Did you know that a lightning strike in 1913 was so powerful that it melted a wire cable for one of the weights in the Monroe County Courthouse clock?

When the cable broke, the largest of the weights, about 800 pounds according to the local newspaper the Advertiser, went “crashing towards the ground. Through ceiling, plaster and floors” it fell, knocking bricks off the clock tower. The weight landed just outside the second-story grand jury room, cracking the ceiling and flooring there.

When the courthouse was constructed in 1896, the county commissioners installed a Seth Thomas clock. As there was no electricity in the building, the clock had to be wound, thus the weights.

Today the clock operates on electricity–with a battery backup.