Jerry Summers
Time has erased the events that occurred in Chattanooga’s neighboring county in Northwest Georgia about the judicial and political war over the building of a new and present courthouse.
Beginning in 1883 Walker County was run by a five-member commission serving two-year terms. In 1916 the terms were expanded to four years and in 1940 showing the flexibility of the electorate to form new governments. Currently in 2018 Walker County voters approved a referendum to a transition from a sole commissioner who has both legislative and executive powers to a four-member board of commissioners elected by district. The first members of the board will be elected in November 2020 and will take office in January 2021.
A Walker County grand jury on March 26, 1915, unfavorably reported on conditions at the old courthouse and recommended the erection of a new courthouse to Judge Moses Wright. As a result of the grand jury recommendation, the Walker County Board of Commissioners voted to erect a new courthouse and the voters of the county approved a bond drive to fund the cost of building the structure.
This is where the real controversy begins. Not everyone agreed where the new courthouse would be located. Those opposed to LaFayette were mostly from the northern end of the county and wanted the county seat moved to Chickamauga or at least closer to Rossville and Chattanooga. Interesting legal proceedings followed. A representative of Chickamauga filed a petition against the commissioners and numerous businesses that were involved with the courthouse bid in their efforts to stop the project.
Judge Moses Wright of the Rome Circuit Court had jurisdiction of the case but the opponents of the project did some creative “judge shopping” and hired the judge’s brother, Robert Wright of Chattanooga, as their attorney attempting to create a conflict of interest that would disqualify Judge Wright from the case since they knew that he favored the courthouse construction bill. Judge Wright denied the petition to recuse himself from the case and the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed him.
In another surprise move, the anti-courthouse supporters took their petition to Judge A.W. Fite in the Cherokee Circuit Court and asked him to remove Judge Wright from the case. Fite agreed and issued an order to that effect, took over the case, and issued a temporary restraining order against the commissioners stopping any further work on the courthouse project.
On May 26, 1916, the litigation got further heated when Judge Fite issued a contempt of court ruling against the Board of Commissioners and the publisher of the Walker County Messenger, E.P. Hall, Jr., who had published a request for bids for work to be performed on the courthouse project. Judge Wright immediately intervened in the case asserting that his court was the proper one to try the litigation and issued an injunction against the anti-courthouse group and also banned any Georgia sheriff or their deputies from acting on any orders from Judge Fite.
Undeterred by Judge Fite’s ruling, the Board of Commissioners contacted a construction company from Anniston, Alabama, to begin the project—“at once.” This resulted in a large crowd of citizens assembling on June 6, 1916, for the awarding of the builder’s contract. Also present was Sheriff Ward of Catoosa County who had been ordered by Judge Fite to arrest O.M. Clemmons, clerk of the Superior Court, if he should issue any process initiating the start of work on the courthouse project.
When Clemmons refused to go voluntarily with the Sheriff to Ringgold, Sheriff Ward and his support group of opposition contingents left town. From this point the legal (or illegal) proceedings really heated up on the question of which judge had jurisdiction over Walker County’s new courthouse.
Sheriff Ward returned from Catoosa County and had the construction project area roped off. Commissioner J.D. McConnell was confronted with a shotgun when he arrived at the scene and was arrested when he refused to voluntarily go to Ringgold to address Judge Fite’s contempt of court citation. That night, Sheriff Ward and his two deputies arrested two of the commissioners, S.P. Hall and John M. Ransom, and took them to Ringgold.
As a counter action Walker County Sheriff R.S. Garmany went to Chickamauga on Judge Wright’s orders overruling Judge Fite’s orders and arrested S.T. Carson. He then unsuccessfully tried to arrest J.S. Alsobrook in Rossville but he had fled to Tennessee where he could not be arrested.
On June 30, 1916, Judge Fite, before a large crowd, tried the three commissioners in Ringgold with contempt of court. Sensing the seriousness of the situation he set bonds of $1,000 in each case and would release them from paying that amount if they would revoke the courthouse contract. The three refused and Judge Fite ordered them jailed.
Judge Fite then conveniently left the proceedings under the pretense of a “speaking engagement” and passed the hot potato to the Catoosa County Sheriff to put the three in custody but he refused and the commissioners returned to LaFayette. In the meantime, Judge Wright issued an order to the Walker County Sheriff to “provide ample means for fully protecting members of the county board as well as the contractors working on the new courthouse and to jail for contempt anyone interfering with the courthouse project.”
The Georgia Supreme Court entered the fray and in two orders resolved the judicial war between Judge Wright and Judge Fite. On December 22, 1916, the High Court reversed Judge Fite’s restraining order on building the new courthouse and on April 2, 1917, held that Judge Fite had no jurisdiction over the case, reaffirming its previous ruling that Judge Wright was not disqualified and Judge Fite’s order adjudging the Walker Court commissioners in contempt was invalid and dismissed.
Strangely, one of Sheriff Ward’s deputies was held in contempt of Judge Wright’s order in helping the Sheriff to make the arrest. Because the Georgia Supreme Court also held that the sheriff of Catoosa County had no legal authority to serve arrest papers in Walker County, Ward escaped prosecution.
On April 23, 1918, the new Walker County Courthouse was formally dedicated after construction costs of $80,000 and was lauded as “the most magnificent edifice in the county.”
Judge Moses Wright made a formal speech at the dedication before a large crowd. Judge A.W. Fite was conspicuously absent!
Seems like things do not change much in the Lookout Judicial Circuit!
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Jerry Summers
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