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Rockingham
County, Virginia |
Chapter
XXVII |
CHAPTER XXVII.
COURT DAYS OF LONG AGO.
Court day in Rockingham has been a great day in the calendar for more than a century. Even now, after the absorption of the county court by the circuit court, court day is still perpetuated and religiously observed. All who have a horse to sell, a horse to buy, a man to see, - anything to be seen: those with business of all sorts, and chiefly those with none of any sort, - those and these all come to town on court day. Court day may be termed an institution: a social and economic institution. It doubtless has an educational as well as a general social value. To be on court square, or near it, on court day makes one dream of the agora at old Athens and the forum at Rome.
In the following paragraphs, taken from
Mrs. Maria Graham Carr’s charming reminiscences, one gets a vivid idea of the
court square and the court days of 1820, and thereabouts.
About eighty feet in front of her [Mrs.
Effinger’s] corner house was located the Court House, nearly in the middle of
the square. I think I remember a log or
frame court house, that stood in the same place. I certainly remember a stone building with a large door on the
east end, as well as a large bull’s-eye, or round window, near the roof, and
other windows on the second floor to light the jury rooms. A stone jail with grated windows stood a few
paces southeast of the court house. Mr.
Fletcher, an old man, was the jailer then.
Behind the court house, about 20 feet from it, was a small one-story
building called the clerk’s office.
Between it and the court house was a roof of shingles, supported by
wooden pillars. Under this beef was
sold; it was called the market-house. A
whipping post was near the east end of it.
The whole was enclosed by a strong wooden fence, made of
Three
horizontal rails set into posts securely planted in the ground, all painted
Spanish brown. I do not think the color
was ever noted for its beauty, but for its durability.
The lawyers of that day were Robert Gray,
David Steele, and Thomas Clark, and some younger ones I do not remember. Court day once a month was looked upon as a
great event; every one that could leave home was on hand. It was a day of great interest; farmers
coming in with their produce, such as butter, eggs, and other articles which
they exchanged for groceries and dry goods.
The streets around the court house were thronged with all sorts of men;
others on horse-back, riding up and down trying to sell their horses. Men in home-made clothes, old rusty hats that
had seen several generations, coarse shoes and no stockings, some without coats
or vests, with only shirts and pants. I
have seen a rich man come in from his country home, riding a fine horse. The man was dressed in home-spun linen shirt
and pants, coarse shoes, no stockings, and an old slouch hat or straw hat. He had a large yellow silk bandana
handkerchief, with a pocket-book filled with bank-notes rolled in it. He placed the handkerchief under his arm,
with the two ends tied over his shoulder.
He made money by buying deeds and other papers, or loaning money on
notes – this was called shaving paper; and many men got rich by this business.
This was also a day to settle all
grudges. When a man got too much
whiskey he was very quarrelsome, and wanted to fight. Others would follow suit, and go in pell-mell. It was a dreadful sight to see them beat one
another – I used to run off and hide.
It was also a great day for ginger-bread
and molasses beer. The cake sellers had
[tables] in front of the court house, spread with white cloths, with cakes
piled high upon them, and kegs of beer nearby.
I have seen the jurymen let their hats down from the window above, get
them filled with ginger-bread, and a jug of beer sent up by a rope. About four or five o’clock the crowd began
to start for home.
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