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In February, 1869, the Pawnee county commissioners decided to build a new courthouse constructed with native limestone supplied by the county from one of the local quarries. Previous erection of a frame courthouse building had begun about a decade earlier, but insurmountable problems kept the builder from fulfilling his $1,600 contract. Before it could be put to any use, an 1860 windstorm demolished the incomplete wooden structure in Pawnee, the town sometimes being referred to as "Pawnee City." In 1869, a contract for the new 40 by 60 foot two-story courthouse was awarded to stonemasons Curtis & Peavy of Table Rock at a bid of $15,000. A slater by trade, David Wishart was instead tenant-farming a feu in Forfarshire, Scotland, trying to provide for his pregnant wife, Jane, and their half-dozen kids. Earning enough on the east coast of Scotland to support a sizeable family was tough work for MARY's 35-year-old brother. News from far away of the proposed construction of a new county courthouse made out of Nebraska rocks may have attracted the industrious stone-worker. David set out from Letham and sailed across the Atlantic. In 1869, when little JOHN THOMAS TAYLOR was just a year old, uncle David arrived at Table Rock, NE, having completely crossed one ocean and half the American continent. In Nebraska, David enjoyed a reunion with MARY which would prove much too brief. He had last seen his sister and brother-in-law 19 long years before, when he was a 16-year-old lad in Kirkwall. David and Jane's decision for the stonemason to seek work in America would eventually pay off for them all. Coming to Nebraska would later seem to be one of the best things to happen for several of the Scottish families. After his arrival at the TAYLOR farm, David Wishart engaged in helping JOHN build a new house. They laid out squared stones on a base dimension ten yards wide and 11 yards deep for a foundation enclosing the basement, then hoisted block after block, meticulously placing the limestone in precise alignment to erect a large three-story structure whose walls would be impervious to the strongest Nebraska winds. JOHN TAYLOR hauled newly milled walnut lumber from sawmills at St. Joseph, MO, and Nebraska City, to complete the handsome domicile displaying smooth hardwood floors and durable walnut woodwork. A chimney ascended from the stone fireplace on the first floor of the finished abode, protruding through two more levels to emerge above the long peak of a roof gabled at either end. A walnut stairway led to the second story and onward up to a spacious attic above. The big house was solidly constructed to endure for multiple generations. Presumably David Wishart worked on the construction of the new Pawnee county courthouse after coming to Nebraska, but his grandson David Blaine Wishart later said that he went to Chicago to help rebuild after the great fire. Shortly after arriving in Pawnee county, David helped build John Taylor's new house. Sometime in the two year period before his family arrived from Scotland, he was working around Marysville, KS. Years later, he was hired by Pawnee county to do repairs on the courthouse. |
| Copyright © 2000 Dick Taylor All Rights Reserved |