Draft — The Gasconade County Courthouse
The Gasconade County Courthouse sits proud atop a hill that overlooks both the Missouri River and the town of Hermann, Missouri. It’s a grand and beautiful building with five dome roofs, idyllic arches, and beautiful pillars that definitely add to the scenery of the quaint town, and definitely worth the visit if you ever come to Hermann (though the stairs leading up to it are killer). There is also a historical cannon right outside of the building that was left as a memento of skirmish that happened during the Civil War, but also makes a great picture.
The county courthouse has been located in Hermann since 1842, and has an incredibly rich history, especially reflecting the large German population of the area. When Missouri was the frontier of the US, many people left their homes in search of large, cheap land, and the German population was no exception. Hermann in particular was a hotspot for German immigrants, with many coming in from Germany itself as well as the German Settlement Society in Philadelphia.
While the town initially struggled to settle, it soon established itself as home to some of the biggest wineries in America and became the unofficial epicenter of Gasconade County. Because of this, the courthouse was unanimously agreed to be moved to Hermann from Mt. Sterling, and it has been there ever since. The original building, built in 1842, looks a bit like a box. The flat sides with many windows seemed to be a popular architecture style for German-Americans in particular. But in 1896, Charles D. Eitzen donated $50,000 to the city for the building that we know today. He was an immigrant from Bremen, Germany who quickly became a successful businessman, mayor of Hermann, and influential figure in the founding of Hermann. One of the architects, A. W. Elsner of Jefferson City, was also of German descent. The new courthouse was finished that year in 1896. The following picture is a depiction of the before-and-after of the courthouse in Hermann.
What happened within the walls of the courthouse also reflected the largely German immigrant population of the town. Although legal English is what is considered official, apparently it was common for German translations to be released in the papers and sometimes the law recited in German within the courthouse for the citizens to understand. The Hermanner Volksblatt was a newspaper published in Hermann, and written almost entirely in German. Oftentimes the only English in the paper would be court proceedings or other legal matters, and even then, the names mentioned in the proceedings were of obvious German descent. An example is this clipping I’ve taken from the Hermanner Volksblatt. Next to the German portion of the paper, there are settlements with names such as Hesemann, Engelbrecht, Pfotenhauer, and Whertvine. So despite the English language, the heritage of Hermann and Gasconade County is visibly German.
The Gasconade County courthouse has a lot of German heritage in its history, both in its making and throughout its life. Built and designed by Germans, it also gave us a super interesting insight as to what legalities were like in such a German popualtion. It’s a beautiful building worth seeing for yourself, especially if you’re interested in German-American history and its role in Gasconade County.
