Pickens County Courthouse

Pickens County, named for General Andrew Pickens of South Carolina, was established December 19, 1820. Its first county site was Pickensville. On March 5, 1830, the government awarded 80 acres of land at Carrollton for the county site. The first courthouse erected at Carrollton was burned on April 5, 1865, by troops of Union General John T. Croxton. A freedman, Henry Wells, was accused of burning the second on November 16, 1876. He was arrested in January, 1878, and held in the garret of this building. Legend holds that as Wells peered out the North window at a mob gathering below, lightning struck nearby, indelibly etching his image on the pane.

Carrollton, Alabama · United States