Donowutt County is unique in Missouri, or possibly even in
the whole USA. What other county can
boast it’s not documented in state or national records anywhere? The county is, however, documented at the
County Courthouse in Higginsburg. Most
of the early records were lost in the Civil War when Quantrill burnt the
courthouse in the early 1860s. He was a
bit upset that he couldn’t find it on his maps and assumed it was part of a
Northern plot. But that’s another
story. The new courthouse was started in
the late ‘60s and finished in the mid 1870s about when the great locust plague
hit our part of the state.
I want to tell you so much about the courthouse and
county. I tend to get a little excited
about it because I find it all so fascinating.
So please bear with me, as this may tend to be a little disjointed at
times. I guess I’m proof Donowutt County
is not impossible to find. How I came to
be the Recorder of Events for the county was a bit odd, but I guess it keeps in
character with the rest of the place –a bit odd.
I was writing the story of one of the county’s accidental
citizens and while researching, actually found myself in the county. Word got around I was writing Redtail’s
story and I became known as “the author” or “that author”. The police dispatcher out in Thistle Dew
began calling me Mr. A. and it stuck. On
one of my sight-seeing drives, I happened upon the courthouse. It’s a beautiful big old building. I went inside to look around and was stopped
by one of the county commissioners who was seemingly expecting me. He had a certificate of appointment, signed
by the Count, himself (They call the head administrator of the county the
count.), and met me quite near the main entrance to the building. He handed me the certificate and briefly
explained what was going on and disappeared off to conduct other county
business.
I looked at the certificate and it stated that the
commissionership had appointed me as Recorder of Events. I didn’t even know they were aware of
me. As I looked around, still not
knowing what had really happened, I spotted an office door. There, to the right of the door was a painted
wooden sign labeling the “Recorder of Events” office, with my nickname below,
“Mr. Author” So I went in. Everything happened in a blur to me. I was only visiting, and now I had my own
office. This writing is my attempt to
make sense out of what happened, and to learn my new surroundings, while
telling you of my findings in Donowutt County.
Organize my thoughts here.
I guess the first thing I should do is learn my way around my office a
bit, then around the courthouse, but in doing that, I can’t neglect the whole
reason I came to the county, Redtail’s story.
I'd hate to leave that story without some sort of closure.
My office is a pretty good sized room. High ceiling with three hooded incandescent
lights hanging on long wires, a tall narrow window on the wall behind each
of the two desks, four floor lamps, and a desk light for each desk and one near
the computer provide the lighting.
During the day, the ivory walls with the windows provide a very pleasant
diffused light. It really gives a sort
of soft-focus surreal feel to the office.
It’s like a step back in time. I
feel like there should be ashtrays on pedestals and background clutter like in
a 1940s detective movie. I don’t smoke,
so that’s out of the question, and the clutter is really missing, since my
office assistant, Sue, keeps things pretty tidied up.
Sue is an interesting piece of office equipment. I shouldn’t call her ‘equipment’ but she just
seemed to be included with the office. She
seemed shocked and embarrassed at encountering me for her first time in the
office. She’s what I’d call, in no
derogatory sense at all, a little old blue-haired lady. Her ‘real’ job is the writer of obituaries
for the county paper, “The Donowutt County Record”. She’s also a printing assistant for that
office. The paper is published out of
the basement of the courthouse. I’ve not
been down there yet, but probably will have been by the time this document is
finished. Sue worked at one of the two
desks in my office for many years before I arrived. It was vacant, so she put it to practical
use. She asked if she could be my assistant because she was bored writing just
obituaries. I agreed, pending my finding
out rules of the job that might preclude that, but, my certificate of
appointment said my duties were to be performed in accordance with rules of the
Office of Recorder of Events. Then I
discovered those rules are written and adapted by the Recorder. It seems I get to make my own rules for the
job. Anyway, Sue knows her way around
both the Courthouse and the county, and that will be a great help for me.
The office alone holds a wealth of information that would
provide me with fuel for writing for years.
