Please welcome guest author Melissa Barker. Barker is the Houston County, Tennessee Archivist and Records Manager and a Professional Genealogist. She was instrumental in establishing the first ever archive in Houston County in 2010. She is a graduate of the TSLA Archives Institute. In addition to her duties as archivist and records manager, she also speaks at local group meetings to advocate for the local archive and the preservation of historic records. She started the “Today in the Archives” daily postings on the Houston County, TN. Archives Facebook page.
The Houston County Archives came about in a most unique manner, a manner which included a local murder. I doubt that there are very many archives that can say that the reason they were created was because of a murder. Well, in Houston County, TN, that is exactly what happened. In August of 2010 a local resident was researching her family history and the murder of her great-grandfather in 1921 on a corner in downtown Erin.
Old records stored at the Highway Department attic.
She had found court records pertaining to the murder on microfilm at the local library but what she really wanted was to see the actual documents. She asked the local circuit court clerk where these documents could be found and she was directed to the records vault in the basement of the courthouse. When she opened the vault door, she could not get in the room. The records had been stacked and stored all the way to the ceiling and to the door.
This was a call to action in the Houston County historical community and the birthing of the Houston County Archives.
I was one member of a six member committee tasked with saving our history that was stored in that records vault in the courthouse. The first day we worked on this project we knew immediately that we needed to create an archive of our very own to protect our county records. On February 1, 2011, I was hired as the part-time archivist and records manager. This position came out of the blue to me but it was one that coincided perfectly with what was then my current profession—that of a professional genealogist, owning and operating my own genealogy research firm. I had already done research in various repositories throughout Tennessee and Kentucky, including many county archives, so I knew the importance of preserving local records.
Oak and glass display case donated by the local historical society.
When I first started as our county archivist I found the job to be quite overwhelming due to the fact that the county’s records had not been archived, organized or in any other way preserved in its 143 year history. One can imagine the stacks of boxes, record books and loose papers that were stored not only in the records vault but also at the old highway department attic and the old jail—in the actual jail cells! It seems once we cleaned out one area we would be told of another area full of records.
As I began my journey as our county archivist, I quickly realized that there was a mountain of work to be done just to get the county records in a state that could be handled.
In 2011, our local historical society donated their collection of documents, photos and artifacts that they had collected since the 1980’s to the archives. They had nowhere to store the historic items and since we now had an archive, it was the perfect place. Also in 2011, the historical society donated two large, handmade oak and glass display cases for the Archives Office.
The Houston County Archives main purpose is to archive and preserve the county’s permanent records and to maintain the temporary records until the end of their retention schedules. Our archive is also a haven for historical records of all kinds pertaining to Houston County and any of its people. While our first priority is to the county records, we are pleased that we are also the only repository in our county to collect and preserve historical records and artifacts.
Railroad Memorabilia Display at our annual Open House, November 21, 2011
One of the most important things to me as an archivist is that visitors to the archives get to see, feel and touch history. In most archives all the documents, records and artifacts are stored away from the public and have to be requested. Well, in the Houston County Archives we do have most of our collections stored away, but we also have displays and exhibits of documents and artifacts that the public can view.
In 2012, I decided to tap into social media to expand the archive’s audience, and created our own Houston County, TN Archives Facebook page. Since we come across so many interesting items in our daily work, I decided to start a “Today in the Archives” daily post where I post a scan of an interesting document or a photo of an artifact that we have found in the records or that has been donated. I post our daily dose of history Monday-Friday and we have had a wonderful response from our audience, as well as from the archive community. We have been recognized by the Society of Tennessee Archivist and the Tennessee State Library and Archives for our Facebook page and daily postings.
We are extremely fortunate here in Houston County that even though our records were crammed in a records vault, they were dry and unharmed for the most part. We found no evidence of bugs or rodents and no mold or dampness. Our oldest records were tainted with a light covering of coal soot from when the records had been stored at some point and time in the past near coal stoves. I have had to be diligent in cleaning these early records, but after 1956 when the new and current courthouse was built our records were fairly clean and in great shape.
Tools of the trade used in the Houston County, TN Archive
Unfortunately, we have suffered some record loss. Not due to a courthouse fire or some other act of nature but due to negligence of man. In 1956 when our current courthouse was built it was decided that the old courthouse was to be torn down first. The officials decided to store all the old records in the high school gym and local lore is that some officials took their records home with them with the understanding that they were to bring them back after the courthouse was finished. At some point, some of the records that were stored at the school gym were thrown away and we believe some officials did not bring back all the records they had in their possession. This records loss has mainly effected our loose court records, which are not complete from the years 1871-1956. We have loose court records for these years but there is not as much volume as there should be. After 1956 Houston County records are complete.
When I am not working on records at the archives you can find me speaking at various local group meetings advocating for our local archives and urging people to not throw away our history. I had heard so many stories of how records had been destroyed that I decided to start a campaign to Save Our History. In fact, in our Facebook daily postings we always add the line: “Don’t Throw It Away, Give It To The Archives”. Educating our community on what an archives is and what we do has been an important part of our success. Today, I get people all the time who walk into the archives asking, “Do you want this?” and hand me some old document, newspaper clipping or photograph. I never turn down anything and I thank them for Saving Our History.
Our little archive in Houston County may be small but we have a rich history and we are doing everything we can to save that history.
The woman that I spoke about at the beginning of this story who was looking for original documents about her murdered ancestor did find those records in our records vault after we worked almost a year on cleaning out the records vault. Just this month she was able to publish her book about the murder of Edward W. Rauscher in 1921. The book is “The Settling Place” by Ann Rauscher Smith Hagler.
So, when I am asked how or why the Houston County Archives was created, I like to say, “Well, you see, there was this murder in 1921, and the rest is history!”
The post Today in the Houston County Archives appeared first on Appalachian History.
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