The first white settlers in the area built a fur trading post near this site in 1831, in a place the Indians called “Little Forks.” When Midland County was organized in 1850, sixty-five people lived here. In 1856, Henry C. Ashmun, the county’s first prosecuting attorney, was authorized to locate a courthouse and chose this site. The original courthouse served until 1926. In 1919, Mayor Joseph A. Cavanagh proposed building a new courthouse here, and voters approved a $225,000 bond issue in 1920. In gratitude for the war effort of area servicemen, the Midland American Legion was invited to make its home at the courthouse. Herbert H. Dow, founder of The Dow Chemical Company, provided additional funds and materials, and Dr. Dow laid the cornerstone on March 29, 1925. The courthouse was occupied on January 1, 1926. Architect Bloodgood Tuttle of Detroit and Cleveland designed it in rustic Tudor Revival style. Part of the exterior is magnesite stucco, a building material developed in 1925 by The Dow Chemical Company from Midland’s vast underground brines. Donald Gibb of Dow worked with Detroit artist Paul Honoré to develop the new “plastic mosaic” material. Ground glass was used instead of sand and silex in the magnesite stucco to give the murals their unusual color and sparkle. Using a palette knife, Honoré created layered, three-dimensional exterior murals of life-sized Indians, lumbermen, and traders illustrating the history of Midland County, as well as the mural in the circuit courtroom depicting an Indian Council. All of the exterior building materials are said to have originated in Midland County.