LeRoy G. Pratt (1910–2007)

This engaging jumble represents an offbeat addition to the microgenre of county courthouse books. A close look at the title indicates that the author wants not only to picture and describe the courthouses, but to include some general county history. This results in the county descriptions being of wildly varying lengths, simply because some counties have more history than others. In general, I enjoyed the chapters more when they were kept to a page or two; much of the information in longer narratives struck me as extraneous, particularly the author's predilection for dimensions, legal lot descriptions, the individuals involved in land transactions, and minutiae about costs. The photographs were mostly pretty pedestrian, and sometimes were simply amateurish; too many of the courthouses' faces are presented in shadow. Surely this could have been avoided. Yet if one has some time on their hands, all of this does result in some extremely interesting and little-known information transpiring.

The book's basic problems could have been solved structurally; a great deal of the dates and figures could and should have been presented tabularly. These tables are appended after the text, but that's no help at all, except perhaps for the researcher; general readers still have to wade through all this. A table which included the dates and, if available, the costs, of all the courthouses as well as the dates of various calamities (usually fires, lightning strikes, or burglaries) would have eased reading. The author spends considerable time on county seat contests, and rightfully so, but these would also read more easily with a table to anchor the reader's progress. It's undoubtedly difficult to procure photographs of the older courthouses, but coverage is spotty here, and more of them would have added a lot.

.… (more)