Elizabethtown, IL Hardin County Courthouse Fire, May 1884

FIRE RECORD

A Court-house Destroyed.

CHICAGO, May 21. -- The Daily News Shawneetown (Ill.) special says: News has just been received from Elizabethtown that the Hardin county court-house, with all the records, was consumed by an incendiary fire Monday morning. There has been a vendetta in progress in that county for several years, and numerous killings have resulted. Finally, the law-abiding people took hold of the matter, and cause indictments to be found against a large number of these turbulent characters. It was the general belief that the court-house was fired for the purpose of destroying the records of these indictments, in order to embarrass proceedings against them.

Galveston Daily News, Galveston, TX 22 May 1884