For seventy-nine years, a bell rang from the bell tower of the courthouse that stood on this site before the present structure was built in 1976. The former courthouse was built in 1897 by Judge John S.R. Cowan of Hughes at a cost of $26,700 with no increase in taxes or bonds. Its fireproof vaults ended the destruction by fire of the county's records that had occurred three times before. The bell is mounted on the courthouse lawn in memory of St. Francis County armed services veterans by the ladies of American Legion Auxiliary and County Judge Carl Cisco.