Licking County Records & Archives Blog

  Record of the Month! As the holiday season draws to a close and we begin to focus on New Year’s resolutions, we at the Licking County Records and Archives Center would like to focus on a different type of resolution. For the month of January we are featuring a page from the second volume of Commissioners’ Journals.   The Board of County Commissioners held their final meeting for 1875 on December 31 st . It had been a difficult year due to the burning of the Licking County Courthouse in April. While the Licking County government established temporary offices and began recovery efforts within a few days of the fire, it took over seven months to clear the ruins and begin making plans to build a new Courthouse. During the final meeting in 1875, the Commissioners made a $100 allowance (approximately $2,365.72 today) to Mr. Alexander Koehler for two sets of drawings showing elevations for the new Courthouse. Additionally, the Commissioners authorized H. E. Meyer (Henry Edward Myer) o

A Festive Feature! For the month of December we are featuring a variety of records related to the history of the Licking County Courthouse Holiday Lighting. While Licking County residents young and old enjoy the ornate multicolor lights of the courthouse today, the origins of this dazzling tradition were very humble. In 1929 cities and towns across the United States put up special light displays as part of  Light’s Golden Jubilee,  a national tribute to Ohioan Thomas Edison and the 50 th  anniversary of his electric light bulb. The Licking County Courthouse tower was crowned with simple white stringer bulbs and the roof edges were vertically lined. The lights were maintained for several years after the jubilee, but when the United States was pulling into the Second World War the lights were removed and the tower remained dark. The lights would return during the 1948 holiday season through the tireless efforts of Allan Milliken, who had taken over as executive of the Newark Chamber of C