HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Independence Day offers us a time to celebrate and cherish our rights, like the fact that we are innocent until proven guilty. In Houston County, the wheels of justice have turned for quite some time in different buildings.
“People love the stories that go with the courthouses,” said Ellie Loudermilk.
Loudermilk and Wayne Chapman are with the historical society and love to chat about the history of the four courthouses Houston County has built through the years.
“This brick dates back to 1824 when the first courthouse in Perry was built. It was built by James Killen,” said Loudermilk.
They didn’t have photographers back then, but they did when the county replaced the primarily timber courthouse in Perry with a brick-made building in 1856. It came with a price tag of $13,000.
Both sat on the land where ‘the old courthouse’ site today.
“Almost 200 years of history right here on this one plot of land. Lot 49 in the 10th land district of Houston County,” she said.
That history includes two of Georgia’s most famous murder cases -- Tom Woolfolk faced a judge and jury for taking an axe to his nine family members in Macon. Their graves are in Rose Hill Cemetery.
There was a mistrial in Macon, so it was moved to Perry and Woolfolk was hanged.
Another notorious case happened in the late 80s in the third courthouse. Police accused Carl Isaacs of killing several members of the Alday family in South Georgia.
“It was such a high-profile trial that they had to move it away from Seminole County, and so they brought it to Houston County,” said Loudermilk.
Isaacs eventually was put to death in Jackson for his role in those murders, but not everything has such a dire tone to it.
Wayne Chapman worked at the tax assessor’s office before he got into history.
“We would have people that would come in here and do exercise. They would walk up and down the steps because it was cool in here,” said Chapman.
The fourth Houston County courthouse -- the most modern of them all -- is on Perry Parkway a few miles away from the plot of land that held the first three.
Don't worry, the gray building is going to have new life. The city of Perry bought it and sometime soon courthouse number three will become City Hall.
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