Three walls are lined with five foot file cabinets, punctuated by the two
windows and a narrow door behind which I’d not yet explored. Those cabinets hold copies of all the county
papers back to when they started in the 1840s.
I looked at one. Wow! That’s some
brittle paper now. I see digitizing
those as a project some day. I wonder
how difficult that is? Oh well, on with
the tour. Other cabinets held records on
individuals –biographies, trivia and so much more. Cabinets of histories of
each of the cities in the county –oh this is neat!—even former and
unincorporated towns. I am REALLY going
to have fun hunting through all this.
Now I’m wondering if Ruby has tapped into this resource. She’s a history enthusiast and home schooler
in Thistle Dew. I heard she likes to
write on important and unique citizens of the county. Maybe it’s only for her home town. Anyway, she wrote a paper for school on
Redtail.
I should probably wander the building some –oh yeah, the
office furniture! It’s all in wonderful
condition, but it looks like it’s all World War II vintage. It’s beautiful stuff! Big desks, wooden chairs –they roll and tilt,
but not so far they try to throw you out.
On the long wall opposite the windows, are two deep cushy-looking padded
chairs flanking a long dark wood coffee table.
A large stand-up height table is by the door. I’m guessing it’s to spread open
newspapers. I’ll get back to other
details of the office later. On to the
rest of the building.
Starting back outside in front of the main entrance, you walk up the wide concrete steps
and come to four doors: double set in the middle with two singles at each
side. Step inside. About 15 feet straight ahead is a flight of
stairs to the second floor. On either
side of the stairs are carpeted areas, each equipped with desk and chair, like
temporary workspaces if needed. Long
hallways extend down past the stairway on either side, and those halls are
lined with wooden benches, almost like church pews between the multitude of
offices. My office is the first office
on the left. Why an office like Recorder
of Events is located there escapes me.
I’d think a more important office like county collector or assessor’s
office should be most accessible. Still,
it affords me a nice vantage point to observe the comings and goings of county
business. I guess since the Courthouse
is the hub of county business, I should tell you a little of what I know, or
the little I know, of county government.
Being effectively lost to the state and nation, the government has to be
self-sustaining. I think it’s really a
neat set-up.
Donowutt County is divided into three regions. The western region is mostly flat farmland
with its main city being Midtown –named because it’s really mid-sized in
comparison to others in the county. The
central region is the Missouri highway 13 corridor, and it contains the two
largest cities in the county, Higginsburg and Big River. The eastern region is rocky and hilly. It looked promising for lead mining, but I
don’t really know yet, whatever became of that undertaking. I know at least the Nowhere (pronounced
now-here) project was abandoned before it took off. This is the region in which Redtail and her
home town of Thistle Dew, or Wilder is located.
The eastern region also has the small town of Baldspot in the north.
Each of the three regions has a commissioner, elected by the people. Those three commissioners choose from among
them one to be the head administrator, or Count or Countess. He or she heads the county, so it’s a fitting
title. The region from which the count
is selected then re-elects a commissioner as a replacement. That way the Count can perform duties in a less biased manner.
The count holds the office for six years, but can be ‘fired’
by the Posse which is selected by the head judge and law enforcement. It’s starting to sound like a police state,
but it’s really far from it. The Posse
is made up of volunteer citizens, but, they’re selected by Law Enforcement and
sort of appointed to their positions.
They can decline the appointment with no ill repercussions.
The Posse is an independent citizen watch group. This group, however. has the power to remove
the head judge and members of the commissionership if their behavior is deemed
unethical. I’m not real clear on how
this is done yet, but it’s an area to look in on. An appointment to The Posse is a lifetime
appointment. Membership can be revoked
by two-thirds vote of Posse members and unanimous vote of the judges, or a
member can resign voluntarily. The Posse
serves as the eyes and ears of Donowutt County Law Enforcement (DCLE). The Posse is organized like a military
organization, and often assists DCLE as needed.
