In 1831 Joseph Smith arrived in Jackson County, Missouri, to locate the City of Zion and revealed that the temple would be built near the Jackson County Courthouse. However, some have identified the wrong courthouse, as there were three Jackson County courthouses in Independence. The courthouse which was standing on the public square the summer Joseph and his party arrived in Missouri was the first permanent-type brick courthouse in Jackson County, but it enjoyed only a brief service from 1831 to 1836, when it was torn down and replaced. Because of the short life of the first brick courthouse and because knowledge of its successor was made more readily available and lasting by an artist’s etching, the existence of the first permanent brick courthouse has been largely overlooked, even by public officers of Jackson County.
