|
|
| Volunteers work to preserve history |
By: Mary Jean Hall, Special to The Press
|
Posted: Friday, June 29, 2012 3:55 pm
|
A handful of local volunteers are helping Weakley County to fulfill its legal obligation to the citizens of Tennessee by cleaning and moving the county archives to a new and better location.
On Wednesday, members of the Weakley County Historical and Genealogical Society began to restore the archives that are currently stored in the Weakley County Courthouse basement.
Once the records are restored, they will be transferred to a room allocated by the county in the old Dresden Elementary School.
“We began planning a year and a half ago for what we’re doing today,” said Richard Saunders, chair of the Weakley County Public Records Commission and librarian at the Paul Meek Library on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin.
“This project has been done with lots of volunteer effort and basically no county money.”
A few years ago, water got into the basement and many of the record books became moldy. The volunteers used a chemical to kill the mold in the basement.
The process that began Wednesday involves getting the non-active mold residue off the books.
To do this, the volunteers first brushed off the surface spores, and then wiped down the archives with a damp sponge and chlorine dioxide, which would kill any mold.
The archives were then allowed to air dry.
They would use the vacuum to take off any excess material.
After that, the archives should be clean enough to transport and store in the new archive facility.
“We’ve got a bunch of volunteers working hard and doing dirty jobs to preserve the archives,” said Pansy Baker of Martin.
Baker serves as the president of the Weakley County Historical and Genealogical Society.
Saunders said that the volunteers are cleaning and moving the archives because there is no space at the courthouse, and the physical condition is bad enough for some of the records that people can’t use them properly.
Most of the archives that the volunteers are transferring range in the early 20th century.
They have already restored one book that was from as early as 1848.
Weakley County was organized in 1823.
“This set of volunteers is helping the county fulfill its legal obligation to the citizens of Tennessee,” said Saunders.
According to Saunders, in 1796, the 1st Tennessee Legislature passed a law to require counties to have permanent records preservation.
According to Tennessee Code Annotated §10-7-403, public records in a county are:
1. All documents, papers, records, books, and books of account in all county offices, including, but not limited to the county clerk, register, trustee, sheriff, assessor, executive, and commissioners;
2. The pleadings, documents, and other papers filed with the clerks of all courts- including courts of record, general sessions courts, and former courts of justices of the peace, and minute books and other records of these courts; and
3. The minutes and records of the county legislative body.
The equipment needed for the project was purchased with the State and National Archives Partnership Grant.
The grant paid for shelving, boxes, a vacuum and other materials that were needed to clean and transfer the county archives.
WCP 6.28.12
|
|
Printer-friendly format
|
|
|
| Obits |
|
|
| Advertisments |
|
|
| RSS Support Feed |
|
|
|
