Courthouse Series No. 3

Courthouse Series #3

Growing Up around the Clay County Courthouse

Tom Gray, Jr.  2011

Guest Columnist

The Clay County Courthouse was a big part of my growing up in Hayesville because my father Tom Gray had his office in the courthouse. He was the County Attorney and a Lawyer for many years, in fact from before my birth in 1933 till he moved to his own office in 1951. I left Hayesville in 1952 after graduating from high school. My first memory of the courthouse is when I was maybe four or five years old. My mother, Viola Gray, left me in the car while she ran across the street to Carringer Grocery store to get something. I was playing behind the wheel and the knocked the gear shift lever into neutral and the car rolled into the courthouse. Didn’t go more than four feet but it scared me to death. In fact it wasn’t long before they put a concrete bumper on the wall because people kept hitting the the brick wall. Of course at that time traffic was two way around the square and you slant parked facing the building.

I always thought the building was so big. I go back today and see where my dad’s office area was, and I don’t see how he was able to work. It consisted of just one room.  In this room he had a big desk, all his shelves with law books, record cabinets, a secretary with her desk and typing stand, a couple of chairs and in the winter a large wood stove with a wood box. He had no place to talk to his clients in private unless they went outside or the secretary left the room. Anyone, including me, could just walk in at anytime and that I did. I would go by after school and ask for a dime to buy a coke and a candy or a moon pie and most days he would give me either a dime or a nickel. I could at least get a coke with that.

Having been gone from Clay County for almost sixty years, it is hard to remember all the good people that worked in the courthouse all those years. A few were Mr. Jones, Mr. Bell, Miss Scroggs, Miss Dair Swanson, Mr. Martin, Mr. Neal Kitchens. To me they were just kind of family. I remember the Library, Mr. Bell’s office with stairs in corner so when court was in session people could enter the court room from up front, the Sheriff’s office with his desk and the small whiskey still sitting in the back, the Register of Deeds office with the big leather books that were so heavy I could not pick them up, and the funny shelves they were stored in. Then there were the stairs going up to the courtroom. They were big and steep, been the grown ups complained about them.

Other events I remember were the movie on Saturday nights, mostly Westerns. I went when I was in the third or fourth grade in school. I would say in nineteen forty or forty three. I remember so well because I would arrange for my girl friend to meet me there. That was big deal at the time. Then on Sunday a couple of times a year they had an all day singing with dinner on the grounds. There were other events I am sure. Another event that was not scheduled was roller skating in and around the courthouse. All us town kids did it with our clip on skates with steering wheels, and boy did they make noise when you went down the hall in the middle of the courthouse. It must have been a disturbance but I don’t remember ever being run out or complaints being made but there must have been.

I never went to see my father in court during a trial and now of course I am sorry. But I was just a kid at the time and I wasn’t interested. Different people have told me about listening to Colonial Gray ( that is what a lot of local people called him at the time) prosecute or defend someone and they said he was good. I did go to outré a couple of times in hugh school but he was not involved in the cases.

When I was growing up the town was much smaller and all the activities were concentrated around the Square, so the courthouse yard was gathering place for kids to play after school. Kick Ball, football etc. . We even ran into a tree now and then catching a ball. Adults and kids would just sit on the rock wall and talk, gossiping and just passing the time of day.

What sticks in my memory the most about the courthouse all these years is the long dark hall with a door at each end. In winter it was always cold with air blasting through it and in summer it was the coolest place in town on a hot day, and it had a very uneven concrete floor. It didn’t matter which door you came in it always felt the same.

“IT IS A TIME IN HISTORY THAT SHOULD BE PRESERVED”.