Men in wagons rolled into Richmond, Ark., after dark and moved county records to Rocky Comfort in the western portion of Little River County in 1902 as part of the competition to become the county seat.
But after five years of legal battles, Ashdown was finally selected as the county seat, according to an Ashdown history book.
The Little River County Courthouse has been in continuous use after the building was completed in 1907.
The county seat had been located in Alleene and then moved to Richmond, according to history books.
After Ashdown was selected, L.A. Byrne donated land to Little River County to build
a courthouse.
Ashdown was experiencing growth during the time after a timber company started selling land.
In 1900 the population was 400, and on Jan. 1, 1905, the population was 900. By September 1905, just nine months later, the population jumped to 1,200, according to the history of Ashdown.
A larger courthouse was proposed and would have cost $30,000, but it was rejected.
The county paid $10,000 while the city paid $2,000 to finance the construction.
The courthouse was designed in a Neo-Georgian style.
The octagonal dome rising above the two-story, red-brick building is the most significant feature of the courthouse.
Windows under the copper dome in the center of the courtroom ceiling provide natural light to the courtroom below through an octagonal opening the width of the dome.
During the construction of the courthouse, the red bricks were delivered wrapped individually in straw.
The courthouse has hosted political speakers, including President Bill Clinton when he was the Arkansas governor. The last time he spoke at the courthouse was in 1990 during a meeting with federal officials regarding the Red River flood in May 1990, which created major damage to highways, bridges and farm land.
While the courthouse has survived storms, heat, rain and politicians, it has also survived "Juror No. 13."
A total of 12 people serve as a jury, but the courthouse had an extra jury member after a 10-pound opossum sneaked into the courtroom in September 2013.
The courthouse officials wandered why a couple of flower pots were turned over and "poop" was found along the stairs leading up to the second floor, according to Circuit Clerk Andrea Billingsley, who retired Dec. 31.
Additional feces was found on the floor in one of the stalls of the women's restroom on the second floor of the historical courthouse.
Cookies and crackers had been eaten and soda and bottled water were scattered along the floor.
The courthouse had been vandalized for the third time.
The idea of a person creating the vandalism was dismissed after analysis of the feces by Tom Knighten, courthouse maintenance supervisor.
Knighten apparently knows his animal scat.
"I knew it wasn't a squirrel because the poop was larger than pellets," Knighten said.
The suspected varmint got into the jury room during the night because the evidence was again scattered.
The varmint was finally discovered near a 5-gallon water bottle close to the county judge's office.
The opossum apparently followed a couple of holes in the courthouse floor, and probably crawled along an electrical conduit. The opossum possibly came down into the lobby from the ceiling, Knighten said.
The courthouse staff named the opossum Juror No. 13 and referred to Knighten as Possum Blossom who captured the varmint and released the opossum "into the wild."