Indiana County Courthouse Histories

- Results

Wabash County
Named for: Wabash River
Organized: 1835
County Seat: Wabash
Number of Courthouses: 2

Number	Years	Type	Detail
1	1839-1870	Coffee Mill	Built and paid for by Wabash city founders. 40x40. Occupied Fall 1839. Destroyed by fire April 1870 - Some record loss
2	1879-Present	Castle	Arch & Supt: B.V. Enos & Son. 94x114. Completed Summer 1880. ~ $95,000. Builder: Lucien & James Gable, $75,400.

The first county court met at the house of David Burr, as designated by the act creating the county, but immediately adjourned to the home of Andrew Murphy in Wabash.

The 1879 courthouse although well constructed does not contain any extravagant building materials such as marble floors or stairwells. The stairs are metal cast and the banisters are wood.

No active Courtrooms exist in the Courthouse. It is presently being refurbished, but very slowly. (2009)

A log courthouse 1835-1839 has been identified in some sources, but its existence is doubtful and probably is a reference to a structure temporarily and occasionally utilized as needed until an actual courthouse could be constructed.

There is a statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting on the courthouse lawn, located there in 1932. This is an impressive casting commissioned by Alexander New of Wabash as a memorial to his parents and was sculpted by the well known Charles Keck. A duplicate was dedicated in Hingham Massachusetts in 1939. The Lincoln cottage has a smaller Marquette of the statue that is a copy, not a duplicate.

The courthouse lawn also contains a Wabash County Courthouse All Wars Monument.