Donowutt County is unique in Missouri, or possibly even in the whole USA. What other county can boast it's not documented in state or national records anywhere? The county is, however, documented at the County Courthouse in Higginsburg. Most of the early records were lost in the Civil War when Quantrill burnt the courthouse in the early 1860s. He was a bit upset that he couldn't find it on his maps and assumed it was part of a Northern plot. But that's another story. The new courthouse was started in the late '60s and finished in the mid 1870s about when the great locust plague hit our part of the state.
I want to tell you so much about the courthouse and county. I tend to get a little excited about it because I find it all so fascinating. So please bear with me, as this may tend to be a little disjointed at times. I guess I'm proof Donowutt County is not impossible to find. How I came to be the Recorder of Events for the county was a bit odd, but I guess it keeps in character with the rest of the place –a bit odd.
I was writing the story of one of the county's accidental citizens and while researching, found myself in the county, itself. Word got around that I was writing Redtail's story and I became known as "the author" or "that author". The police dispatcher out in Thistle Dew began calling me Mr. A. and it stuck. On one of my sight-seeing drives, I happened on the courthouse. It's a beautiful big old building. I went inside to look around and was stopped by one of the county commissioners who was seemingly expecting me. He had a certificate of appointment, signed by the Count (They call the head administrator of the county the count.), and met me quite near the main entrance to the building. He handed me the certificate and briefly explained what was going on and disappeared off to conduct other county business.
I looked at the certificate and it stated that the commissionership had appointed me as Recorder of Events. I didn't even know they were aware of my existence. As I looked around, still not knowing what had really happened, I spotted an office door. There, to the right of the door was a painted wooden sign labeling the "Recorder of Events" office, with my nickname below, "Mr. Author" So I went in. Everything happened in a blur to me. I was only visiting, and now I had my own office. This writing is my attempt to make sense out of what happened, and to learn my new surroundings, while telling you of my findings in Donowutt County.
Organize my thoughts here. I guess the first thing I should do is learn my way around my office a bit, then around the courthouse, but in doing that, I can't neglect the whole reason I came to the county, Redtail's story. I guess even if I do get sidetracked, I'll likely run into her or at least people who know her. That should serve to get me re-focused.
My office is a pretty good sized room. High ceiling with three hooded incandescent lights hanging on long wires, three tall narrow windows on the wall behind two desks, four floor lamps, and a desk light for each desk with one near the computer provide the lighting. During the day, the ivory walls with the windows provide a very pleasant diffused light. It really gives a sort of soft-focus surreal feel to the office. It's like a step back in time. I feel like there should be ashtrays on pedestals and background clutter like in a 1940s detective movie. I don't smoke, so that's out of the question, and the clutter is really missing, since my office assistant, Sue, keeps things pretty tidied up.
Sue is an interesting piece of office equipment. I shouldn't call her 'equipment' but she just seemed to be included with the office. She seemed shocked and embarrassed at encountering me for her first time in the office. She's what I'd call, in no derogatory sense at all, a little old blue-haired lady. Her 'real' job is the writer of obituaries for the county paper, "The Donowutt County Record". She's also a printing assistant for that office. The paper is published out of the basement of the courthouse. I've not been down there yet, but probably will have been by the time this document is finished. Sue worked at one of the two desks in my office for many years before I arrived. It was vacant, so she put it to practical use. She asked if she could be my assistant because she was bored writing just obituaries. I agreed, pending my finding out rules of the job that might preclude that, but, my certificate of appointment said my duties were to be performed in accordance with rules of the Office of Recorder of Events. Then I discovered those rules are written and adapted by the Recorder. It seems I get to make my own rules for the job. Anyway, Sue knows her way around both the Courthouse and the county, and that will be a great help for me.
The office alone holds a wealth of information that would provide me with fuel for writing for years. Three walls are lined with five foot file cabinets, punctuated by the three windows and a narrow door behind which I'd not yet explored. Those cabinets hold copies of all the county papers back to when they started in the 1840s. I looked at one. Wow! That's some brittle paper now. I see digitizing those as a project some day. I wonder how difficult that is? Oh well, on with the tour. Other cabinets held records on individuals –biographies, trivia and so much more. Cabinets of histories of each of the cities in the county –oh this is neat!—even former and unincorporated towns. I am REALLY going to have fun hunting through all this. Now I'm wondering if Ruby has tapped into this resource. She's a history enthusiast and home schooler in Thistle Dew. I heard she likes to write on important and unique citizens of the county. Maybe it's only her home town. Anyway, she wrote a paper for school on Redtail.
I should probably wander the building some –oh yeah, the office furniture! It's all in wonderful condition, but it looks like it's all World War II vintage. It's beautiful stuff! Big desks, wooden chairs –they roll and tilt, but not so far they try to throw you out. On the long wall opposite the windows, are two deep cushy-looking padded chairs flanking a long dark wood coffee table. A large stand-up height table is by the door. I'm guessing it's to spread open newspapers. I'll get back to other details of the office later. On to the rest of the building.
