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Editor's Notes
First courts near Winn The historian T. H. Ball said county courts were held in the home of John Landrum in the present day Winn community (near Berry's Chapel AME Church) in 1813-1814 and in 1816. In 1815, the county court met in the home of Dr. Biddlix in Pine Level, now Jackson. Fort Landrum was at John Landrum's, one of many crudely erected stockades offered as a defense from the Creek Indians. Landrum had died by 1816 and courts may have been held in other private homes in the area from 1817 until 1819 (the year Alabama became a state). There was no designated county seat or county courthouse during these early years. In 1819, a committee appointed to select a courthouse site picked the area near the home of William Coate, about five or six miles west of present day Grove Hill. It became known as Clarkesville. Court was held in Coate's home in 1819 and a courthouse was apparently built later. Historian Ball described Clarkesville, "This village, although the center of an early settled neighborhood and the first county seat, never became a large place. It contained two stores and two public houses [hotels]. J. Moot and H. Dode sold goods there in 1826." Among the lawyers who practiced law at Clarkesville were William Bagby of Claiborne, a future Alabama governor; William Barrett Travis, also of Claiborne who would move to Texas and be killed at the Alamo but in the process gain fame as one of the heroes of Texas independence; and Reuben Saffold, who would represent Clarke in the Alabama Legislature and later serve as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
County seat moved here in 1832 The county seat was moved in 1832 to a little hamlet, probably no bigger than Clarkesville, nearer the center of the county. The settlement was alternately called Macon and Smithsville. Records show the courts were held at Macon in December 1832. There were apparently two communities in the area. Macon/Smithville was in the area where downtown Grove Hill is now. Another surrounded James Magoffin's store, near where Church Pews and Sales Ford are located on Highway 43 North. A post office was at the store in the 1820s called Grove Hill. The courthouse location was mostly referred to as Macon during the 1830s and '40s, but sometimes as Smithville too. Somehow, about 1850, the Grove Hill name started being used for the county seat area. The Macon Banner was published in the county seat in the 1840s. By the 1850s, The Grove Hill Herald was in operation.
First courthouse was simple structure A one-story frame building was built for a courthouse in 1832 on what is now the courthouse square. I've never heard anyone describe the interior, but I assume it was probably one large room for a courtroom with maybe a couple of smaller side rooms for offices. A brick, fireproof building was built nearby in 1837 for the safekeeping of county records. It was added to in 1877 and for years housed the probate judge's office and then the county tax assessor's and collector's offices. It was located where the south wing of the courthouse is today. In 1899, a grand two-story brick courthouse replaced the 1832 structure. But within just 10 years it was deemed too small and an annex was added in 1911. That annex was incorporated into the present courthouse when it was built in 1955. The 1955 courthouse was deemed a magnificent structure and was very modern and up to date when it was built. It has served the county well but now, 50 years later, we are adding a new annex to provide more space for the ever-growing court system. Some folks grumble that the extra courtrooms aren't needed but they are. The caseload here in Clarke County is extremely heavy for a rural county (Clarke has more recorded court cases than neighboring Choctaw and Washington counties combined).
County seat keeps town going I give you a history lesson to make the point that Grove Hill owes its existence to the courthouse. The location of the seat of county government here in 1832 sparked the addition of hotels and eating places (by the way, Tom Brown, a freed slave, was the owner of one of the first hotels, or boarding houses here), other businesses-even terrible ol' newspapers! Grove Hill's existence is still tied to the courthouse-perhaps as much or more so today as in the 1800s. Folks complain that there isn't much in Grove Hill. Well, think of it without the courthouse at the west end of Main Street and we'd be about the size of Coffeeville or Whatley. I have not made an exact study, but off the top of my head I guessed there are 50 to 60 people who work in the courthouse nearly every day of the week. That count doesn't include the large number of folks at the Clarke County Health Department, the Clarke County Sheriff's Department and Jail and the Clarke County Department of Human Resources, the Clarke County Engineer's Department other county and state agencies located elsewhere in Grove Hill. These governmental operations are an industry within themselves and the agencies and the employees have a tremendous impact on Grove Hill's economy. Yet, I hear the most fussing from Grove Hill businesses and elected leaders about parking woes that are blamed on the courthouse-either county employee parking or the parking generated by activities at the courthouse such as court. Parking is a problem, no doubt, and part of the problem is because of the construction of the new courthouse annex located where a large parking lot used to be. Some new parking will be created once the annex is completed. There seems to be several contradictions here. What little activity we have in downtown Grove Hill is due mostly to the courthouse. We say there is not enough traffic downtown but in the next breath we fuss about what traffic there is. Some say a revamped downtown is needed to spark things but then we want to take away a lot of the parking spaces that, on the other hand, we say are so sorely needed. Our elected leaders and some of our business people moan and groan about the way things are, but then they ridicule and belittle county government-the very thing we have going for us in Grove Hill that no one else in the county has. What gives? I know I'm not too smart, but I don't understand the contradictory standings. Not at all.
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