It was formed during the Quantrill episodes in the 1860s. The Posse ran Quantrill and his men out of
Donowutt County. My office shares a wall
with Posse headquarters. It might be fun
to listen in on what goes on there, but they’re just a spooky enough group I
wouldn’t want to be caught doing that.
The Posse has a conference room under the main stairs and toward the
back of the Courthouse building, pretty much in the middle. The Posse’s distribution throughout the county
and their connections with DCLE serves to keep misbehavior in the county to a
minimum. I’m on pretty good terms with several
members, and with the head judge, whose office is upstairs.
The whole DCLE and commissionership organization is nicely
self-monitoring. The Commissioners are
voted by the populace, and the head judge is appointed by the Count/ess to a 10
year, potentially repeating term. The
judge and sheriff, who is elected, select the law enforcement personnel. The law enforcement folks observe and
recommend Posse members who are screened and approved by the judge. The Posse has power to remove the
commissionership and it takes the Posse and the commissionership to remove
Posse members. I think the commissioners
can replace judges, too, but I’d have to double-check that. So the system really checks and balances
itself. And now, back to the Courthouse
building.
The next office down from The Posse’s office is the County Clerk’s
Office. It oversees all county, state
and national ballots and elections and serves as a resource center for
municipal activities in that area.
Somehow, and I’m not sure how yet, Donowutt County has access to higher
government elections and voting. We also
have Post Offices, yet, we remain strangely elusive to outsiders of the county,
bordering on their thinking many times that we might even be fictitious. That seclusion has its perks.
That about sums up the north wall of my hallway. My office is about 30 feet, east to west and
about 12 feet wide north to south. I
don’t think that hall looks a hundred feet long, so I’d guess the other offices
couldn’t be quite so spacious as mine.
I’ll have to poke my head inside to snoop someday under the guise of
introducing myself.
Back over to the main entrance where we started, facing the
stairs, but to the south hallway this time, the first office on the right,
straight south of mine, is the Sheriff’s and Juvenile Officer’s office. They have another more-regularly used office
in their annex, but it’s their presence in the Courthouse. To the east and opposite The Posse’s Office
is the County Collector’s and County Treasurer’s office. I’d not really considered much how tax
collection takes place, but taxes are collected in about the same proportions
as in the rest of the state, but since Donowutt County is really lost to the
rest of the world, income which would otherwise have been routed to state and
national government is collected in case the county is found and everyone
demands back taxes, but more as a fund to be used with discretion for projects
as needed. The county might come across
as poor, but it’s not at all lacking in funds.
It’s a benefit of conservative spending practices.
Next to the Collector's and Treasurer's office and opposite the County Clerk’s
office is the office of Assessor and Surveyor.
All up the east end of the building are the commissionership
offices. Two entrances open on the north
hall and two on the south. I briefly
covered that side of my floor, since I only spend brief time there. We’ll get back some time, but I need to give
you the quick tour of the upstairs, or court offices, then the basement. Let’s head back to the main entrance.
Standing by the main doors again, look straight ahead. Up
the stairs and stop at the top puts us on the judicial floor of the Courthouse.
On the east wall is a row of benches like those which line the halls on the
main floor. At the north and south ends
of the benches are wide doors which open on the north and south courtrooms. I don’t see a need for two courtrooms as
their trial load isn’t that much. Maybe
earlier times were rougher. Turning an
about face and looking west, gives us a view back down the stairs. To the north and south of that stairs
corridor but still on the judicial floor are two doors. They open into hallways to access the judges,
prosecuting attorney, circuit clerk and court offices and jury deliberation
rooms. I can likely get head Judge
Noyugo to give us a better tour of the judicial floor. Let’s head back downstairs to the main
floor.
We turn around and look
to the desks on either side of the stairs.
