Courthouse StepDavie County Public Library
Mocksville, North Carolina
Davie County Public Library boasts a new landscape feature on its front lawn. Actually,
the item is anything but new. A granite step from Davie County’s original Courthouse
has been given to the Library.
The original Courthouse stood in the center of the square in downtown Mocksville from
its construction in 1839 to its demolition in the dead of night in January 1922. The
Courthouse was brick, two stories high, with pillars on both the north and south ends. A
copper ball resting on the top of the cupola spire inspired some target practice by
Stoneman’s troops on their march through Mocksville in April 1865, according to James
Wall’s History of Davie County. The current Courthouse replaced the original
Courthouse in1909. For the next decade or so, the old building functioned as a
community center, with two rooms on the first floor housing the public library. When
Main Street was paved in 1922, the old Courthouse was torn down.
At the time of the demolition, local resident Roy Holthouser asked to have one of the
steps, so the step made its way to his house on Maple Avenue. Holthouser was employed
by the C.C. Sanford department store for 55 years. He served as elder and treasurer of
First Presbyterian Church for 27 years, as well as a master of the Mocksville Masonic
Lodge and a volunteer fireman. When his widow, Ella Meroney Holthouser, relocated to
South Main Street just south of Maple Avenue, the step was moved too. Mrs. Holthouser
served as worthy grand matron of the Grand Chapter of North Carolina, Order of the
Eastern Star. In the process of settling her daughter’s (Helen Holthouser Patner) estate
this year, Gwyn and H.T. Meroney donated the step to the Library.
One may enjoy reflecting on the history in which the granite step figures. Perhaps the
most colorful incident is the famous horse ride through the Courthouse by Jim Lanier in
October 1866. Mr. Wall recounts that the Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance
“that any person or persons who shall ride through the Court House … shall upon
conviction pay the sum of $25.” Despite the law, Lanier rode his gray mare up the front
steps and through the first floor
hallway, scattering the crowd
present for that day’s Court
session, and down the back steps.
When arrested and fined $10,
Lanier handed the judge $20 and
claimed his right to a second ride,
whereupon he mounted his horse
and rode through the Courthouse
again.
Come by the Library to sit on the
old Courthouse step, but please
don’t ride your horse over it.
April 2007