Family Tree Magazine (May/June 2018) called them “Holes in History” – destructive fires throughout United States history with far-reaching effects on modern-day genealogical research. It might have been the deed to your third great-grandfather’s land in Mississippi, your grandfather’s World War II service record, or the missing 1890 census records. This excerpted article published in the January-February 2020 issue of Digging History Magazine takes a look at the stories behind these devastating events and how to find substitute records.
ABOUT THOSE COURTHOUSE FIRES . . .
Here’s something we can all agree on: nineteenth and early twentieth century courthouse fires are the bane of genealogists everywhere. Have you ever wondered why so many courthouse fires occurred in the latter half of the nineteenth century? Would it surprise you to find that many of them were set nefariously?
The Big Cover-Up
On October 15, 1891 this Kalamazoo Gazette headline screamed:
It was one of the town’s “most exciting and sensational scenes in its history” and Washington, Indiana detectives were investigating the recent courthouse fire. After arresting four persons allegedly associated with the “incendiarism”, one suspect, Samuel Harbine, confessed and implicated others. Among those implicated was none other than Daviess County’s auditor, James C. Lavelle. Lavellle’s brother Michael and two prominent county residents were also implicated.
Harbine admitted auditor Lavelle had hired him to burn the courthouse for a sum of $500, although to date only $5 had been received. As the story unfolded, another accomplice, Basil Ledgerwood, was anxious to turn state’s evidence in exchange for admitting his remuneration was a house and lot. Lavelle had been the county auditor for almost eight years and had earned
the trust of county residents. With evidence mounting against him, the county was forced to hire experts to review his accounts (presumably, those which hadn’t been destroyed).
The entire episode had turned the town upside down – almost suspending regular business – as everyone was “discussing the arrest of the conspirators” who had used coal oil to fuel the fire’s destruction which “affected the titles of nearly every landowner in Daviess county.” Understandably, “threats of mob violence [were] freely made.”1
Justice Delayed?
If a trial was in session and a courthouse fire mysteriously occurred in the middle of the night, chances are someone was trying to destroy evidence to prevent justice from being carried out. Sometimes fires were set to carry out vigilante justice.
In 1930 a lynch mob killed George Hughes, a Negro man accused of attacking a white woman in Sherman (Grayson County), Texas. Hughes was then locked in a vault in the courthouse basement as attempts at mob violence were averted, the third attempt thwarted by Texas Rangers and local law enforcement after plans to use dynamite were uncovered. Undeterred,
the mob resisted and set the courthouse on fire. So many fires, so many tragic stories.
Of course, those irretrievable records aren’t just a source of headaches and disappointment for genealogists today. At the time of these unfortunate incidents, hundreds of court cases and various legal actions were left hanging or unresolved in both the near and longer-term due to destruction of records by fire or other disaster.
If you’re researching Civil War ancestors, you may have come across the term “burned counties”, often used in regards to Virginia research after many records were either destroyed during the Civil War or by courthouse fire. There are strategies for finding those records and the rest of this excerpted article provides some tips.
For more discussion on this issue and to read the entire article, complete with more examples and resources, purchase the issue here. FYI, this particular issue features a look back at all the United States censuses dating back from 1790-1940.
Thanks for stopping by! For more stories like this one, consider subscribing to Digging History Magazine. Purchasing a subscription entitles you to subscriber benefits (20% off all services, including custom-designed family history charts) AND a chance to win your very own custom-designed family history chart! Details here (or click the ad below).
Footnotes: