Torn Down.
The county court of Marion county met at Fairmont Tuesday afternoon and passed a resolution ordering the immediate destruction of the court house with a view to building a new one. This was at about four o'clock, and at five fifty men were at work. At eleven that night thirty men were at work and the building was down by morning.
The members of the court say their only object was to prevent injunction proceedings and litigation.
Fairmont was bound to have a new court house, and would not allow anything to stand in the way. The old building was not in good condition, but it was very recently that members of the county court decided it was so dangerous that it had to be pulled down between two days.
The work of pulling down the walls proceeded merrily, and by morning it was too late to institute injunction proceedings to save the old house. When the news of the court's action reacted Mannington the people there arranged for a special train to carry an injunction from Judge Charlton, of the intermediate court, in effort to stop the work, but it was now too late.
It is stated that the action of the county court was unanimously taken.
A dispatch to the Register gives Mannington's account of the affair: The county court at Fairmont to-day took snap judgment on a good portion of the county, outside of Fairmont, and ordered the court house torn down forthwith. Insecurity was the reason assigned, but the real effort of the court is to prevent the formation of a new county out of a part of Marion.
For some time the matter of organizing a new county out of Marion, Harrison, Monongalia and Wetzel has been discussed quietly, and a bill to be presented to the legislature has been prepared, and will be offered this week.
The new county would be Republican and Mannington would be the county seat.
When the Marion county court learned of this, it was decided forthwith to demolish the house, contract for a new one, and thus place the debt upon the county as now constituted before action looking to the new county could be taken.