Mincey’s Musings
Year Two, Week Sixteen

In an article published in the Knoxville News Sentinel on April 26, 2019, writer Brittany Crocker reported the Loudon County Courthouse fire, noting in the title to her article that “Fire Once Leveled Another Historic East Tennessee Courthouse, Taking Everything With It”.

She was referring to the Union County Courthouse constructed in 1900 that burned the night of October 23, 1969. Though some records were saved due to being stored in a brick and mortar vault, Ms. Crocker noted that many were destroyed, including records for thousands of dollars of unpaid taxes that could no longer be collected.

Ms. Crocker also reported that three weeks earlier Court Clerk Jerry Corum, who was embezzling funds, set a fire in his office on October 2, 1969. I have been told that he was responsible for the fire that leveled the building. One veteran Union County educator told me that she did not vote in any election. She said the only time she ever voted she cast her ballot for Jerry Corum, and he burned the courthouse, and she had never trusted herself to vote wisely ever again!

An Internet search of www.familysearch.org (the site was updated March 20, 2008) will divulge that there was an earlier Union County Courthouse fire in the 1870s which resulted in the loss of marriage records from 1854 through 1864 and probate records from 1854 through 1858. The site also lists 60 other Tennessee counties that lost all or part of their courthouses, 57 due to fire (Warren County lists fire with a question mark, expressing doubt of the cause). The loss due to fire in four counties (Monroe, Putnam, Stewart, Sullivan) resulted from the Civil War. Four counties lost their courthouses more than once (Monroe and Putnam twice; Bedford and Montgomery three times). The Bedford and Dickson County Courthouses were destroyed by a tornado in 1830. Montgomery and Rutherford counties lost their courthouses to tornados, and Obion County to an earthquake in 1842.

An electrical fire that occurred on September 30, 2017 at the Bradley County Courthouse caused county offices to be relocated until repairs could be made (tncourts.gov February 18, 2018). The 50-year-old building suffered no structural damage, and it was expected that the courthouse would be repaired and ready to resume business as usual by mid-April or June, 2018. One judge said the fire was something of a blessing as it would result in upgrades and modernization. The Cleveland Daily Banner later reported that the courthouse would actually reopen the date of this writing (Monday, April 29, 2019), though all offices might not be ready.
Loudon County was not so lucky—the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that it might take years to rebuild the courthouse. This was also the case in Union County—the present courthouse opened for business in 1974, five years after the 1969 fire that leveled its predecessor. Pictures of the original and present Union County Courthouse designed by Architect Martin J. Lide and built by Contractor Mullins Construction Company can be seen on www.flickr.com. Other images can be seen on Google.com by typing “burning of union county tennessee courthouse” into the search engine.
I was only four years old when the 1900 Union County Courthouse burned in 1969. I lived in downtown Maynardville until I was five years old. I don’t remember the old courthouse—I do remember my mother once taking me to the courthouse to hear Roy Acuff sing from one of the upstairs windows. I didn’t know who he was, but I knew it was a big deal! I also remember hearing the sounds of debris being removed from the site as I played in my front yard on Academy Street. I remember going with my mother to the present site of the Chamber of Commerce in the old Maynardville State Bank as Mother conducted business in one of the relocated courthouse offices.
I wish I could remember the original courthouse. Pictures I have seen show a character of architecture that can perhaps be duplicated but never replicated. I have never thought of the present Union County Courthouse as a beautiful building, but I have appreciated how it seems to be constructed entirely of concrete and marble. The marble inside the building is truly remarkable. The building materials and the vaults inside the offices testify to the fact that Union County does not want to suffer from future fires that threaten life and history.