Jacob Wolf created the town of Liberty in the early 1820s, carefully planning it to serve county residents and travelers coming for court functions. His original dwelling house served as Izard County's temporary seat of justice from 1825 to 1829 and also functioned as a tavern for travelers. In 1829, while serving in the Arkansas Territorial General Assembly, Jacob Wolf wrote the legislation creating what was called the country's first permanent courthouse, to be built adjoining the present seat of justice, meaning his dwelling house. Archaeologists confirmed that the courthouse's two original chimneys were made of the same handmade brick seen on the upper portion of the south chimney, while the existing stone chimneys were added in the late nineteenth century. Archaeological work also identified the kitchen site through food-related items and deep deposits suggesting a root cellar beneath it. Although no record of a jail at Liberty exists, Joseph Wolf recorded that his father operated a general store as well as blacksmith and carpentry shops, and a surviving store ledger and letters from the post office here provide evidence of early nineteenth-century life at Liberty, even though the sites of those businesses have not been located. A photograph from about 1903, together with a 1915 site map drawn by Joseph M. Wolf, helped researchers identify clues to the locations of early Liberty structures, including the original dwelling house, which appears as a collapsed log structure in the photograph, and a barn or stable needed for visitors arriving at the tavern, store, and blacksmith shop. Jacob Wolf also owned slaves whose cabins stood behind the kitchen and cook's cabin and had mudcat chimneys made of mud and small logs; family history preserved some of their names, but few records remain after their emancipation following the Civil War.