County Court Correspondence and Court Papers, 1863-1924

Collection

Identifier: Series-114

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Collection contains a variety of court papers: court filings; jury venires; orders for subpoenas and summons; bonds; affidavits; correspondence; agreements; fee bills; financial reports of the Clerk of Court and County Judges to the Board of County Commissioners; certificates of physicians to practice medicine in Jefferson County; and miscellaneous documents relating to right of way for irrigation ditch companies Ralston and Platte River Ditch Co., Ira D. Clark and Co., Last Chance Ditch Co. and the Reno and Juchem Ditch Co.

Also included are papers related to the appointments of county bee inspectors with petitions containing the names of beekeepers in the county and leaflets on Foul Brood disease (an infectious disease spreading through Colorado’s apiaries at the time) and H.B. 173, an 1889 Act passed by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado to suppress and eradicate Foul Brood and other contagious diseases of bees; appointments to the Board of County Visitors for the inspection of charitable and corrective institutions located in the county; appointment of Dr. Edson Garvin as Examiner in Lunacy, and the appointment of E.L. Newcomb as Probation Officer. There is a small amount of personal correspondence mixed in (mostly from Judge W.H. Whitehead) some related to the Jefferson County Bank in 1893, personal investments, and letters containing names of various family members with their addresses.

The collection has a name and subject index. Most names are just a single mention without a lot of context. For genealogical purposes, however, it does place an individual in Jefferson County at a specific point in time. Some names are associated with case numbers which it is assumed can then be looked up in Court Records office. The index contains personal name, case name or subject; type of document the name was found in; the person’s city of residence if known; and date.

Dates

Record Keeping: 1863-1924

Conditions Governing Access

Archives collection material is non-circulating, requires staff retrieval and is available for use by appointment in the reading room.

Biographical / Historical

The first Jefferson County Courthouse was built in 1877 at the top of Washington Avenue in Golden. “Adorned by a handsome porch,” the building was 5,000 sq. ft. and built at a cost of $31,900. It had one courtroom and housed the jail consisting of one windowless room in the basement. This building was replaced by a new courthouse in 1953. The 1877 courthouse was used for a museum after 1953 then sold for $30,000 and demolished in 1963. It needed expensive remodeling, rewiring, new plumbing, and new heating equipment. “The old structure had outlived its usefulness as a public building.”

It is well to be pointed out that, since Governor Steele appointed J.T. McWhirt as the first Jefferson County Judge late in 1859, Jefferson County has known continuous judicial order since that time, a record not even Denver can match. Cases have been tried with order and dispatch since 1859, whether under the provisional government or federally-recognized rule.

(History courtesy Rick Gardner, Jefferson County Historical Commission)

Extent

0.70 Cubic Feet (One document box and one slim document box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically

Immediate Source of Acquisition

These records were offered to the County Archives by the Golden Landmarks Association, who had been preserving them for an unknown amount of time. The offer was made and records were delivered by Arlone Child in 1999. The records may have been salvaged from the original County Courthouse when it was demolished in 1963.