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PALO ALTO
Established:
The
county’s first settlement was made in May 1855 on the east bank of the As
soon as the county was officially organized, commissioners met to locate the
county seat, “as near the geographic center as may be, having due regard for
the present as well as the future populations of said county.”
At the time, the population of the county probably did not exceed 50
persons. The
first courthouse was then erected in 1858-1859, at the County
business was carried on for a time in this building, but there were no settlers
and the town did not develop. County
officials, jurors, and witnesses had to depend on nearby settlers for meals and
lodging. With the passing years,
the courthouse showed signs of decay and finally fell in.
Some years later, many of the bricks were hauled away by prairie settlers
for their own buildings. Thus, the
speculative county seat town of It
was only after the “Old Town” of Emmetsburg (named for the Irish patriot,
Robert Emmet) was moved up from its old location on
the Des Moines River in 1874 to the present site that it became the new seat of
county government by a vote of the citizens in 1875.
An ornate brick courthouse was erected there in 1880, on the courthouse
square which was donated to the county. The
building was originally faced with yellow brick, but this was replaced with dark
red brick during World War I. A
tall tower was removed in the early 1920’s, after having been repeatedly
struck by lightning. The jail,
originally in the courthouse basement, was later removed to a separate building,
and the interior of the courthouse was extensively remodeled in 1970.
In June 1976, voters approved the construction of a 23’ x 60’,
two-story and basement addition on the east side of the building, financed by
federal revenue sharing funds. Although
the original courthouse was of late Victorian Gothic design, there have been
many changes to the building’s exterior through the years, giving it more
modern look. In
front of the courthouse stands a statue of Robert Emmet, which was financed by a
$3,000 donation from local members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians shortly
after World War I. Because of the
disagreement over where to locate the monument, it was kept in the cellar of a
store from some 20 years. In 1938,
the store owner sold the statue for $75. It
was recovered by Emmetsburg residents from the yard of a Excerpt
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