This stuff drives me crazy. There is no reason in this day that records should be destroyed by fire - or any other peril in a public facility. I was in a courthouse a couple of years ago where they had boxes sitting on the floor with court documents from the 1840's in them. The basement obviously had a water problem, and I asked the clerk, who had been pretty helpful, what the plans were. She just rolled her eyes and said, "Plan, what plan?" They've been there for fifteen years, and they probably will be thrown out when the sewer backs up." Fortunately, some folks got on it and rescued the documents and put them in an orderly manner and filmed them. I asked the County Clerk and asked her why these groups hadn't been allowed to film and organize the documents previously, she said that having them around was "Too much bother!" These are OUR records folks, bought and paid for by us and our relatives. We have to make sure that they are not lost due to the carelessness of those who just think of it as "old stuff". When I see how hard some of you work to photograph cemeteries and maintain copies of records, I get really upset when I see the folks who get paid to be caretakers pass it off. Be vigilant. John William Lindsay. -----Original Message----- From: Jean Scarlott [mailto:cherrington@eohio.net] Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 7:30 PM To: OHJEFFER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [OHJEFFER] Fw: [IAHENRY] Fire at the Courthouse-December 12, 2003 ----- Original Message ----- From: <PWhite6024@aol.com> To: <IAHENRY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 5:18 PM Subject: [IAHENRY] Fire at the Courthouse-December 12, 2003 > Arson suspected in courthouse fire > December 12, 2003 > >> > Firefighters drop charred law books from the window of the Henry County > Courthouse after a fire destroyed the library and many of its books early this > morning. Investigators believe arson was the cause of the fire. > > By Joe Benedict > Staff Writer > > An early morning fire which broke out in the Henry County Courthouse > Law Library is being investigated as arson. > "It's being treated as a crime scene," Henry County Supervisor Gary See > said. > Smoke from the third floor Law Library was noticed by a Henry County > Sheriff's Deputy between 2:30 and 3 a.m. according to Henry County Auditor Carol > McCulley. The Mt. Pleasant Fire Department extinguished the fire and it was > contained to the one room. There is smoke damage to the rest of the building, > but fire chief Stewart Kinney said it is not severe. > Henry County Attorney Mike Riepe said some of the books in the library > are damaged only slightly, but many were destroyed. > Riepe said many of the volumes now are available electronically, so a > decision will have to be made about which books to replace. > > The Recorder's office is located directly beneath the Law Library and > there was some water damage to the office. Henry County Recorder Bernie Wallace > said she and the other employees of the office have moved all of the records > out of the vault and into the commons on the second floor. She said as far as > she knows there were no records destroyed by the water damage. > "The ceiling is fireproof, that is, it is cement, but all of the > plaster has fallen off." > Wallace said she got a call at 4:10 a.m. about the fire and came as > fast as she could. She said she worked for hours to secure the records. She > removed her computers first then started on the books in the records vault. > "There are lots of records back to the 1800s, so I wouldn't want to > lose those," she said. > All county records are on microfiche and Wallace said she has backups > away from the courthouse. > "I just want to thank everyone for their help," she said. > Kinney said he didn't have a cost estimate of the damage because the > State Fire Marshal's office was still determining the extent of the damage to > the library. > McCulley said the courthouse is insured through Gamrath-Doyle-Vens > insurance, and Mike Vens already had visited the scene this morning. She said an > insurance adjuster was expected to arrive this morning. McCulley said she > believed that the county's fire insurance policy has a $5,000 deductible. > McCulley said the courthouse does not have a security or fire alarm > system which is connected to the Sheriff's Office so there would have been no > notice of a break-in. She said the library has a lot of damage. She said she had > no idea how much it is going cost to replace the library. > "I wouldn't want to guess," she said. > The courthouse was closed today because of the smoke damage and > investigation by the State Fire Marshal's Office. McCulley said cleaning crews > already are on the scene to get the courthouse open on Monday. The recorder's office > may need more time for repairs, but Wallace said her office is going to work > to get open again as soon as possible. > > The courthouse was completed in 1914 and there has been one other fire, > according to McCulley. She said the fire was in 1925 and was on the ground > floor in the north stairwell by what is now the janitor's closet. > The railing was not replaced and is charred. > Firefighters are spending the morning tossing charred books out of the > shattered third-story windows into a trash bin below. > The fire marshal is likely to be investigating all day sorting through > the library looking for clues to make an official determination of the cause > of the fire, according to Kinney. > ©Mt. Pleasant News Inc. 2003 > > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237