Courthouse Controversy

In the fall of 1870 the county courthouse location controversy, which had been going on for about five years, was settled in favor of Princeton. The courthouse dispute in Mercer County was not unique, because a similar dispute took place in Jefferson County between Charles Town and Shepherdstown. The people who espoused the cause of Princeton in the controversy gave their support to a petition from residents of Concord Church asking that a branch of the State Normal School be located there. William L. Bridges, Mercer County delegate to the Legislature, presented to that body the petition, and on February 28, 1872, the Legislature passed “An Act to locate a Branch State Normal School at Concord, in the county of Mercer.”

During 1872, two other state normals were established:  one at Glenville, Gilmer County, under the act of February 19, 1872, and another at Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, under the act of February 28, 1872.  Now the door was closed to the creation of similar institutions through a provision of the state constitution of 1872, which forbade the Legislature to make appropriations to normals or branch normals not then active or chartered.

A condition imposed by the Act establishing a normal school at Concord (Church) was that the building being erected at Concord Church for “a courthouse and jail”, and the land on which the same is situated, together with not less than five acres of land adjacent thereto, shall for the purpose of the said school be conveyed free of charge to the State.  (Note:  The former Bank of Athens occupied this site before its demolition.)  The situation became complicated through the death of the donor of the courthouse site, Colonel William Henderson French, and thus making it impossible to convey a title to the property as the State would accept.  At this time, the hopes and expectations of those interested in having a normal school in their midst seemed doomed.

The story continues. Learn how local residents procured land and met state requirements by clicking here.