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May 26, 2000 |
Hanover County has its own "Kilroy was here" story. Except in Hanover, the name is
Dumont.
While exploring old files recently, new Circuit Court Clerk Frank D. Hargrove Jr. came
across documents thought by many to have been destroyed 135 years ago.
Most of the documents were found in a back room containing a number of narrow
rectangular filing containers known as Woodruff drawers.
Hargrove was startled to discover that some of the files in the drawers date back decades
before the Civil War, perhaps to 1835.
Local legend had it that as the Union army approached Hanover Courthouse in 1864, all
of the land records stored in the old courthouse were transported to Richmond, where
they were thought to be destroyed in the great fire of 1865.
"In fact we have found a significant number of court files," Hargrove says. "They weren't
lost. I'm not sure why they have not gotten attention."
In another area of the Clerk's office, Hargrove found a will book with entries dating back
to 1827. The entries in the will book, as well as the litigation records in the old Woodruff
drawers, are distinguished by the elegant calligraphy of that bygone time.
There are 130 Woodruff drawers stuffed with legal papers, but the will book is the only
one of its kind. There are only a few entries, which may or may not explain why it was
not taken to Richmond with the rest in 1864.
The most interesting notation, however, has nothing to do with property inventoried in
the early 19th century but a scrawled signature on a blank page.
The signature is of John Dumont, "Battery C 3rd R. Artillery In the Guard House, April 8,
1865", the day before Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Dumont identifies himself as
being enlisted in the Army of the James.
Hargrove was intrigued because he could imagine a scenario in which a Union soldier
could have been rifling through files in the old Hanover Courthouse in 1865.
With federal troops occupying Hanover Courthouse, the county government probably
would have been shut down, Hargrove noted. Soldiers, milling around with little to do,
could have passed the time by looking through books.
It seems "Dumont" wanted to leave a record of his service in the will book. He wrote that
he enlisted on Aug. 15, 1861, was "mustered into the United States Service" on Aug. 22,
1861, and re-enlisted Jan. 20, 1864.
There's more. Towards the middle of the book, there is a crude pencil drawing of a
cavalryman on horseback trailing another solider who is on foot. The figure on horseback
is saying "halt there" to "Corp. Riley", identified as "139 NY". The drawing has the head,
"20th NY Cavalry on Patrol."
The handwriting of the drawing of the drawing is similar to that of "Dumont".. There are
also two other names in the front of the book that are less legible and don't have the
details associated with the "Dumont" signature.
Sure enough, there was a Union solider named John Dumont who may very well have
been at Hanover Courthouse in April 1865.
Dr. James E. Watkinson, archivist for the Library of Virginia and an assistant professor at
Randolph-Macon College, researched the name and confirmed that a John Dumont from
Newport, Rhode Island, served in the 3rd Heavy Artillery, Company C.
According to an 1879 regimental history of the 3rd Rhode Island, the regiment took part
in the siege of Charleston. After that, Watkinson said, "I suspect that at least one of the
units was involved in Cold Harbor and up around the North Anna River."
"You are very lucky," Watkinson said. "He was indeed there."
"To find something like that in a court document is quite unusual," said Watkinson, who
added with a chuckle, "As soon as I talk to my superiors, we are going to try to film that
sucker."
"We need to get it in a place where it can be permanently preserved," Hargrove said. "We
want to make sure we treat these historical documents appropriately."
He is restricting access to the documents until appropriate preservation measures can be
taken.
After coming across the old documents, Hargrove had called the Circuit Court Records
Preservation Program of the Library of Virginia and applied for a grant. He received
notice last month that a $23,804 grant had been approved.
The grant will pay two people to flat-file the records in the Woodruff drawers, preserving
the condition of the original paper and preparing them for re-formatting onto microfilm.
They will be arranged and indexed.
Hargrove hopes the work will begin the work by the middle of June. The project will take
a year.
"Our goal is to get a readable facsimile of these records so the public will be able to use
them," he says.
"They are in a condition where they could have been turned to dust," Hargrove explains.
"We can't invite the public to handle them until we can go through the conservation
process."
The documents are rolled up and bound together. The paper is clearly fragile and doesn't
look as if it could endure much handling. Fearful of damaging the records, Hargrove has
looked at only a few of them.
"Whether or not they are of great historical interest we can't say," according to Hargrove.
"We don't know what we will find."
However, Hargrove believes he has at least a partial index. A new index will be prepared
as part of the preservation process, classifying the suits by type and by the names of the
parties involved.
Glenn Smith, grants administrator for the Preservation Program, had not seen the soldier
signatures and drawing but found the legal documents to be both "not very and very"
unique.
"Those types of files can be found in almost every locality in Virginia," Smith explained.
"They are unique to Hanover because those particular files are the only ones of their
time."
"Chances are they are the only place they are listed," Smith added. "That's why those
documents are so important, if they are referenced with any kind of detail at all."
Documentation on chancery cases is particularly valuable to historians because of the
wealth of information such files contain. It's not uncommon for chancery cases to list
family members and descriptions of the property, information that would not be
contained in papers involving a criminal verdict.
Smith said he would not be surprised to discover that some cases predate 1835, since
chancery cases can go on for years.
After the legal papers are folded flat, the pertinent information will be extracted and put
into a data base, including the web site for the Preservation Program.
"The downside of this process is that when they go from this tri-folded state to flat-
folded, they take up a lot of space," Smith said. He estimated the files will eventually will
take up 88-100 cubic feet.
The basement of the Clerk's office might contain still more historical treasures, perhaps
unexamined for many years.
"We've got a lot of material downstairs," says Hargrove, including a variety of old order
books, tax records and "very old" bound volumes.
As part of the preservation grant process, the Clerk's office and its contents will be
inventoried.
"We definitely have papers that date back to 1865," said Hargrove. "My hope is we'll find
some other interesting things."
"Now it's just a matter of finding out what's there," he said.