I enjoyed the ceremony as well. The courthouse renovation was so well done that it almost looks new. I saw most of the great pictures inside, but ran out of time before I could see all of the third floor. I find it interesting that Texas has more old county courthouses that any other state in the USA. Out of 225 counties, 80 have courthouses over 100 years old. (Bell was built in 1885, remodeled once in 1950, then again last year.) I took a few pictures of the ceremony. Perhaps I can create a section on the website for photos of it that everyone sends in. (Mine weren't very close up.) Joe D. Deaver BellCoTX Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~txbell/ ancestry@deaver.com -----Original Message----- From: MGRAYSON98@aol.com [mailto:MGRAYSON98@aol.com] Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2000 8:42 AM To: TXBELL-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [TXBELL-L] Bell County Day Small Town America and American pride is still alive and well in Bell County! I attended the ceremony to re-dedicate the newly renovated courthouse, and it was absolutely wonderful! There was a great crowd, and the swelling of pride was felt among the entire community that attended! It was great! Our county commissioner Tim Brown (who supervised the renovation) is the ggggrandson of James Anderson, our first County Judge! What a great legacy! You can tell by looking at the courthouse that it was a labor of love! Way to go Tim! I highly recommend everyone make a trip to see it, and all the photos from years gone by that line the halls! A great deal of history in photographs! And by all means, if the Courthouse ceremony was this wonderful, you don't want to miss the upcoming events!