Behind those north and south exposed offices are doors on either side of
that central stairwell. Those doors open
to stairs down to the basement. Since
I’m most familiar with my hallway, we’ll use that door and head down and to the
south. That bottom landing puts us almost
in the middle of the basement. We’ll
turn left and face east. To our right and left are stairs leading up to the main
floor. In front of us is a fairly large enclosed conference room with wide
hallways on either side. Directly behind
us is a door to the Emergency Management Office. Stepping out into the hallway in front of the
conference room and looking left and along the entire north side of the
basement is the Donowutt County Record newspaper office. Outsiders may see the paper’s office being in
the basement of the Courthouse as a conflict of interest, but it doesn’t seem
to keep them from slamming county governmental decisions as they’re
needed. I’ll have to see if Sue knows
more about that topic. Behind us and on
the south wall are three more offices and a hallway. From left to right along
the south wall are a vacant office, the Public Administrator’s office and the
County Recorder’s office. Opposite the
Recorder’s office is the Human Relations office.
I think that about sums up the contents of the Donowutt
County Courthouse. I know I left out lots of detail, but I won’t really
know how much until I learn the Courthouse a little better. I mentioned the Sheriff’s office on the main
floor. The DCLE is such a big part of County operations, I
should mention a little about their organization, since part is in the
Courthouse.
Donowutt County Law Enforcement is rather unique as law
enforcement goes, which shouldn’t really be surprising by now. They seem to have connections with outside
law enforcement agencies, but outside agencies seem to hesitate mentioning
their possible awareness of Donowutt County.
They have access to missing persons and abduction networks, as well as
wanted lists and so forth. The Sheriff’s
office oversees operations for the whole DCLE.
The Sheriff appoints police chiefs to the various municipalities which
maintain offices. Officers are assigned
under the chiefs but all have jurisdiction throughout the county. Officers are appointed by the Sheriff’s
office and the head judge. The Sheriff
and Judge select these officers from a pool of applicants maintained by the
assistant judges. Some of this might
sound confusing, and I hope I didn’t get it too jumbled up here.
I’ll try to get an appointment with Judge Noyugo to see what
he can tell us about his judicial floor of the building. We’ll also talk more with Sue. I’ve got some friends in DCLE and other
places in the county whom I met through my pursuit of Redtail’s story. If you haven’t heard her story, it’s really
quite interesting and fun. I better be
heading home. Tomorrow’s another day.
*** ***
Good morning all!
Today, I think I’ll snoop around in the file cabinets in my office and
try to find Judge Noyugo. Who knows what
else may happen? I certainly don’t.
This furniture in here is beautiful. The file cabinets look like they’re made of a
dark oak and they’re highly polished. They
all look brand new, but I’m sure they’re quite old originals. Let’s see now, on my west wall, the short one
to the left just as you step in the office, has four cabinets and the mystery
door. Behind the open door is a
wood-posted coat rack with brass hooks and legs. The post looks darker than the other wood
furniture. I’m guessing it might’ve been
an afterthought. The sweater must be Sue’s. I wonder where she might be? Probably down working on the D.C.
Record. If it’s like usual, she’ll be in
and out fairly often. Ha! “Like usual”!
I really can’t say I’ve got a usual, since I’m so new in here. I’m pretty much discovering the place with
you.
Wow, this is some excellent handwriting on these file
cabinet drawer labels. I wonder if Sue
did these. It looks like whoever made
these used a copperplate calligraphy pen.
I’d tried those from time to time, but my lines always turned out ugly. Mmmm the smell is like history. I felt a faint rumble in the first drawer as
I pulled it open. The bearings in the
glides still felt smooth, but maybe they could use a little oil. This organization of the old papers is
wonderful. I guess it’s intuitive,
too. It looks like the most frequently
the paper was published was weekly, but dropped back to monthly during the late
1910s and back to weekly in the ‘20s to drop back to monthly and even quarterly
during the early 1930s to pick back up again to weekly around 1935. I’ll guess World War II conservation of
resources forced it to drop to monthly in 1942.
From 1947 to the present the paper’s stayed a monthly publication. And this is getting me to think maybe part of
this office is being used as a Donowutt County Record archive? Well, I’m not going to suggest it should be
stored in the basement with other paper stuff.
These will be fun to browse.