Starting back outside, you walk up the wide concrete steps and open one of four doors: double set in the middle with two singles at each side. Step inside. About 15 feet straight ahead is a flight of stairs to the second floor. On either side of the stairs are carpeted areas, each equipped with desk and chair, like temporary workspaces if needed. Long hallways extend down past the stairway on either side, and those halls are lined with wooden benches, almost like church pews between the multitude of offices. My office is the first office on the left. Why an office like Recorder of Events is located there escapes me. I'd think a more important office like county collector or assessor's office should be most accessible. Still, it affords me a nice vantage point to observe the comings and goings of county business. I guess since the Courthouse is the hub of county business, I should tell you a little of what I know, or the little I know, of county government. Being effectively lost to the state and nation, the government has to be self-sustaining. I think it's really a neat set-up.
Donowutt County is divided into three regions. The western region is mostly flat farmland with its main city being Midtown –named because it's really mid-sized in comparison to others in the county. The central region is the Missouri highway 13 corridor, and it contains the two largest cities in the county, Higginsburg and Big River. The eastern region is rocky and hilly. It looked promising for lead mining, but I don't really know yet, whatever became of that undertaking. I know at least the Nowhere (pronounced now-here) project was abandoned before it took off. This is the region in which Redtail and her home town of Thistle Dew, or Wilder is located. The eastern region also has the small town of Baldspot in the north. Each of the three regions has a commissioner, elected by the people. Those three commissioners choose from among them one to be the head administrator, or Count or Countess. He or she heads the county, so it's a fitting title. The region from which the count is selected then re-elects a commissioner as a replacement. That way the Count can perform duties in a less-biased manner.
The count holds the office for six years, but can be 'fired' by the Posse which is selected by the head judge and law enforcement. It's starting to sound like a police state, but it's really far from it. The Posse is made up of volunteer citizens, but, they're selected by Law Enforcement and sort of appointed to their positions. They can decline the appointment with no ill repercussions. I'd not really considered much how tax collection takes place, but taxes are collected in about the same proportions as in the rest of the state, but since Donowutt County is really lost to the rest of the world, income which would otherwise have been routed to state and national government is collected in case the county is found and everyone demands back taxes, but more as a fund to be used with discretion for projects as needed. The county might come across as poor, but it's not at all lacking in funds. It's a benefit of conservative spending practices.
The Posse is an independent citizen watch group. This group, however. has the power to remove the head judge and members of the commissionership if their behavior is deemed unethical. I'm not real clear on how this is done yet, but it's an area to look in on. An appointment to The Posse is a lifetime appointment. Membership can be revoked by two-thirds vote of Posse members and unanimous vote of the judges, or a member can resign voluntarily. The Posse serves as the eyes and ears of Donowutt County Law Enforcement (DCLE). The Posse is organized like a military organization, and often assists DCLE as needed. It was formed during the Quantrill episodes in the 1860s. The Posse ran Quantrill and his men out of Donowutt County. My office shares a wall with Posse headquarters. It might be fun to listen in on what goes on there, but they're just a spooky enough group I wouldn't want to be caught doing that. The Posse has a conference room under the main stairs and toward the back of the Courthouse building, pretty much in the middle. The Posse's distribution throughout the county and their connections with DCLE serves to keep misbehavior in the county to a minimum. I'm on pretty good terms with many members, and with the head judge, whose office is upstairs.
The whole DCLE and commissionership organization is nicely self-monitoring. The Commissioners are voted by the populace, and the head judge is appointed by the Count/ess to a 10 year, potentially repeating term. The judge and sheriff, who is elected, select the law enforcement personnel. The law enforcement folks observe and recommend Posse members who are screened and approved by the judge. The Posse has power to remove the commissionership and it takes the Posse and the commissionership to remove Posse members. I think the commissioners can replace judges, too, but I'd have to double-check that. So the system really checks and balances itself. And now, back to the Courthouse building.
The next office down from The Posse's office is the County Clerk's Office. It oversees all county, state and national ballots and elections and serves as a resource center for municipal activities in that area. Somehow, and I'm not sure how yet, Donowutt County has access to higher government elections and voting. We also have Post Offices, yet, we remain strangely elusive to outsiders of the county, bordering on their thinking many times that we might even be fictitious. That seclusion has its perks.
That about sums up the north wall of my hallway. My office is about 30 feet, east to west and about 12 feet wide north to south. I don't think that hall looks a hundred feet long, so I'd guess the other offices couldn't be quite so spacious as mine. I'll have to poke my head inside to snoop someday under the guise of introducing myself.
Back over to the main entrance of the courthouse, where we started, facing the stairs, but we'll turn right, or to the south hallway this time. The first office on the right, straight south of mine, is the Sheriff's and Juvenile Officer's office. They have another more-regularly used office in their annex, but this one is their presence in the Courthouse. To the east and opposite The Posse's Office is the County Collector's and County Treasurer's office. Next to them and opposite the County Clerk's office is the office of Assessor and Surveyor. All up the east end of the building are the commissionership offices. Two entrances open on the north hall and two on the south. I briefly covered that side of my floor, since I only spend brief time there. We'll get back some time, but I need to give you the quick tour of the upstairs, or court offices, then the basement. Let's head back to the main entrance.
