--part1_24.75b8ca6.2696a65e_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --part1_24.75b8ca6.2696a65e_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-path: <[email protected]> From: [email protected] Full-name: AltaMDurden Message-ID: <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 23:14:37 EDT Subject: Re: [Catawba-West] Fwd: Re:Court House in Maiden?/Maiden and 1916 flood To: [email protected] CC: [email protected] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 109 To: Pat C. Cloninger, Newton, North Carolina, and To: Kimberly Andersen Cumber, Archivist, Raleigh: It could be that my memory is at fault here; however, I seem to recall that, while I lived in North Carolina most recently (1986-1991), my Sister and I visited the Catawba Public Library at Newton (Mrs. Evelyn Rhodes), and other places of interest while doing genealogical research; and that in time period and in those places, it was said that there was a court house for Catawba County once located in Maiden. I KNOW we were told that there were old records stored in a basement in a building in Maiden; that these records had been damaged by water from pipes that had burst (not from flooding waters, i.e., rain.) Information furnished by the Archives in Raleigh states that Catawba County was formed in 1842 from Lincoln and that the Act establishing the county named commissioners to acquire land within two miles of the center of the county, lay out a town by the name of Newton, and erect a courthouse. Controversy developed over the location. Consequently, in 1845 an Act was passed authorizing the erecting of the courthouse in Newton, which is now the county seat. Information from Ms. Kimberly Andersen Cumber, of the Division of Archives and History at Raleigh, advises (through conversations she had in May 1999 with Jeff Futch, chief of Archives' Western Office (I believe at Asheville), that , "Some ... records were in fact housed in a basement room of the old Catawba County Courthouse while the clerk of court's office was moved from that building to a new location." Notice this does NOT say that the old Catawba County Courthouse was in Maiden. Perhaps I was merely assuming that because the old records stored in a basement were, in fact, in Maiden, according to what some local people there TOLD my Sister and me. We were not allowed to view or copy these records, we were told. So, I have no first-hand knowledge about the records, per se. Ms. Cumber states that "I only now" (May 1999) have been made aware of this disaster" (flooding room where records were stored, caused by pipe or pipes that burst), and that, "...[W]e are left quite where we began -- with only the fact that some few Catawba County court records are missing. We now have only an idea of why some are gone." By copy of this e-mail to Ms. Cumber, I will ask her to research the question of whether or not Maiden was ever the site of the Catawba County Courthouse, and more precisely the location of the flooded basement -- Newton or Maiden (whether or not a courthouse.) In the meantime, you might consult the Maiden Chamber of Commerce, or Historical Society if one is present. If there actually is an abandoned courthouse building in Maiden, it likely would be on a register of historic structures. I will be interested to learn, and equally eager to have my misconception corrected, if it is inaccurate. Thank you both, Alta Mitchem Durden --part1_24.75b8ca6.2696a65e_boundary--