I tugged on the door in the wall, but it seemed to be
painted shut. I poked my pocket knife
into the joint where the door contacted the frame and tried to pry a bit, but
to no avail. I guess for now, the door
will have to remain a mystery. Now I’m
into the northwest corner of the office where stands a floor lamp near Sue’s
desk. The desks are spacious things. They both seem to be executive-size. More file cabinets along the north wall. Two tall ones like on the west wall, and two
short ones under the window. Several
more tall cabinets, the middle window and two shorties, followed by more talls,
another window with shorties and two more talls in that corner, with another floor
lamp. Along the east wall is four more
file cabinets.
The south wall of my office is lined from left to right with
a chair, a low table and another chair with floor lamps beside each chair. Those are straight across from my desk,
implying I might be having guests from time to time. Right of the chairs and lamps is a taller
broad table with ample drawers beneath, and back to the door, directly to the
right of the table. Then there’s my
desk, which occupies the northeast corner of the office.
I sat down in my hard wood rolling swivel and tilting
chair. It is surprisingly
comfortable. I stretched my arms out and
put my spread my hands palm down on the desktop. I breathed deep a couple times. Scanning the surroundings I picked up on more
details of the office. The floor was
tiled. I’d guess the ivory color used to
be white, but yellowed over the years of thick waxing. It’s probably asbestos tiles, too. All around the room, from floor to chair
bump-rail, is vertical wood shiplap paneling.
Above that is almost-smooth plaster wall painted ivory in a seeming
attempt to match the floor. Oh wow, I’d
not noticed the narrow windows along the south wall ceiling until just
now. They all seem to have the option of
opening inward. I wonder how the heating
and air conditioning works? It feels warmish
in here, but still comfortable. I smiled
as the window air conditioning unit registered for the first time. That’ll be fun. It looks like a pretty big unit, but this is
a pretty big room, too. I close my eyes,
smiled and took another comfortable long breath. The door gave a little creak and I jumped.
Sue said, “Oh I’m sorry, am I disturbing you?”
“No, I was just regrouping to try to take in more of this
new office of mine, or, I mean, ours.”
“It’s your office, sir.
I’m just borrowing space.”
“Na, it’s your office, too.
By the way, do you know what’s behind that door in your corner?”
“I really don’t know, but I think it was sealed off because
it was too narrow to access that closet quite right. The closet access is from the hallway now. That’s the unlabeled door next to ours. It’s really our closet, and our computer
printer is in there, too.”
“The printer’s in there?” I scanned the room to confirm no
printer to be seen. My computer was on
the low cabinets behind my desk under the window. And that seemed to be the
only computer in the room. “Isn’t the
printer being in another room inconvenient?”
“The computer was such a joy to have, and the old fanfold
dot-matrix printer we used to have took so much space and was so noisy. It was wonderful to graduate to a wireless
but more remote printer. I’ve gotten
quite used to it.”
I smiled. “I guess I’ll get used to it all. Are there any building quirks or people with
strange behaviors I should be aware of?”
“The people here are great, and I’ll let you develop your
own opinions. I don’t want mine to
affect your relations one way or another.
I think we’re all a pretty decent bunch.
The building. Hmmm. The custodial and maintenance crew keep
things running pretty smooth. Willie
keeps on top of our needs. He always
says, “Things should always be in such good condition the building crew is
never felt to be needed.” He tries to
anticipate everything before it gets noticed by others.”
“Who’s Willie?”
“Willie Thomas. He’s
the head of Facilities Maintenance. He
works out of Annex One. That’s another
building in the County Government Complex.”
“Complex? How many
buildings are we talking about?”
“Now let me see.
There’s this one, the Maintenance Building or Annex One, the Law Enforcement
complex, which is a couple buildings down the street a ways, and then there’s
the big storage and supplies center building or Annex Two. Yeah, there’s a few buildings for Willie to
keep track of.”
A single sharp rap on the door. It opened and in stepped a man looking to be
around 50 yrs old dark hair with frosty sides.
It looked like he was dressed in olive drab maintenance clothes, which
turned out to be military fatigues. Yeah,
he also had lots more hair than I do.
