[2]: 5  However, the 1830s saw the development of steamboats stopping at Pomeroy to load the area's rich coal mines,[2]: 6  and Chester's two hundred residents suffered greatly from a plague of cholera in 1834.

[3] Meeting at the home of the hospitable Chester Township resident in late September 1822, the county commissioners voted to build a log jail and jailer's house and to begin planning for a permanent courthouse.

Late in the month, they ordered that the height be increased to 18 feet (5.5 m), and yet another meeting resulted in a decision to place a cupola on top of the courthouse.

[5]: 4 The completed courthouse is a brick building in the Federal style with a stone foundation; by the 1970s, its original roof had been replaced with metal.

[3] By 1951, it sat empty and unused, but two years later the Meigs County Pioneer and Historical Society undertook a project to restore the building.