Marriage Records Of Douglas County

Copied by Cinita Davis Brown

The Douglas County Court House at Ava has twice been destroyed by fire so all of the earliest marriage records for the county were destroyed.

The first fire which destroyed the court house that stood on the east side of the square was in 1872. A second fire occurred in 1886 when the court house which was located on the northwest corner of the square, also burned. The first marriage recorded after that fire was that of James Hammons of Douglas County, over 21 and Hannah Deckart over 18, at Ava on March 25, 1886 by Wm. J. Fulton, Minister of the Gospel. The book which records this and the other marriage from thisdate until 1893 is marked Book 1 in the Circuit Clerk’s Office.

There are two books of marriages which were re-recorded after the 1886 fire. They are marked Book 1 and Book 2 of marriages re-recorded.

As you can readily see these are in neither chronological nor alphabetical order. Also for some reason there were no more entries in Book 1 which was not nearly filled. Book 2 contain many more entries. "The Good Lord willin, and the creek don’t rize" I’ll have them for the next issue.

The following are the marriages from Book 1—re-recorded.

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