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Stephen Rigdon owned a vast tract of land centering at the Cross Roads and extending from Back Creek almost in Deep River. In 1784 he conveyed to Zebidee Wood, Robert McLean and James Dougan, commissioners, to purchase a site for public buildings, five acres of land a little west of the Cross Roads, and in 1786 he conveyed to Thomas Dougan the entire remainder of his Cross Roads lands, comprising about six hundred acres.
On this five acre lot was erected the Court House and other public buildings. This Court House was a model of its day. It was a quaint two-story, hip-roof house, and was completed in two years from its incipiency. The nails used in its construction were made in a smith-shop near the place, and the plank were sawed by hand, and the first court held in this new forum was March court, 1786.
In 1788 the Legislature, then sitting at Fayetteville, passed an act establishing a town on the lands of Thomas Dougan, embracing the new Court House, and appointing Jeduthan Harper, Jesse Henly, Samuel Millikan, William Bell and Zebidee Wood commissioners of the town, and they named it Johnsonville. Up to this time the town had assumed no definite shape. It had been floating about like Noah's Ark, and none could tell, with any degree of certainty, where it would finally rest. But now it is settled. The Court House is built. The town is established by law, and it has become inevitable that Johnsonville is to be the county site.
Here is the crossing of two public highways, the one