Standing by the main doors again, face the stairs. Look straight ahead, or east. Up the stairs and stop at the top puts us on the judicial floor of the Courthouse. On the east wall is a row of benches like those which line the halls on the main floor. At the north and south ends of those are wide doors which open on the north and south courtrooms. I don't see a need for two courtrooms as their trial load isn't that much. Maybe earlier times were rougher. Turning an about face and looking west, gives us a view back down the stairs. To the north and south of that stairs corridor but still on the judicial floor are two doors. They open into hallways to access the judges, prosecuting attorney, circuit clerk and court offices and jury deliberation rooms. I can likely get head Judge Noyugo to give us a better tour of the judicial floor. Let's head back downstairs to the main floor.
We turn around and face the stairs to the top floor and look to the desks on either side of the stairs. Behind those north and south exposed offices are doors on either side of that central stairwell. Those doors open to stairs down to the basement. Since I'm most familiar with my hallway, we'll use that door and head down and to the south. That bottom landing puts us almost in the middle of the basement. We'll turn left and face east. To our right and left are stairs leading up to the main floor. In front of us is a fairly large enclosed conference room with wide hallways on either side. Directly behind us is a door to the Emergency Management Office. Stepping out into the hallway in front of the conference room and looking left and along the entire north side of the basement is the Donowutt County Record newspaper office. Outsiders may see the paper's office being in the basement of the Courthouse as a conflict of interest, but it doesn't seem to keep them from slamming county governmental decisions as they're needed. I'll have to see if Sue knows more about that topic. Behind us and on the south wall are three more offices and a hallway. From left to right along the south wall are a County Chamber of Commerce, the Public Administrator's office and the County Recorder's office. Opposite the Recorder's office is the Human Relations office.
I think that about sums up the contents of the Donowutt County Courthouse, and I know I've left out lots of detail, but I won't really know that until I learn the Courthouse a little better. I mentioned the Sheriff's office on the main floor. I guess since DCLE is such a big part of County operations, I should mention a little about their organization, since part is in the Courthouse.
Donowutt County Law Enforcement is rather unique as law enforcement goes, which shouldn't really be surprising by now. They seem to have connections with outside law enforcement agencies, but outside agencies seem to hesitate mentioning their possible awareness of Donowutt County. They have access to missing persons and abduction networks, as well as wanted lists and so forth. The Sheriff's office oversees operations for the whole DCLE. The Sheriff appoints police chiefs to the various municipalities which maintain offices. Officers are assigned under the chiefs but all have jurisdiction throughout the county. Officers are appointed by the Sheriff's office and the head judge. The Sheriff and Judge select these officers from a pool of applicants maintained by the assistant judges. Some of this might sound confusing, and I hope I didn't get it too jumbled up here.
I'll try to get an appointment with Judge Noyugo to see what he can tell us about his judicial floor of the building. We'll also talk more with Sue. I've got some friends in DCLE and other places in the county whom I met through my pursuit of Redtail's story. If you haven't heard her story, it's really quite interesting and fun. I better be heading home. Tomorrow's another day.
Good morning all! Today, I think I'll snoop around in the file cabinets in my office and try to find Judge Noyugo. Who knows what else may happen? I certainly don't.
This furniture in here is beautiful. The file cabinets look like they're made of a dark oak and they're highly polished. They all look brand new, but I'm sure they're quite old originals. Let's see now, on my west wall, the short one to the left just as you step in the office, has four cabinets and the mystery door. Behind the open door is a wood-posted coat rack with brass hooks and legs. The post looks darker than the other wood furniture. I'm guessing it might've been an afterthought. The sweater must be Sue's. I wonder where she might be? Probably down working on the D.C. Record. If it's like usual, she'll be in and out fairly often. Ha! "Like usual"! I really can't say I've got a usual, since I'm so new in here. I'm pretty much discovering the place with you.
Wow, this is some excellent handwriting on these file cabinet drawer labels. I wonder if Sue did these. It looks like whoever made these used a copperplate calligraphy pen. I'd tried those from time to time, but my lines always turned out ugly. Mmmm the smell is like history. I felt a faint rumble in the first drawer as I pulled it open. The bearings in the glides still felt smooth, but maybe they could use a little oil. This organization of the old papers is wonderful. I guess it's intuitive, too. It looks like the most frequently the paper was published was weekly, but dropped back to monthly during the late 1910s and back to weekly in the '20s to drop back to monthly and even quarterly during the early 1930s to pick back up again to weekly around 1935. I'll guess World War II conservation of resources forced it to drop to monthly in 1942. From 1947 to the present the paper's stayed a monthly publication. And this is getting me to think maybe part of this office is being used as a Donowutt County Record archive? Well, I'm not going to suggest it should be stored in the basement with other paper stuff. These will be fun to browse.
I tugged on the door in the wall, but it seemed to be painted shut. I poked my pocket knife into the joint where the door contacted the frame and tried to pry a bit, but to no avail. I guess for now, the door will have to remain a mystery. Now I'm into the northwest corner of the office where stands a floor lamp near Sue's desk. The desks are spacious things. They both seem to be executive-size. More file cabinets along the north wall. Two tall ones like on the west wall, and two short ones under the window. Several more tall cabinets, the middle window and two shorties, followed by more talls, another window with shorties and two more talls in that corner, with another floor lamp. Along the east wall is four more file cabinets.
