Adair County Courthouse
500 Public Sq., Columbia, KYThe Adair County Courthouse has been the center of activity in this community since the county was formed in 1801. A courthouse occupied the square in the center of town since 1806. This courthouse was replaced by the present courthouse in 1886. A large number of able and well-known lawyers have practiced their profession in the courthouse at Columbia, Kentucky.
One of the more prominent attorneys was Frank Wolford, who organized the First Federal Cavalry in Kentucky in 1861. General John Hunt Morgan, a famous Confederate cavalry leader from Kentucky, suffered his first defeat at the hands of Colonel Wolford and his forces. In 1865 Wolford was sent from the "Casey-Russell" district to the state legislature and in 1867 was appointed adjutant general by Governor Stevenson. He returned to Columbia in the 1870s. In 1882 he was elected to Congress from the Fourth Congressional district and re-elected in 1884.
James R. Hindman was Captain of the 13th Kentucky Infantry, Union service, during the Civil War. In the 1870s Hindman led the fight to re-enact local options in Columbia making it the first municipality in the state to banish saloons. In 1883 Hindman was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State of Kentucky.
There were other prominent members of the bar of Columbia. James Garnett, Sr. was Circuit Judge of the 7th Judicial District and an organizing director of the Bank of Columbia. His son, James Garnett, Jr., served as AttorneyGeneral of Kentucky.
James F. Montgomery and his sons were members of the Columbia Bar for over seventy years. Montgomery, who studied law at Transylvania College, completed two years in one and tied with Champ Clark for top honors. Montgomery, by special act of the Kentucky Legislature, was admitted to the bar two months before his twentieth birthday. He served as Adair County representative to the Kentucky Constitutional Convention in 1890-1891. His son Gordon Montgomery was a practicing attorney of Adair County for fifty-five years and son Ray practiced law for forty-five years.
The present Adair County Courthouse has been the focal point of county government for almost 100 years. Like many county courthouses, it represents the accumulated accomplishments of several generations of local citizens.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.