-Issaquena.” The Counties could certainly be merged.
As for Benton County, I do not know for certain, but I would suspect that the fact that at the time of the split there was an effort to make it easier for people to reach their county courthouse. They probably didn’t realize that Benton County would remain a desert.
Benton County was created during Reconstruction, as was Union County, and I suspect that this was a Republican effort to curb powerful Democratic interests in the large former counties.
Tate County was created during Reconstruction but I’m fairly certain geography and proximity to the Desoto County courthouse was the issue. The City of Senatobia was chartered in 1860 but at that time was in Desoto County. The county was formed in 1873 and the courthouse built in 1875. That’s why the courthouse is off a side street and isn’t presented as the centerpiece of the town, as most are.
Re. Ben
January 20, 2013 at 9:13 pm
I rode the bike down to Walthall today (Sunday, Jan. 20) and shot some pix. Smoke continues to rise from the gutted shell of the courthouse. And I can’t get the odor out of my nostrils. I was treated to a quick tour of the former jail, which now serves as the meeting room for the board of supervisors.
Actually, the former jail serves as the Walthall village hall and is where the Walthall Board of Aldermen meet. The supervisors met in the Courthouse boardroom and now meet in Eupora.