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Franklin County's First Court House (This article was written by Jim and Jenny Lou Brock and published in the Cowan Bell, Volume I, No. 20, December 19, 1974.) This month of December, 1974, marks the 167th year since the county of Franklin, in the State of Tennessee, was established, and Cowan holds the distinction of the being the first seat of government for this county. By an Act of the General Assembly of December the 3rd, 1807, a new county was created, and it was "to be known by the name of Franklin". At that time this county encompassed a much larger area than is now within its bounds, including most of what is now Marion County. Section two of this act states, "BE IT ENACTED, That for the administration of justice, a county court shall be held by the justices of the peace for said county, at the house where Maj. William Russell now lives, on the fourth Mondays in January, April, July and October, in each and every year; and said court shall continue to be held at said Russell's until otherwise provided by law; and said courts shall be held under the same laws, rules and regulations, and shall have and exercise the same power of jurisdiction, as the other county courts within this state." In section five of this act, it states, "BE IT ENACTED, That general musters and court martial shall be held at the place of holding courts in the said county of Franklin,-----." Major Russell's home was the first court house for Franklin County and served as such until a permanent county seat was established and a court house erected. This court house was not completed until 1814. The business of the courts, both civil and military, were conducted here, between the years 1807 and 1814, in what is now Cowan. Tradition has always been that Major William Russell's home was located where Mr. and Mrs. Juergen Krischel now live*. We do know that the Russell's owned many acres of land here and have documented that Cowan is built on land originally owned by them. These facts strongly support the tradition of the site for Franklin County's first court house. To further support this claim are the interesting finds the Krischel's have made digging in their cellar and under other areas of their home. In a future issue of THE COWAN BELL, Evamaria and Juergen will continue this story by telling us about these fascinating discoveries. J.L.B. & J.R.B. *Said house is now the home of Steve and Deborah Russell. Franklin County's First Court House Part II (This article was written by Evamaria Krischell and published in the Cowan Bell, Volume II, No. 1, January 9, 1975.) In our last issue Mr. and Mrs. Jim Brock wrote about the possibility of our home standing on the site of the first Franklin County Court House. They have also documented the land holdings of Major William Russell, which of course include our little plot. To support these facts and also certain rumors, we proceeded to investigate the house thoroughly. Unproven stories include that Major William Russell's first dwelling was a log cabin. Later Major Russell built a larger home and this same log cabin served as a kitchen. It was also this log cabin that was supposed to have witnessed the first court proceedings and general musters in the county. Definitely the present building has been enlarged more than once. We have proof of this in the original cedar-shingled roofs underneath the present outer one; also there is a brick walkway leading to the cellar entrance, which is now located in the center of our home under the floor of the kitchen. The side wall of the staircase to the cellar has the unusual composition of 1 1/2 in. wide roughly sawn boards stacked on top of one another and insulated with a mortar mixed with straw or hair. Most likely this was an outer wall at one time, and a "dog trot" or open breeze-way separated two building structures. We concentrated our efforts on the front portion of the house and the cellar, which we believe to be the oldest portion of the present structure. The cellar itself is lined with natural stone, held together by a sand mixture. These walls have witnessed a fire for they are smoke blackened and have been chalked over. A foot-thick square support post reveals the same charring and chalked over layers. Our next interesting discovery was the cistern or storage hole (located in front of the cellar under the present porch) with a 10 ft. diameter. It is partially filled in and we therefore have no knowledge of its depth. We do plan to remove and examine this filling as soon as the weather permits. Worth mentioning are the walls which are protected by a rough primitive mortar mixture, and the roof of this "cistern" which is dome-shaped and constructed out of bricks. The bricks are held together by the same sand mixture as used between the natural stone in the cellar. At this time, dating the construction of the "cistern" would be sheer conjecture. Curious is the fact, that it is there at all with a well and three natural springs at the owner's disposal. Our most fascinating discoveries were made underneath the front portion of the living room. The ground here is covered with a 2 - 3 inch layer of fine ashes, supporting the stories of a fire which was to have destroyed the original building or portions thereof sometime in the 18-hundreds. The crawling space under the living room is very limited and progress has been slow to uncover the area without damaging anything or just cutting out the living room floor! But it has already produced some results: masses of very old handmade nails; remains of fragile burnt logs and boards (some with nails still embedded in them); a glass snuff jar; and two intact unburned square logs with crude approx. 2 in. long tongue slots in them and a peg hole at a right angle. Here we also found, directly in line with the cistern under the other portion of the building, a circle of bricks. We can think of no explanation yet. Other finds in the vicinity have been two old handmade iron buggy wrenches and old blue glass canning jars and many lids, but it seems that the most promising area is the front living room. It is around this portion of the house that we (my husband is the one, thin and agile enough to manage movement there!) will concentrate our future efforts. (E.K.)
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