I know – the title above seems like just another dumb headline… Old court records should be found in old courthouses. But wait… It’s amazing the way old records can be hidden in plain site. Courthouse offices are often very busy places, and who has time to look in every drawer anyway? It seems that ancient court records, long thought lost, have turned up in an old file cabinet (used as a plant stand) in the Boone County, Missouri, Courthouse. The following is an excerpt from a good article by Jodie Jackson Jr., in the March 14, 2009 edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune. In the article she also details the Sturgeon Historical Society’s effort s to obtain funds to restore the old building. Interesting…
An antique cabinet used as a decorative plant stand in an office at the Boone County Courthouse contained a veritable treasure trove of Sturgeon history. But until Circuit Court Clerk Christy Blakemore’s staff changed offices last month for a renovation project, no one apparently knew what was hiding in plain view.
“I pulled one of the drawers out and found all these old documents in there,” Blakemore said. She reported the find to the Missouri secretary of state’s office, where John Korasick identified them as records from the former Sturgeon Court of Common Pleas. “He thought those were long-gone,” Blakemore said. “They were pretty excited to know they were there.”
The Sturgeon archive consists of about 1,000 files dating from 1860 to 1921. The records also include an index for the files through the year 1914.
Boone County Southern District Commissioner Karen Miller, a history and genealogy buff who was project manager for courthouse expansion and renovation, said the discovery of the long-lost records was “one of the jewels” of the project.
UPDATE: Another good article has been done and posted in the April 13, 2009 edition of the Columbia Missourian.