|
Decatur County Journal Last Friday, J.J. Peterson, Superintendent of Construction on the new Court House, and his men excavating on the east side of the Court House site, found that an old well, forty feet deep, dug in l853 and later filled in, was directly in the excavation for the east foundation wall. It will now be necessary to again dig the soil out of the old well and refill it with concrete and crushed stone in order to make the wall of the new building at that point secure. The old well has an interesting history. The expense of digging the well was paid by donations from the few business men then in Leon. The number of wells then in Leon were very few in number and water was at a premium. Some of the citizens hauled water from Little River for family use. It was also a very dry year and it was decided that a public well was a necessity. Funds were raised and the well put down and while it was being completed, the people used water from Little River or sparingly of the small amount they were permitted to take from the very few wells already in existence. Water was located in this well, but later as the number of wells in the town increased, it was decided to fill in the old one. The lawn of the Court House Park covered it over, and that a well was once located on that spot was unknown to the younger generation and almost forgotten by all but a few of the pioneer citizens of the city. Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert |
|
Decatur County Journal Last week workmen who were digging the filled-in soil out of the old well discovered on the east side, in the foundation wall line of the new Court House, took out a building timber at a depth of about l6 feet. They cut one end of it off and left the balance embedded in the bank out of the way. The piece taken out was about six or seven feet long and was mortised in the center. The wood was in a good state of preservation despite the many years it had been buried in the earth. How the timber came there is not known by the pioneer citizens who were here when the old well was dug and then filled in. Small pieces of well preserved walnut have also been taken out of the excavation. Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert |
| News Index *** Decatur County IAGenWeb |