Anyway, he began. “I heard I got a new next door neighbor. I’m Mo Anderson, Posse commander. Welcome aboard!” He extended a hand and big smile.
We exchanged handshakes and I asked, “Might you be available
to answer some of my newcomer questions some time? I’ve not been here long enough to know what
to ask yet.”
He replied, “Yeah, I think I could do that for ya. Well, I
gotta run for now, but I thought I’d poke my head in and say ‘hi’ since I
caught you here.” And he slipped out.
Sue said, “He’s a scurrier, but he’s friendly enough.”
I gave a little laugh.
Sue asked about it, so I said, “My head does weird stuff sometimes. The thought, ‘I wonder if anyone calls him
Commanderson?’ popped into my head.”
Sue shook her head. “Oh boy, this’ll be an interesting work
relationship.”
“I’ll try to behave.
I think I’ll wander upstairs and see if Judge Noyugo is in.”
“It’s Wednesday, and I know he hears cases on Tuesday. You might be able to catch him in his
office.”
“Is there a telephone directory of people who work here
somewhere?”
“The only directory I’d ever used is the one out in the
lobby. I guess I got used to walking to
an office if I needed to talk to anyone.”
“That must be how you stay so sleek and trim.”
Sue laughed. I headed
up to the judge’s office.
The stairs to the judicial floor was brightly lit. Why hadn’t I noticed the big skylight right
over the stairs earlier? Oh well.
Shoot! I should’ve looked at that
directory. Maybe his door’s labled. I turned right and walked back along the
stair corridor to a door. I slowly
opened it, and it opened onto another hallway.
To my right was the Courts and Circuit Clerk office. Straight ahead was
a jury deliberation room, so I turned left and walked to the corner of the hall
and took another left. Two offices on that hall labeled Associate Judge, and
the courtroom, so I backtracked and took the door to the right of the stair
landing.
Again, but to the left, was apparently a second door to the Court and Circuit
Clerk’s office, and another deliberation room ahead of me. I turned right this time to the corner and
took a right down that hall. That looked
more promising. The first office was
labeled “Donowutt County Judge”. Just to
be sure, I looked at the next office and it was labeled, Prosecuting
Attorney. At the end of the hall, like
the other side was a door labeled Courtroom.
I knocked lightly but audibly on the County Judge’s
door. A low voice answered, “Please come
in.”
I opened the door and Judge Hugo Noyugo stood up and
extended his hand, “Ah, you must be Mr.A. our new Recorder of Events!”
“Yes, I’m trying to learn my way around the building, and
got the impression you were quite in-the-know regarding the history of the
county and the Courthouse.”
“I heard the story of Quantrill’s burning of the original courthouse
and the rebuilding in the 1870s.”
“OK, so you’ve got a little background on the place. Probably picked that up while writing about
Redtail, I’m guessing?”
“You really do have your finger on the pulse of the County,
don’t you?”
“I’ve got some pretty good connections here and there. Have you met the commissioners?”
“I met a commissioner when he gave me my certificate of
appointment as Recorder of Events, but he disappeared quite quickly after
giving me the document. He was a fairly
small-framed man.”
“Ah, that’d be Western Commissioner, Hank, if he’s a small
guy, delivering something on behalf of the Count. He gets stuck with a lot of those duties
since his office is next door to the Count’s.”
“So Hank’s office would be in the northeast corner of my
hallway then. Things are actually
beginning to fall into place for me.”
“Donowutt County’s not all that complicated. You should watch a trial some time, or attend
a Posse meeting.”
“They’d allow me to attend a Posse meeting?”
“Oh yes, it’s not a secret organization, by any means. It’s just not the easiest group to be a part
of, and it requires some fairly intense dedication from time to time. Actually, you’d need to get permission, and
my recommendation probably wouldn’t hurt, either. Meeting attendance and going on a mission are
two completely different things.”
“I could see that. Do
you normally hear cases on Tuesdays?”
