Old Meigs County Courthouse

The Old Meigs County Courthouse is a historic former government building in the small community of Chester, Ohio, United States. Erected in the early nineteenth century, the courthouse served multiple purposes for the surrounding community in its early years, but it operated as a courthouse for less than twenty years before being abandoned in favor of another courthouse in another community. Following a restoration in the 1950s, it was designated a historic site in the 1970s along with an adjacent school; the two buildings are operated together as a museum. It is Ohio's oldest extant building constructed as a courthouse.Community historyIn 1819, the Ohio General Assembly created Meigs County from part of Gallia County. The courts initially met in a building in Salisbury Township, but after fire destroyed their first meeting place in 1821, the county commissioners readily accepted a Chester Township resident's offer to meet in his house. Before long, the homeowner decided to plat a town, which was to be named "Chester"; Chester was named the county seat in 1822, and a courthouse and jail were built. Throughout the rest of the 1820s, Chester flourished; both professionals and farmers settled there, and the Shade River was busy with cargo travelling between Chester and New Orleans. However, the 1830s saw the development of steamboats stopping at Pomeroy to load the area's rich coal mines, and Chester's two hundred residents suffered greatly from a plague of cholera in 1834. Ultimately, the county government moved to the current courthouse in Pomeroy in 1841; the old courthouse was abandoned, and Chester languished.