The life of the Weston County Courthouse: Part II

By Bri Brasher 
with Leonard Cash
NLJ Reporter
 
In last week’s issue of the News Letter Journal, the History on Main series began the timeline of the Weston County Courthouse, a staple structure in the county and in Newcastle’s downtown. According to local historian Leonard Cash’s records, architect C.A. Randall of Casper was hired to build the courthouse in the spring of 1909. Many more notices were posted in the local news regarding the building process.
The next article ran in the News Letter Journal on June 4, 1909, when the county commissioners accepted the plans and specifications for the new courthouse building from Randall. It was reported that Randall would return to Casper for a few weeks and, upon his return, planned to maintain an office in Newcastle until the courthouse building was completed. At this time, the commissioners were also working on construction bids. Then, on June 18, 1909, the news reports said that F.A. Soller of Sheridan’s Soller Construction Co. was in town the week before to look into the courthouse plans and potentially submit a construction bid. 
Randall visited from Casper, as reported ,on June 25, 1909, when he submitted plans and specifications to the county clerk at the time, Mr. Howell. Preparation continued, and a few weeks later, Carl Spatz and E.C. Lumon, of Edgemont, came to Newcastle to oversee the plans for the heating plant to be installed in the courthouse building. Initial bids for construction were received by the commissioners the week of July 9, 1909, according to Cash’s records from the News Letter Journal. 
The project hit a snag when the commissioners ruled the bids too high and sent Randall back to the drawing board to revise specifications to “enable them to obtain somewhat lower bids without affecting any important features of the building. The News Letter Journal reported that the bidders included C.W. Dow of Newcastle; J.F. Williams of Crawford, Nebraska; Soller Construction of Sheridan; and Esmay & Smith of Douglas. New bids were scheduled to be opened Aug. 4. 
A week later on July 16, 1909, the News Letter Journal reminded the public of the setback and the new plan, also reporting that “the contractor to whom the contract is awarded will be required to give a satisfactory bond of 50% of the amount of the contract price of erecting said courthouse for the faithful performance of the commissioners to award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder, but the right to reject any or all proposals on said court house is reserved by the commissioners.”
The News Letter Journal then reported that “Architect and Mrs. C.A. Randall have arrived in Newcastle to remain during the construction of the new court house. Mr. Randall has an office in the present county building.” It was also said that the contractor Williams was well underway in the excavation process and the courthouse. However, while Williams was away, “some unnecessary work was done in digging ten feet beyond the proper line.” The article went on to say, “He (Williams) is opening a brick yard on the Getchell ground across the creek from the mill and expects to start the making of brick Monday. Work on quarrying the stone will begin in a few days.”
Cash said that William’s first initials were reported as M.J. in most news items, so he speculated that the paper’s first mention of the contractor as J.F. Williams was incorrect. Contrary to the excavation mistake, the News Letter Journal reported that “Mr. Williams has a good reputation as a contractor and building (builder) and is starting out the work here in a way that shows he thoroughly understands his business.” Cash also said that Williams was the contractor on the privately funded Nichols building, now home to Perkins Tavern. Cash recalls that Williams even took some local stone back to Crawford, Nebraska, with him upon his departure. 
The brick-making process was sped up toward the end of August 1909 when the brick yard was pushed to increase production from 5,000 to 6,000 bricks per day, according to the News Letter Journal. The paper also reported on Sept. 10, 1909, that the county commissioners “with Architect Randall and Contractor Williams inspected and selected the stone for use on the court house building. The stone is of excellent color and quality and was found on the west side of Salt Creek.”
“They had two or three of the brick factories at the time. One was on Salt Creek and then they had another one. Kilpatrick Brothers had one too,” said Cash. “I think it says they were using the one across the tracks – same area as the senior center – and then they went out on Salt Creek and got the rock. Beautiful rock, pink rock.”
Cash added that while the brick has gotten darker over time, the brick has continuously been cleaned over the years. He said much of the construction at the time was built of brick, while some were made of wood and others still were constructed with what was called iron siding. 
An article published in the Oct. 22, 1909, issue of the News Letter Journal reported that the contractor, M.J. Williams, returned to Crawford upon “the death of a young lady who had made her home with his family for several years.”