BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN
BROUGH.
[The following article is reprinted with
slight corrections, from a
Marietta paper, published some years
ago.-E. 0. R.]
The wrecking, a few years ago, of the
old jail just opposite
the Court House at Marietta brought to
mind several historic
facts of no mean importance. This
building was a little more
than fifty years old, having been
erected in 1848 on the site of
the pioneer Court House which was the
first Hall of Justice in
the Northwest Territory. The building
was forty-five feet in
length, thirty-nine feet in breadth and
two stories high. The
walls were three feet thick and were
made of double tiers of
yellow poplar logs. The front room in
the upper story was
the court-room. It was 40 by 30 and
lighted by seven windows.
The two lower rooms were occupied by the
jailer and his
family. The jail was in the rear part of
the building, which
was very strongly built and from which,
it is stated, no prisoner
ever escaped. The jury room was in the
rear of the second
story over the jail. A cupola surmounted
the roof in which was
hung the same bell that was hung in the
succeeding Court House
and which has been in use till the
occupancy of the present
new Court House.
The theory that John Brough was born in
the primitive
Court House has been disputed for the
reason that coupled
with the above statement, the assertion
is generally made that
his father was Sheriff at the time. We
quote from a Marietta
newspaper issued Friday, June 12, 1863:
"Mr. Brough (John) was born in 1811
in Marietta, in the
old Court House and jail, the
dwelling-house part of which
was occupied by his father, John Brough,
Esq., who was at the
time Sheriff of the county. The father
was a native of England,
and died in 1823, on the 'Cleona' farm
just above the mouth
of Duck Creek."
(369)