“We get lots of petty stuff, but very few jury trials
anymore. Tales of Posse’s vigilant eyes
and rumors of Rainy Island Prison serve to keep the would-be evil-doers pretty
much in check.”
“Rainy Island Prison seems to be a topic of its own. A whole book could be written about the
rumors alone. Let’s see now –Quantrill burnt
the old courthouse and most of the school.
Did you know the school got re-built on the same site, eventually
becoming the library, and the Courthouse got rebuilt on its new site, here?”
“I heard the Courthouse got rebuilt, but I didn’t hear the
site was changed.”
“The particulars on that escape me right now, but hey, you
could look all that up in your papers archive.”
“I certainly do have lots to research. Well, I better let you get back to work, and
I’ll probably be around Tuesday. I’ll
see about that Posse meeting, too. It
was good meeting you, Judge.”
“And you, too. If you
like old stories, you might check out The Three Maidens Bardic Nights on
Fridays. They’re outside the east end of
town just up into the hills a bit. I
also like to drop by The Bumpy Log Social Club over in Nowhere on Tuesday
nights. They usually let me do a lot of
tale weaving then.”
I let the Judge get on with his day, and I headed back to
the office. Sue looked up from her desk.
“Was the Judge in?”
“Yes he was, and he tipped me off to court on Tuesdays and
that I might like to attend a Posse meeting.
I wonder if our newspapers give hints as to how the Courthouse was
rebuilt and why this site was selected?”
Sue straightened up to go to the file cabinet.
“Oh, don’t look that up for me now. I’m still trying to round up things to write
about”
She smiled and settled back to her whatever it is she was
doing.
“So Sue, how did you land a job writing obituaries? That seems like an odd assignment.”
“It’s not all I do.” She laughed. “I also monitor
subscriptions, do the billing and accounting stuff. I’m sort of a behind-the-scenes office
assistant, and they give me all the obituaries to write. I’m not really sure why.”
I sat down at my desk and turned around to face the
computer.
Sue turned toward me and crossed her arms across her
chest. “Perhaps you could tell me, how
you landed your job, and what it is that you do?”
An awkward silence followed her question. I sat back, looked at the window and said, “Ya
know, I’m not really sure how I got the job.
It was just handed to me –almost literally. There was no job description, and the
certificate seems to imply that the job is mine and I decide what the job
is. I’m thinking it’s sort of like a
historian or reporter. I think what I
might try until I’m told otherwise, is to snoop around the county and write
about what I find. And here’s where it
feels really weird. I know lots of stuff
happened before I arrived on the scene, but if I don’t write it nobody will
know. There’s a whole county of people
in Donowutt County, but they’re literally quite unknown or non-existent until I
write about ‘em. Maybe that’s what the Commissioner
meant when he relayed the Count’s words of ‘if I don’t write it, it didn’t
happen. Maybe the nickname folks gave me, Mister Author, is more fitting than I
thought.’
Sue gave a little squeak, smiled, and as she turned back to
her desk, said, “Hmm. Cool.”
Her response implied I gave a satisfactory answer. I know I’m not sure that it should be. I mean, I know of so much stuff that’s
happened here, but nobody else does until I write it. It’s like I create the very existence of so
much in Donowutt County… Oh, stop
it! You always thought philosophy was a
silly undertaking. Maybe this job is
lots more important than I originally thought.
OK, I gotta get off this train of thought.
A gentle knock on the door, and a head squeezed through. He
stepped in followed by a girl. They both
looked in their teens, and they just stood there smiling at me. “What can I do for you two?”
The boy said, “You don’t recognize us, do you?” The girl smiled as if I was to get a flash of
revelation that two long lost friends found me.
“I almost feel bad about this, but I really can’t place you.”
The girl sighed and gave a light stomp. “I’m Ruby, from The
Relics.”
The boy broke right in, “And I’m Rick. We’re the historians over at the museum in
Thistle Dew. The Relics is the name of
our home school co-op, ‘cuz we all meet in the museum.”