The south wall of my office is lined from left to right with a chair, a low table and another chair with floor lamps beside each chair. Those are straight across from my desk, implying I might be having guests from time to time. Right of the chairs and lamps is a taller broad table with ample drawers beneath, and back to the door, directly to the right of the table. Then there's my desk, which occupies the northeast corner of the office.
I sat down in my hard wood rolling swivel and tilting chair. It is surprisingly comfortable. I stretched my arms out and put my spread my hands palm down on the desktop. I breathed deep a couple times. Scanning the surroundings I picked up on more details of the office. The floor was tiled. I'd guess the ivory color used to be white, but yellowed over the years of thick waxing. It's probably asbestos tiles, too. All around the room, from floor to chair bump-rail, is vertical wood shiplap paneling. Above that is almost-smooth plaster wall painted ivory in a seeming attempt to match the floor. Oh wow, I'd not noticed the narrow windows along the south wall ceiling until just now. They all seem to have the option of opening inward. I wonder how the heating and air conditioning works? It feels warmish in here, but still comfortable. I smiled as the window air conditioning unit registered for the first time. That'll be fun. It looks like a pretty big unit, but this is a pretty big room, too. I close my eyes, smiled and took another comfortable long breath. The door gave a little creak and I jumped.
Sue said, "Oh I'm sorry, am I disturbing you?"
"No, I was just regrouping to try to take in more of this new office of mine, or, I mean, ours."
"It's your office, sir. I'm just borrowing space."
"Na, it's your office, too. By the way, do you know what's behind that door in your corner?"
"I really don't know, but I think it was sealed off because it was too narrow to access that closet quite right. The closet access is from the hallway now. That's the unlabeled door next to ours. It's really our closet, and our computer printer is in there, too."
"The printer's in there?" I scanned the room to confirm no printer to be seen. My computer was on the low cabinets behind my desk under the window. And that seemed to be the only computer in the room. "Isn't the printer being in another room inconvenient?"
"The computer was such a joy to have, and the old fanfold dot-matrix printer we used to have took so much space and was so noisy. It was wonderful to graduate to a wireless but more remote printer. I've gotten quite used to it."
I smiled. "I guess I'll get used to it all. Are there any building quirks or people with strange behaviors I should be aware of?"
"The people here are great, and I'll let you develop your own opinions. I don't want mine to affect your relations one way or another. I think we're all a pretty decent bunch. The building. Hmmm. The custodial and maintenance crew keep things running pretty smooth. Willie keeps on top of our needs. He always says, "Things should always be in such good condition the building crew is never felt to be needed." He tries to anticipate everything before it gets noticed by others."
"Who's Willie?"
"Willie Thomas. He's the head of Facilities Maintenance. He works out of Annex One. That's another building in the County Government Complex."
"Complex? How many buildings are we talking about?"
"Now let me see. There's this one, the Maintenance Building or Annex One, the Law Enforcement complex, which is a couple buildings down the street a ways, and then there's the big storage and supplies center building or Annex Two. Yeah, there's a few buildings for Willie to keep track of."
A single sharp rap on the door. It opened and in stepped a man looking to be around 50 yrs old dark hair with frosty sides. It looked like he was dressed in olive drab maintenance clothes, which turned out to be military fatigues. Yeah, he also had lots more hair than I do. Anyway, he began. "I heard I got a new next door neighbor. I'm Moe Anderson, Posse commander. Welcome aboard!" He extended a hand and big smile.
We exchanged handshakes and I asked, "Might you be available to answer some of my newcomer questions some time? I've not been here long enough to know what to ask yet."
He replied, "Yeah, I think I could do that for ya. Well, I gotta run for now, but I thought I'd poke my head in and say 'hi' since I caught you here." And he slipped out.
Sue said, "He's a scurrier, but he's friendly enough."
I gave a little laugh. Sue asked about it, so I said, "My head does weird stuff sometimes. The thought, 'I wonder if anyone calls him Commanderson?' popped into my head."
Sue shook her head. "Oh boy, this'll be an interesting work relationship."
"I'll try to behave. I think I'll wander upstairs and see if Judge Noyugo is in."
"It's Wednesday, and I know he hears cases on Tuesday. You might be able to catch him in his office."
"Is there a telephone directory of people who work here somewhere?"
"The only directory I'd ever used is the one out in the lobby. I guess I got used to walking to an office if I needed to talk to anyone."
"That must be how you stay so sleek and trim."
Sue laughed. I headed up to the judge's office.
The stairs to the judicial floor was brightly lit. Why hadn't I noticed the big skylight right over the stairs earlier? Oh well. Shoot! I should've looked at that directory. Maybe his door's labled. I turned right and walked back along the stair corridor to a door. I slowly opened it, and it opened onto another hallway. To my right was the Courts and Circuit Clerk office. Straight ahead was a jury deliberation room, so I turned left and walked to the corner of the hall and took another left. Two offices on that hall labeled Associate Judge, and the courtroom, so I backtracked and took the door to the right of the stair landing.
