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Changes In The County Seat
With the growth and increased importance of Chattanooga, following the War, there was a definite sentiment that the County seat should be located in the city.
The condition of the roads made the trip to Harrison practically a day's journey and this was one of the reasons advanced for the proposed change.
The General Assembly of the State of Tennessee passed an act permitting an election in 1870 to determine whether the change should be made. The result was by a large majority in favor of Chattanooga.
There was, however, very bitter feeling in the Harrison and Ooltewah section and citizens of that part of the County protested and applied to the courts for action to prevent the removal, claiming a fraudulent vote.
An injunction was applied for to prevent the transference of the court records but an alert clerk of the court, James A. Caldwell, who lived in Chattanooga, packed the books in a wagon and drove to Chattanooga before the injunction, restraining removal, was received in Harrison.
The people near Harrison and Ooltewah lost the legal battle. They refused to be contented and succeeded in having the General Assembly erect a new county, January 30, 1871.
The territory included that part of Hamilton County which lay east of a
line running southwest from the mouth of Harrison Spring branch, on the Tennessee River, to the Georgia line, and a portion of Bradley County.
Elbert A. James, a member of the General Assembly, was active in the legislation which resulted in the new county and it was named James County.
The Act providing for the erection of James County directed that an election should be held to choose the County seat. At the election in February, 1871, Ooltewah was chosen over Harrison by a majority of one vote. It was claimed that some votes for Harrison had been thrown out and this election, also was taken to the courts. The contest was lost in a final decision, in May, 1874, and the citizens immediately petitioned the General Assembly to return Harrison to Hamilton County.
By Act of the Assembly in that year, therefore, the territory including and surrounding Harrison was restored to Hamilton County.
The Hamilton County Court House, which had been in Harrison until January 30, 1871, was sold to James County. It was removed to Ooltewah where it stood for many years.
Hamilton County had included seventeen districts of which five, the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and Thirteenth, were ceded to James when that county was formed.
Magistrates from the remaining districts formed the Hamilton County Court.
They were:
Some of the early officials in James County were:
County Court Clerks, James Childress, and J. C. Heaton
Circuit Court Clerks, A. S. Stutts, S. I. Yarnell, and E. A. Bell
Sheriffs, J. A. Green, R. K. Smith, Bruce Guthrie, E. E. Clingan, Samuel Lewis, and
J. W. Watkins
Trustees, E. E. Padgett, Samuel J. Blair, John W. Smith, George Montgomery, J. M. Seagle, J. W. McCulley, W. H. Langston, and W. F. Anderson
Registrars, J. Rustin, R. B. Campbell, and H. H. McNabb; Clerk and Master, T. H. Roddy
The court records of Hamilton County have occupied many locations, and their travels from one point to another in the course of years did not improve their condition.
Chattanooga, in 1870, was not prepared to take care of them, and they were housed, temporarily, in the Armory or Military Prison, as the brick building on the corner of Fourth and Market Streets continued to be known. The municipal organization of Chattanooga, and the Chancery Court met in this building. A fire there, injured some of the papers.
Hamilton County bought the square bounded by Georgia Avenue, Walnut Street, East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street, and there built a brick court house, to which the records were removed.
History
of Hamilton County
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