"The Bystanders Notes", by C. S. Rogers, Publisher
Mt. Pleasant Daily News, Thursday, March 13, 1924

Mr. W. S. Shepp has in his possession an excellent picture of the old original court house erected about 1838 in the center of the public square. It was built of native stone and in the picture is a forbidding looking building. The second story was used as the court room until it got unsafe when the court moved into Union Hall on the North Side and now used by the Odd Fellows. A walk ran thru the square from east to west and from north to south and passed right thru the lower floor of the building, which was thus divided into four rooms and occupied by county offices. The old walls were of the ordinary wooden affairs laid on stringers. The upper window sashes were set with small panes of glass, twenty to the sash while those on the lower floor had twelve to the sash. At that time the park was surrounded by an old four inch picket fence. To the south, in the photograph , can be seen the stores of P. A. Lee who occupied the building now occupied by Friedman. At the other end of the photo can be seen the old Peters livery stable where the college boys hired frisky rigs in which they beguiled away the hours on moonlight nights down on the river road. The picture is now to be seen in the window of Shepp's grocery.