Again, but to the left, was apparently a second door to the Court and Circuit Clerk's office, and another deliberation room ahead of me. I turned right this time to the corner and took a right down that hall. That looked more promising. The first office was labeled "Donowutt County Judge". Just to be sure, I looked at the next office and it was labeled, Prosecuting Attorney. At the end of the hall, like the other side was a door labeled Courtroom.
I knocked lightly but audibly on the County Judge's door. A low voice answered, "Please come in."
I opened the door and Judge Hugo Noyugo stood up and extended his hand, "Ah, you must be Mr.A. our new Recorder of Events!"
"Yes, I'm trying to learn my way around the building, and got the impression you were quite in-the-know regarding the history of the county and the Courthouse."
"I heard the story of Quantrill's burning of the original courthouse and the rebuilding in the 1870s."
"OK, so you've got a little background on the place. Probably picked that up while writing about Redtail, I'm guessing?"
"You really do have your finger on the pulse of the County, don't you?"
"I've got some pretty good connections here and there. Have you met the commissioners?"
"I met a commissioner when he gave me my certificate of appointment as Recorder of Events, but he disappeared quite quickly after giving me the document. He was a fairly small-framed man."
"Ah, that'd be Western Commissioner, Hank, if he's a small guy, delivering something on behalf of the Count. He gets stuck with a lot of those duties since his office is next door to the Count's."
"So Hank's office would be in the northeast corner of my hallway then. Things are actually beginning to fall into place for me."
"Donowutt County's not all that complicated. You should watch a trial some time, or attend a Posse meeting."
"They'd allow me to attend a Posse meeting?"
"Oh yes, it's not a secret organization, by any means. It's just not the easiest group to be a part of, and it requires some fairly intense dedication from time to time. Actually, you'd need to get permission, and my recommendation probably wouldn't hurt, either. Meeting attendance and going on a mission are two completely different things."
"I could see that. Do you normally hear cases on Tuesdays?"
"We get lots of petty stuff, but very few jury trials anymore. Tales of Posse's vigilant eyes and rumors of Rainy Island Prison serve to keep the would-be evil-doers pretty much in check."
"Rainy Island Prison seems to be a topic of its own. A whole book could be written about the rumors alone. Let's see now –Quantrill burnt the old courthouse and most of the school. Did you know the school got re-built on the same site, eventually becoming the library, and the Courthouse got rebuilt on its new site, here?"
"I heard the Courthouse got rebuilt, but I didn't hear the site was changed."
"The particulars on that escape me right now, but hey, you could look all that up in your papers archive."
"I certainly do have lots to research. Well, I better let you get back to work, and I'll probably be around Tuesday. I'll see about that Posse meeting, too. It was good meeting you, Judge."
"And you, too. If you like old stories, you might check out The Three Maidens Bardic Nights on Fridays. They're outside the east end of town just up into the hills a bit. I also like to drop by The Bumpy Log Social Club over in Nowhere on Tuesday nights. They usually let me do a lot of tale weaving then."
I let the Judge get on with his day, and I headed back to the office. Sue looked up from her desk. "Was the Judge in?"
"Yes he was, and he tipped me off to court on Tuesdays and that I might like to attend a Posse meeting. I wonder if our newspapers give hints as to how the Courthouse was rebuilt and why this site was selected?"
Sue straightened up to go to the file cabinet.
"Oh, don't look that up for me now. I'm still trying to round up things to write about"
She smiled and settled back to her whatever it is she was doing.
"So Sue, how did you land a job writing obituaries? That seems like an odd assignment."
"It's not all I do." She laughed. "Besides helping with the printing, I also monitor subscriptions, do the billing and accounting stuff. I'm sort of a behind-the-scenes office assistant, and they give me all the obituaries to write. I'm not really sure why."
I sat down at my desk and turned around to face the computer.
Sue turned toward me and crossed her arms across her chest. "Perhaps you could tell me, how you landed your job, and what it is that you do?"
An awkward silence followed her question. I sat back, looked at the window and said, "Ya know, I'm not really sure how I got the job. It was just handed to me –almost literally. There was no job description, and the certificate seems to imply that the job is mine and I decide what the job is. I'm thinking it's sort of like a historian or reporter. I think what I might try until I'm told otherwise, is to snoop around the county and write about what I find. And here's where it feels really weird. I know lots of stuff happened before I arrived on the scene, but if I don't write it nobody will know. There's a whole county of people in Donowutt County, but they're literally quite unknown or non-existent until I write about 'em. Maybe that's what the Commissioner meant when he relayed the Count's words of 'if I don't write it, it didn't happen. Maybe the nickname folks gave me, Mister Author, is more fitting than I thought.'
Sue gave a little squeak, smiled, and as she turned back to her desk, said, "Hmm. Cool."
Her response implied I gave a satisfactory answer. I know I'm not sure that it should be. I mean, I know of so much stuff that's happened here, but nobody else does until I write it. It's like I create the very existence of so much in Donowutt County... Oh, stop it! You always thought philosophy was a silly undertaking. Maybe this job is lots more important than I originally thought. OK, I gotta get off this train of thought.
A gentle knock on the door, and a head squeezed through. He stepped in followed by a girl. They both looked in their teens, and they just stood there smiling at me. "What can I do for you two?"
