The Courthouse bell has remained upside down ever since a mischievous student pulled a little too hard on the rope used to ring it. 

The bell used to ring to announce when court was in session and when election results were in.  Sometime in the middle 1980's complaints caused the ringing of the bell to stop. 

At one time it was feared that the wood that holds the bell was rotten and that the bell might be in danger of falling. After checking the wood it was discovered that the many birds who had roosted there for over 100 years had deposited their droppings and caused the wood to be remarkably preserved.

The hole in the floor is believed to be the site of the "whipping place".  It was said to have had an arrangement of iron and leather that held the hands of those who would receive a whipping.   By law, the whippings had to be carried out in open court and had to be done by the sheriff.

This 4,000 pound safe had to be removed from the courthouse, and getting it out was not as easy as it looks.  When it was finally out of the building the safe cracked the cement walkway. 

The brick for the Courthouse was made nearby, probably along the stream that runs behind the Food Lion.  Residents from all over the surrounding area came to watch the operation of the kilns. 

A technique called pencilling was used to make the uneven bricks look straighter. 

Women on the Jury

Polk County was one of the first counties, if not the first county in Western North Carolina, to have women seated on a jury.  On Tuesday, February 1, 1944 Judge J. Will Pless ordered that the women present be called.

According to an article in the Tryon Daily Bulletin, "They gave out of men in trying to get an acceptable jury Tuesday afternoon at the Polk County Superior Court.  All available men in the court room had been objected to by counsel for the defense, so Judge J. Will Pless ordered that the women present be called. Sheriff W. D. Hines looked over the court room.  There was a craning of necks and whisperings.  Women serving on the jury!  This had never happened in Polk County! There was a pause.  The names of four women were called.  Two of them were rejected.  To Mrs. Arthur Thompson, Pea Ridge correspondent for the Polk County News, goes the honor of being the first woman accepted for jury duty in Polk County, and next to her on the same jury was Mrs.Willie Spurlin of  Columbus.