Guthrie Co. IAGenWeb

History

On Wednesday, Nov. 27th, 1963, a paper carrier for The Guthrian, Bruce Walters, discovered a fire at the courthouse around 6 a.m., which in the end completely destroyed it. The fire was thought to have started in the furnace room in the basement. Many county records were lost but many survived. [See news article below for more details.] A blacksmith with the aid of a country welder cut into the records vault. Although damaged to some degree, many records were legible.

The amazing photo below was captured the morning of the fire by local merchant John H. Miller, owner of Miller Shoe Store from 1947-1968. He and his family lived 4 blocks north of the courthouse. On the morning of Nov. 27, 1963 they walked down to the courthouse to see what was happening. When they saw the fire John told his son to run home and get the camera. What impressed his son, Dave, the most was the ammunition in the sheriffs' office exploding. Notice the sprays of water in the bottom corners of the photo.



A bond issue for construction of a new court house was passed in June of 1962 and construction was already underway at the time of the fire, with a projected completion date in 1964.


Newspaper articles about fire:

Excerpted from The Guthrian Dec. 3, 1963:

County Records in 7 of 8 Vaults Survive Fire
County Office Established in Guthrie Center City Hall

Records stored in vaults at the Guthrie county court house came through last Wednesday's fire in surprisingly good shape although it will be some time before an actual tabulation of the loss is completed.

"I thought the big safe was the safest place in the court house. I even had my personal lock box located there and most of the items in it were damaged," McCall said.

Even some of th erecord books not in the vaults somehow escaped major damage. An example was in the treasurer's office where deputy treasurer Mrs. Glen Palm had three "vital" books on her desk. These came through with only singed edges.

A state fire official said the quickness of the fire, and the location in the building, plus twists of fate, determined why some books like the treasurer's survived the blaze.

Each of the four main vaults had a basement addition and again the clerk's office basement vault was hardest hit. McCall said he couldn't close the door on his because it was sprung. Everything in this vault, which contained old transcripts and "not too important" papers and records were lost, McCall reported.

Another office hard hit was the county engineer's where survey reports, right-of-way titles and similar records were lost. The engineer's office lost everything.

The county assessor's office lost five "important" books and the condition of the other assessment records is still being determind.

"I'm going to call a meeting of the Conference Board, and we'll go from there," Assessor Ed Flynn said. The Conference Board is made up of representatives from the county school board, county mayors, and board of supervisors. This board governs the actions of the assessor. . . .

Insurance

Insurance on the building was reported by one of the supervisors to be approximately $30,000 on contents and $70,000 on the building.

The county's new $417,000 court house is being constructed just north of where the old building stood.


Caption from below a photo on the same page:

Search Ruins

Musetta Haltom and Joann Benton of the county auditor's staff, look through some of the remains of the fire. Although full extent of the loss won't be know for some time, apparently the county engineer and clerk of court's offce were hardest hit. All court pleadings, and wills on deposit were damaged and lost.

View complete article at Advantage Preservation



Another report: The Stuart Herald Nov. 28th 1963 Page 1
View article at Advantage Preservation

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