| Elko Courthouse centennial, first district judge Celebrated in May 4 ceremony |
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LAW DAY 2011 A panel of the Nevada Supreme Court will be in Elko on May 4 to join with the Nevada Judicial Historical Society to celebrate the centennial of the Elko County Courthouse and commemorate the first District Court judge in Elko County. The 1:30 p.m. ceremony at the courthouse, which will include the presentation of a commemorative plaque to Elko County by the Nevada Judicial Historical Society, is part of Nevada’s Law Day celebrations. Attending the ceremony will be Supreme Court Justices Michael Cherry, Mark Gibbons, and Kristina Pickering and Fourth Judicial District Judge Andrew Puccinelli. Also attending will be Nevada Judicial Historical Society members Susan Southwick, former librarian for the Nevada Supreme Court, and attorney Peter J. Smith of Carson City, along with members of the Elko County Commission. The Supreme Court justices will continue their participation in Nevada’s Law Day events the next day by holding oral arguments in West Wendover. The panel will then travel to Winnemucca on May 6 for oral argument at Albert M. Lowery High School. “It is an honor to be able to participate in the centennial celebration of the Elko County Courthouse,” said Justice Cherry, who is the presiding justice of the panel. “Elko might need a more modern facility some day, but I hope not,” Justice Cherry said. “This is a grand and stately building. It embraces the history of those judges who sat on its benches and those citizens who passed through its doors during the past century. I can’t imagine a more fitting structure.” The first district judge in Elko was George D. Keeney in 1869, who took the bench about three months after Elko County was created by the Nevada Legislature on March 5, 1869, according to the Nevada Judicial Historical Society. Keeney Keeney was elected district judge by a majority of 29 votes and, after originally holding court in a tent rented by Sheriff Ben Fitch, he opened the first term of his district court in Elko’s Opera House on August 8th. His judicial career ended 17 months later when he was defeated by John D. Flack in an election held November 8, 1870. Flack’s margin of victory was 103 votes. Keeney practiced law in Elko for a number of years and travelled widely on mining ventures. He died in his hometown of Lockport, New York, on April 27, 1903. Sheriff Fitch’s rented tent was also used also as a jail, as was a railroad car. On August 28, 1869, a bid for construction of the first courthouse was accepted by the county. In September a jail was built and the boxcar was retired. The first courthouse stayed in use through 1910 when the present courthouse was built on the same site. |
