Editorials

In 1973, a fire engulfed the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, a devastating event in the history and record-keeping of the U.S. Armed Services. More than 80 percent of U.S. Army records from 1912 to 1960 were destroyed — which included personnel records of American soldiers in both world wars — as were about 75 percent of Air Force records from 1947 to 1964.

The records can’t be replaced.

That story’s relevance is obvious, whether you’re a veteran or not. Historical items and original documents are matchless; they should be preserved and protected — and, of course, made available for the public to enjoy and use.

We have such a dilemma here in Calhoun County; no fire, but a dilemma, nonetheless. Locked away in the basement of the Calhoun County Courthouse rests decades of court judgments and settlements, county tax records and period newspapers from across the county’s varied communities.

This dusty collection of historical artifacts is one of our county’s most priceless items. Where else can you find the listings of the 1904 Alabama state tax for Confederate soldiers? Or newsprint copies of The Alabama Leader, The People’s Journal or The Union Advocate?

Earlier this week, Star reporter Bill Edwards profiled the courthouse room called the “dungeon,” home to many of these items. His story detailed the $5,000 grant former Probate Judge Arthur Murray secured for the documents’ preservation, and how the Calhoun County Commission has yet to act on this project. The grant money still sits in the county account.

One could argue that there are more pressing issues for the county commission and Probate Judge Alice Martin, whose office is storing the documents, to manage. But these tax records and yellowing newspapers, some bound, some not, have been largely forgotten and stored away for too long, in some cases for more than a century. They need some old-fashioned TLC. Now.

It’s time the county commission and Martin’s office use that $5,000 grant as a starting point for a project that would allow the items to be preserved, copied and made available to Calhoun Countians eager to research their genealogy or flip through the pages of history. The need exists, the options are many, the interest is intense.

Let’s open the doors to more chapters of Calhoun County’s history. It would be a shame to let the information hidden in the courthouse dungeon continue to gather dust, unknown to us all.