Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina

Nov 27, 2015 Fri0

Laurie and I like riding our Gold Wing motorcycle. But it is easy to get into a rut and just ride the same roads. So to force ourselves to ride to places we would not normally visit we made a goal to visit and photograph all 100 North Carolina courthouses within 1 year.

As usual, we got a little behind. We started in July 2015 and finished 99 out of 100 by June 2018. The last courthouse was in our home county of Wake and it took us until Feb 2021 to get that final one. But we made it! This blog is about one of those visits.

Many NC courthouses were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The nomination form has some interesting facts about the various courthouse styles over the years.






Courthouse Information


I could not find information about this courthouse.




County Information


The North Carolina History Project lists the following information for this county:

A Coastal Plain county and the third largest in North Carolina, Bladen County is rightfully named the "Mother County." Of the state's 100 counties, 55 of them were originally part of Bladen County.

Fashioned from New Hanover County in 1734, Bladen County was named after Martin Bladen, Lord Commissioner of Trade and Plantation. Elizabethtown, the county seat, was formed in 1773 and incorporated in 1895. There is debate on the inspiration for the town's namesake. Historians claim that the name was from either Queen Elizabeth I of England or Isaac Jones' wife. Jones supplied the land where the original town was built. Other important communities in Bladen County include White Lake, Bladenboro, Dublin, Clarkton, East Arcadia, and Tar Heel.

The Waccamaw were the first to live in the region, but the Highland Scots claimed the area upon English settlement. Seeking freedom from religious persecution in Scotland during the Jacobite Revolt, some settlers stayed in the Bladen region while others moved throughout the Cape Fear River Valley. During the Revolutionary War, a decisive battle took place outside of Elizabeth Town in August 1781. Colonel Thomas Robeson, once receiving news about the British camp near the city, rallied his 70 troops to fight the nearly 400 Tory soldiers. The patriot soldiers were able to push the British back into a ditch near the Cape Fear River. The Battle of Elizabeth Town was a victory, and the ravine where the Brits retreated is now referred as the "Tory Hole." Other important history sites include Harmony Hall, the Elwell Cable Ferry Crossing, the Oakland Plantation, as well as the historic churches of the area.

Bladen County has several notable geographic features, most of which are bodies of water. The Cape Fear, South, and Black Rivers all pass through the county while the Bladen Lakes State Forest is an important woodland in the region. The White and Jones Lakes are a few of Bladen County's lakes; most are Carolina Bay phenomena, and Bladen County has more of these bays than any other county in the state. Carolina Bays are oval-shaped depressions that can be hundreds of feet or miles wide and between 15 to 50 feet deep. Scientists dispute the reason for these Carolina Bays but many hold to the belief that meteorite showers caused these indentations.






Our Experience


I liked how this courthouse was decorated for the holidays. The huge wreath was a nice touch. Also the courthouse was not crowded. There was a large courtyard in front.

I also just realized that most of the courthouses had a bell. They are no longer used and are usually displayed someplace with the monuments. I have noticed that several were made by the C. S. Bell & Co of Hillsboro, Ohio. This bell was a number 20.

The following information comes from the Hillsboro Foundry website.

When was my bell made? is the most common question asked by owners of post mount farm bells and other cast steel bells. Probably that's because those bells typically are not dated (as cast bronze bells usually are). However, in the case of bells which obviously came from Hillsboro, Ohio, it is at least possible to determine the time period within which the bell must have been made. That is because the name of the firm changed as follows:

NameYears of operationType of Operation
C. S. Bell1875 - 1882Single proprietorship
C. S. Bell & Co.1882 - 1894Partnership
The C. S. Bell Co.1894 - 1970sCorporation

Charles Singleton Bell was born in Cumberland, Maryland on February 7, 1828. After completing a common school education he went to Pittsburgh to learn the foundry business from his uncle, Alexander Bradley. He came to Ohio to take charge of the Whitley Foundry in Springfield and later moved on to Dayton. On January 7, 1858, he began the operation of his own company in Hillsboro. Starting with two employees and a weekly payroll of $7.00, they processed 8 tons of pig iron the first year. The early foundry was located in a frame building near the B & O Railroad Depot. A few years later, a second foundry was built on the corner of Main and North West Streets. James K. Marley became a partner and ran the showroom while Mr. Bell operated the foundry. In 1869, Bell purchased Marley's interest and continued to add more items to his list of products, which were to include Mogul stoves, caboose stoves, coffee hullers and pulpers, grinders, corn and cob crushers, burr and hammer typed feed mills, a machine called the "Tortilla" (used in Mexico and South America to grind hominy), sorghum and maple syrup evaporators, plows and garden rollers, and the "Perfection" cane mill made to be sold by the Montgomery Ward Company.

The manufacture of bells began in 1875. Sales for the first year came to something over 1,000 units. By 1890, sales had increased to over 20,000 and fifteen sizes were being produced. The bells were divided into two classes, farm bells weighing from 40 to 100 pounds each, and school and church bells known as "steel alloy bells" weighing from 150 to 1,000 pounds. Mr. Bell experimented with formulas of various metals searching for an alloy cheaper to produce than brass, but more durable than iron. After many failures he was successful and discovered that his alloy could be pitched to create a very mellow tone. It was this tone and durability that made his bells famous throughout the world.

Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:03:40 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:04:07 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:04:30 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:04:59 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:06:29 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:07:06 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:07:16 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:07:27 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:07:36 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 12:08:11 PM EST Altitude: 117 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Nov 27, 2015 Fri 1:10:09 PM EST Altitude: 194 ft Camera: X100SDisplay on Google Map
Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, North Carolina
Laurie, Bradley Taylor, Donna, Greg



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Harnett County Courthouse in Lillington, North Carolina




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