Just cattycorner from Town Hall is a lovely clapboard dwelling whose builder triggered the Courthouse Wars of 1807, described in the account of the present courthouse.
He was Richard Johnson who gave the land where the Baptist Church now stands for a courthouse. This replaced the courthouse accommodations in Cherrystone Bottom. He was paid fifty cents for the transaction. At first the new courthouse was not challenged but when business in the bottom dried up a strong-arm political leader named William Clark charged that the move was illegal. Accounts of the verbal explosions are fascinating.
Johnson’s original house – two rooms up, two rooms down – served as the core of present dwelling. It was bought in 1832 by William H. Tunstall of the county family which held the office of county clerk for four generations. It became the home of John Hunt Hargrave in 1885, and arrived at its present appearance through the years. It is owned by Hargrave descendants, Mrs. Hunt Nenon, Jr. and Virginia Oswalt.