The boy said, "You don't recognize us, do you?" The girl smiled as if I was to get a flash of revelation that two long lost friends found me.
"I almost feel bad about this, but I really can't place you."
The girl sighed and gave a light stomp. "I'm Ruby, from The Relics."
The boy broke right in, "And I'm Rick. We're the historians over at the museum in Thistle Dew. The Relics is the name of our home school co-op, 'cuz we all meet in the museum."
"You wrote about us in Redtail's story." said Ruby. "Oh! Oh!" she gasped as she looked around the office. She giggled, "He didn't recognize us because this is a different story and we're new characters here!"
Rick argued, "It's all part of Donowutt County, so we're not really new to Mr.A. He should've... Never mind. Anyway, we'd love to help you out with your new Recorder of Events job. We've been writing a bunch on Thistle Dew with lots of spinoffs to other parts of the county."
Ruby put her head down and grinned while she whispered, "Wilder."
Rick gave her a gentle elbow nudge.
I told them to have a seat, and they could very likely help me in my job, or at least in trying to develop what it should be.
Ruby said, "We heard you got the job as Recorder of Events for the county, and we thought that was pretty cool. We wanted to visit and see if we could help" She shifted a bit in her chair, "So you're writing about the whole county now, instead of just Redtail and her life in Wilder?"
Rick softly growled, "Thistle Dew." Ruby blew a little raspberry at him.
I better tell you. Thistle Dew and Wilder are the same town. In the 1820s when places were all registering their names, there was a mix-up at the courthouse and Wilder got registered, by mistake, as Thistle Dew. So Thistle Dew became the registered official name. But, the courthouse had since been burnt along with all its records. Folks still argue about the town's name. It's all in fun. Usually. I think. "So, Historians, what do you know about that fire incident at the courthouse in the 1860s?" I looked at Ruby, "And yes, I've pretty much been writing about the County since finding it through Redtail."
Rick toned down the kid in him and got more business-like. Ruby did likewise. Rick began, "Many towns in Donowutt County have fun stories behind their names. About all that really remained after the fire are the stories. Thistle Dew and Wilder is the same town. Nowhere is pronounced Now Here, but The Bumpy Log Social Club likes advertising they're in the middle of Nowhere. Baldspot wasn't named for a hairless spot, but rather a blank, or lacking-spot on their town's registration form. Midtown was named that, simply because it was the middle-sized town. Big River and Higginsburg sorta have ordinary names."
Ruby broke in, "Not really. The Higgins family after whom the town is named has quite an interesting history. It was, in fact, a Higgins who saved the library part of the school from that big courthouse fire." A bit of little girl slipped in as Ruby stuck her tongue out at Rick. From what I hear, they're usually lots more formal. They must've had a fun ride out to the Courthouse.
Rick said, "It was mid July in 1863 that William Quantrill and his men came through Donowutt County. By then, the county was already used to not being on maps, but Quantrill didn't like that idea."
Ruby snorted lightly, "Judge Noyugo calls them Billy Quantrill and his Merry Men."
I added, "Yeah, I could see him doing that."
Rick continued, "Quantrill and his men were giving the people a hard time about being northern sympathizers, because they couldn't explain why we weren't on their map. We'd have loved it if they could get us back into the world, but we're kinda used to it now. We actually enjoy our seclusion. Anyway, they pushed people around and many got hurt as they tried to fight answers out of us that they wanted to hear. They wanted us to confess so they could burn and loot and slaughter as they wished. They probably would have anyway, had it not been for the formation of The Posse."
Ruby said, "See, Higginsburg isn't such a boring name!"
"Yeah, yeah," Rick continued, "Max Higgins, grandson of the guy who suggested the site for Higginsburg's permanent relocation, is the guy who formed The Posse. He rounded up over a hundred guys from Higginsburg, Big River, Thistle Dew..." Rick glanced at Ruby. She only smiled. "and Midtown. They were on the march into Higginsburg when the Quantrill Raiders set the courthouse on fire. Wow, those bullies weren't expecting the reception they got. Four or five of them were killed and they never did spot The Posse. They left quick, and as they were regrouping to come back, The Posse fell on them again. Max Higgins and several others broke from The Posse to come back and put down the fire. It was dry, July, so the courthouse went pretty fast, but they managed to save a big chunk of the school. That was the wall which had the library. There wasn't enough left of the courthouse to rebuild or even salvage, but they rebuilt the school. When the school moved to a bigger building, the old school became the public library in memory of Max Higgins saving that wall."
"The Civil War," I pondered aloud, "must've been a rough time for everybody."
Ruby said, "I don't know about for Donowutt County. Except for the Quantrill thing, we pretty much had no clue what was going on, other than news we got from the outside." She glanced at Rick. "And I guess I gotta admit, Wilder's official name is probably Thistle Dew, since the Post Office has that name."
I said to Ruby, "You seemed so nervous most of the time while interviewing Redtail. You sure seem to have lightened up since then."
Rick said, "See? He remembers us now!"
"This isn't really an interview," said Ruby. "No pressure, and besides, my mom's not with us either."
