An oddball piece of Harrison County history
LEE ZION, EDITOR
Harrison County Times-Reporter
LOGAN — Harrison County has a quirky history, dating back at least to the year the county was founded, in 1851. And part of that history is on the floor of the county courthouse in Logan. It has been there since 1911, the year the courthouse opened.
On the floor, in several places in the tile, you will find a row of swastikas.
Yes, THAT symbol. The one that later became the symbol of the Nazi Party in Germany, the symbol of hatred and anti-Semitism, was put in place a full decade before the Germans took this symbol and made it all about themselves, said Megan Reffett, auditor for the county and historian of the courthouse building.
Reffett does not have any record of why that symbol was chosen more than a century ago. However, according to Google, the swastika symbol dates back at least 5,000 years. The original meaning translates roughly as “good fortune” in Sanskrit. Buddhist temples throughout Asia still use it, as do maps that show the location of a shrine. That form of swastika, however, has its arms spinning to the left rather than to the right, as shown here.
Harrison County faced no significant backlash for its swastikas during World War II, at a time when the United States fought Nazi Germany, Reffett said.
Occasionally, people find out about the swastikas and post their surprise and disgust on the Internet. But other than that, there have been no repercussions in the past 80 years.
Oddly enough, Harrison County is not the only county in the United States where swastikas are featured. The Jefferson County Courthouse, in Alabama, features at least one left-facing swastika in the concrete outside; the building dates to 1930. The Washington County Courthouse, in Ohio, has a series of left-facing swastikas in the tile, dating back to 1919. The Bonneville County Courthouse, in Idaho, has a series of right-facing swastikas; the building dates back to 1921.
