Madison County NY Courthouse Centennial

Sept. 2, 2009 - PRLog -- The Centennial of the Madison County Courthouse will begin on Tuesday evening September 22, at 7:30 pm at Madison Hall in Morrisville.  Madison Hall was the former Madison County Courthouse and will sport for the night special historical displays including societies, artifacts and a historical presentation by some of Madison County former “famous” residents.

The evening will also debut a documentary on the historic 170th Madison county Fair done by Avi Das of Colgate Upstate Institutes summer intern program.  Refreshments will be served and the evening is free and open to the public.

The Courthouse Centennial Celebration in Wampsville is set for Wednesday, September 23rd, will feature not only tours of the Courthouse designed by famous architect J. Riley Gordon, but displays on the courthouse’s history.  Refreshments will be served and there will be a special postal cancellation to commemorate this very special event.
The documentary on the Fair will be playing continuously in the lobby of Building 4, which will host the 3rd Annual Archives Day.  The atrium of the building will be completely filled with displays of the newest documents found during the extensive Archives Project which started in 2007 and is continuing on currently.  

New among the documents are many interesting court cases handled by the different judges of Madison County including James Warren Nye. As a special feature the new portrait of Judge James Warren Nye will be hung in the Courtroom in a place of honor with some of the other famous men of Madison County including Peter Smith, John Wesley Coe and many others.  Nye was a judge who presided over many of the Loomis Gang trials and Loomis paperwork will also be out for view.  Nye went on to become the first Governor of Nevada, and was one of the senators who heard the arguments for Andrew Johnson’s impeachment.

The Courthouse display will also feature the large oil portraits of some of the county’s early judges that Madison County is seeking funding to restore.  These huge portraits hung for many years at both the Madison County Courthouse in Morrisville, today’s Madison Hall, and later in the current Courthouse in Wampsville.

For more information contact backstreetmary@yahoo.com or call Mary at 315-684-7377, you can also go on the website http://www.madisoncountyhistorian.org. School groups are encouraged to attend.

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Old Town Folks Inc. is the historical group that promotes the history of Eaton, NY and Madison County. The group also run Eaton Days and the Old Town of Eaton museum. Its President Mary E. Messere is a writer who recently completed the book called Eaton for Arcadia Publishing Company.