"I think you guys would be quite helpful. I don't know quite where I'm going with this job yet, but whenever you're in town drop on by and we'll see what ya got.
Sue said, "Or come by the paper office. We can probably put you to work folding the papers or coloring the black and white pictures."
Ruby's mouth dropped. "Really? Like you have to fold all the papers?"
Rick laughed. "You're kidding, right?"
Sue smiled and said, "Oh no, the papers are really mechanically folded. It's a neat process to watch. You want to do that some time?"
I smiled and shook my finger at Sue. Ruby gave Rick a glare, and he laughed again. She looked back to Sue and said, "I think that would be interesting!"
I glanced at the clock. "I think I better be headed out for the day. I got a 6:00 appointment tonight and I'd like to be ready for that, whatever that may entail."
Rick and Ruby got up and the three of us departed together. I almost think Sue lives there. She's there in the morning, and I don't ever see her leave. We got outdoors and Ruby turned and waved. They wanted to make a stop at Fabric Fashion and Fun Craft store on their way back to Thistle Dew –or Wilder.
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OK, this meeting's content is such that I can actually write about my day at the office. I hope they don't catch me off their topic. The meeting IS about writing, so I guess I'm not too far off topic.
Now I'm supposed to write about Donowutt County, but I'm not a news reporter. Or maybe I am? Nah, Sue would've told me if the paper was short on reporters. And she wouldn't be bored just writing obituaries. Of course, that gets me thinking, How many people regularly die in Donowutt County in a normal week? What do I need to find in the Courthouse to make the job flow more easily. Wow, "flow more easily" makes me think, I don't even know where the restrooms are!
Oh shoot, that's my phone! Silence that thing. OK, the screen says it's a missable call. They didn't leave a message. If it's important enough, they'll call back. I'll have to find out how long it took to build the courthouse and who built it and problems they might've run into. This sounds interesting. Points for writing, daily word quotas, but there's motivation to go over. I wonder if I'd get punished or lose my job for not meeting the quota? No, I don't have a quota for my work, since I call the shots and make the rules. I do wonder if my employment in Donowutt County hinges solely on if my writing keeps my interest? But if I lose interest, the whole County ceases to function... OK, yeah. Important job for the county, but enough philosophizing.
Maps! I need to find maps of the Courthouse, each city and the whole County. I wonder where I might find those. I know Johnson and Lafayette Counties have county and bigger city maps put put out by their Chambers of Commerce. I'll find out if Donowutt County does that, too. I'm seeing lots of parallels. I think I'm going to head back to the Courthouse. I don't think I'll be noticed if I go missing from the meeting.
Funny. I don't remember them giving me a key, but I naturally reached to my pocket on ascending the stairs, and there it was. It's all so natural. I bet Sue's so efficient she slipped a key on my ring while I wasn't looking. No, that's not it. I keep my keys in my pocket. OK, let's try this again. Yep, there's an office key, too. Sue doesn't sleep here. That's good to find out.
I wonder what's in this wide top drawer under the table. After an extra tug, the drawer pulled out. I smiled and shook my head. How much easier could this get? There was a beautiful stack of flat maps –not all I wanted, but a county map, one of Higginsburg and one of Big River. I'll bet I could find maps of the smaller places if I looked.
I laid the map of the county out on the table. I like these topographical maps: specially these large scale ones with lots of detail. OK, maybe this one's a little out dated, being from the mid-'60s. OK, this map's just the eastern part of the county. I looked back to the drawer, and the western half simply escaped my first hunt. Oh, what's that? Cool! That's an old lead mine by Nowhere. I wonder how many other bits of historic trivia I can find lurking on these pages? There's the Courthouse in the southwest part of town. Hunt... Hunt... Hunt... There's the library. Good, the old courthouse is marked as a historical site. Or do I have to say "an" historical site? How much archaic English must we use in our writing, and who decides what's archaic and current? We still use children, oxen, and sometimes even brethren as plurals, but those are remnants from earlier English. OK, back to snooping in the office. Ooh! There's a penny with Lincoln's face on it! Must be from the Civil War! Yep, I should've gone into comedy. Oh well.
I slid the map back into the drawer and began snooping in the file cabinets. This one will be fun. A drawer full of organizational charters and histories, recreational sites, parks, sort of a trove of after work, after school activities and opportunities. There's Perry's Bend Conservation Area, Carter Lake County Recreational Park, two 4-H clubs, the County Scouts, three active quilting clubs, OK, I'm guessing they're still active. Big Rivers's got a philatelic club. Oh, there's a trapper reenacter's group.
Reenactors groups are fun, and I think Donowutt County is ripe for those! We got Civil War, Moiuntain Man and Trapper background. I'd bet there could even be an historic farmer's group. Or that might be redundant, since we've got a few scattered Amish groups. I know I used to be active in a Middle Ages re-creation group.
There's just so much stuff to write about in a county. With specialized interests, I could write on a small town my whole life and probably not get finished with it. Here's another drawer, no, several drawers! Biographies. I've even got criminals in a separate space in one of the drawers. That's probably a good thing, that we don't have a huge criminal element. Here's another drawer of civic improvement projects. I pulled one out and unfolded it. Ah, Thistle Dew and Wilder. I know a little about their restoration project. That must've been fun. Oh, there's just so much writing potential.
I poked my head out in the hall. The lighting was fairly dim, but I could still see. Probably not for reading, but probably light enough to find a restroom if there's one on the floor. Well, that was quick. There's a restroom on either side of the stairway going up to the judicial floor. They're small, and tucked behind the open office desks, but they're there. Men's room on the north and women's room on the south. Peeking into the men's room revealed a stool, and on the left over the slope of the stairway to the basement, a sink and a small trashcan under that. All the cabinetry, what little there was, was the same dark oak as in my office. Looks almost like 1870s frugal styling. I'm guessing the women's room is the same, but in reverse. I'll let that remain a mystery. There's probably restrooms upstairs, too, at least by the jury deliberation rooms.
I never did spot the furnace, but I'll guess that's what's enclosed in what looks like a meeting room in the basement. I'll let it be dark down there and check it out some day when it's light. Well that was simple enough to find those things I overlooked when I took the self-tour. I wonder if WalMart will still be open when I leave for the night. It's getting a bit late. Grab some McDonald's on the way home... No, I don't want heartburn all night. I'm not sure what I'll get. Oh well. I suppose I could write myself as already eaten dinner. But I was told 'if I don't write it, it didn't happen,' not 'if I write it, it really happened'. There's a difference, you know.
I feel like I need to make an attack plan for tomorrow's day of 'event recording'. Maybe I'll dig into the 1870s papers to see about details of the Courthouse's construction. Maybe even find some info on the fire. I can see this as a slow, but interesting job. Maybe a regular word quota would be a good motivator to help keep me writing and not just reading.
I locked my office back up and wandered to the front door. The echoing silence of the large open dark space was beautiful. This Courthouse in Donowutt County is a neat place. Standing out on the top of the stairs was peaceful, too. I saw a nighthawk swoop at some bugs under the street lamp. A possum waddled across the bottom of the stairs.
I live in Warrensburg, so it's a fair drive to the Donowutt County Courthouse. It's the day, however, of our monthly breakfast, so I left a little early to keep the habit. My former boss started this tradition a few years back as an informal fellowshipping of co-workers. When he retired, he asked if we wanted to continue the tradition. Of course, he was so intimidating we all had to agree. No, I just made that part up. I retired from that place a few months back, but we all continued.
Circumstances forced the restaurant meeting-place to close for a while. That dealt quite a blow to our habit and the tradition. This morning, however, is the third of the last four months since the place's re-opening, which I actually made it. Today I'm still the only one here, like the other times since the closure. And yes, a couple months back, I did confirm the tradition is still on. I know this isn't a Donowutt County event, but I need to get myself into the habit of, well, recording events. It's one of my events and I'm a Donowutt County regular.
Can I find my way, after breakfast, to Donowutt County from Warrensburg? Yes, I can always find the place, but putting directions in words or pictures, even Internet satellite maps or photos seems impossible. It really defies any explanation attempts. I can bring you to Donowutt County and even tell you about the place, but I can't graphically or textually give directions. It's almost sad, since it's such a relaxing place to visit. Today seems to be another breakfast meeting which slipped through the cracks. Just about time to head to the Donowutt County Courthouse.
Pulling into the Courthouse parking lot, I'm greeted by the sight of whom I'm guessing to be Willie or one of his support people. He's looking frustrated by an old tractor. It seems it's stalling whenever a load is applied. I helped him push it out of the way and yes, it was Willie, the head building maintenance guy. He seemed pretty pleasant, despite his vehicular troubles. We're guessing it's a clogged fuel line. He says he'll get to it 'in a bit'. I say that quite often. I hope he doesn't forget. Of course, now, if I see him, I'll remind him of it.
I got to the office door and it was locked. That seemed out of character for Sue. I hope she's alright. On my desk was a small note: "I'm downstairs working on a little paper jam in the printer. I'll be back soon." Wow. She anticipates everything, at least so far as an office assistant would. I chuckled as I noticed the phone for the first time. It's a real black rotary-dial landline. That dates way back to the time when people left their work at work.
Building the building's what I'm looking for. It was around the time of the locust plague, so that puts it near 1873 to 1875. Of course, its taper-off took until 1879, so the whole 1870s is pretty much fair game. The peak year for Missouri was 1875, so that's where I'll start browsing the paper.
That was easy. Here, in May of 1875, it says completion of the courthouse is delayed due to county funds being diverted to plague relief. Wow, in some places locusts had to be shoveled out of walkways. And here it says passengers had to clear the tracks so their trains could get traction. There was even a fifty-cent per bushel basket bounty offered by a banker, but he had to quit because he couldn't afford it any longer. A bushel basket full of grasshoppers is a lot of grasshoppers! Oh, never mind. Most of this was for Warrensburg. Seems we didn't get hit quite so hard in Donowutt County. Still, I guess shoveling and a courthouse delay for us was significant locust trouble.
A nice thing about a small county newspaper is their size for browsing. Just a few page turns and an issue is hunted. Ha! Two dollars and fifty cents for an annual subscription! Hmm. I don't see any price per issue. I wonder if they sold them individually?
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