“You wrote about us in Redtail’s story.” said Ruby. “Oh! Oh!” she gasped as she looked around the
office. She giggled, “He didn’t recognize us because this is a different story
and we’re new characters here!”
Rick argued, “It’s all part of Donowutt County, so we’re not
really new to Mr.A. He should’ve… Never
mind. Anyway, we’d love to help you out
with your new Recorder of Events job. We’ve
been writing a bunch on Thistle Dew with lots of spinoffs to other parts of the
county.”
Ruby put her head down and grinned while she whispered, “Wilder.”
Rick gave her a gentle elbow nudge.
I told them to have a seat, and they could very likely help
me in my job, or at least in trying to develop what it should be.
Ruby said, “We heard you got the job as Recorder of Events
for the county, and we thought that was pretty cool. We wanted to visit and see if we could help” She shifted a bit in her chair, “So you’re
writing about the whole county now, instead of just Redtail and her life in
Wilder?”
Rick softly growled, “Thistle Dew.” Ruby blew a little raspberry at him.
I better tell you.
Thistle Dew and Wilder are the same town. In the 1820s when places were all registering
their names, there was a mix-up at the courthouse and Wilder got registered, by
mistake, as Thistle Dew. So Thistle Dew
became the registered official name. But, the courthouse had since been burnt
along with all its records. Folks still
argue about the town’s name. It’s all in
fun. Usually. I think.
“So, Historians, what do you know about that fire incident at the
courthouse in the 1860s?” I looked at
Ruby, “And yes, I’ve pretty much been writing about the County since finding it
through Redtail.”
Rick toned down the kid in him and got more business-like. Ruby did likewise. Rick began, “Many towns in Donowutt County
have fun stories behind their names. About
all that really remained after the fire are
the stories. Thistle Dew and Wilder is
the same town. Nowhere is pronounced Now
Here, but The Bumpy Log Social Club likes advertising they’re in the middle of
Nowhere. Baldspot wasn’t named for a
hairless spot, but rather a blank, or lacking-spot on their town’s registration
form. Midtown was named that, simply because it was the middle-sized town. Big River and Higginsburg sorta have ordinary
names.”
Ruby broke in, “Not really.
The Higgins family after whom the town is named has quite an interesting
history. It was, in fact, a Higgins who
saved the library part of the school from that big courthouse fire.” A bit of little girl slipped in as Ruby stuck
her tongue out at Rick. From what I
hear, they’re usually lots more formal.
They must’ve had a fun ride out to the Courthouse.
Rick said, “It was mid July in 1863 that William Quantrill
and his men came through Donowutt County.
By then, the county was already used to not being on maps, but Quantrill
didn’t like that idea.”
Ruby snorted lightly, “Judge Noyugo calls them Billy
Quantrill and his Merry Men.”
I added, “Yeah, I could see him doing that.”
Rick continued, “Quantrill and his men were giving the
people a hard time about being northern sympathizers, because they couldn’t
explain why we weren’t on their map. We’d
have loved it if they could get us back into the world, but we’re kinda used to
it now. We actually enjoy our
seclusion. Anyway, they pushed people
around and many got hurt as they tried to fight answers out of us that they
wanted to hear. They wanted us to
confess so they could burn and loot and slaughter as they wished. They probably would have anyway, had it not
been for the formation of The Posse.”
Ruby said, “See, Higginsburg isn’t such a boring name!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rick continued, “Max Higgins, grandson of the
guy who suggested the site for Higginsburg’s permanent relocation, is the guy
who formed The Posse. He rounded up over
a hundred guys from Higginsburg, Big River, Thistle Dew…” Rick glanced at
Ruby. She only smiled. “and
Midtown. They were on the march into
Higginsburg when the Quantrill Raiders set the courthouse on fire. Wow, those bullies weren’t expecting the
reception they got. Four or five of them
were killed and they never did spot The Posse.
They left quick, and as they were regrouping to come back, The Posse
fell on them again. Max Higgins and
several others broke from The Posse to come back and put down the fire. It was dry, July, so the courthouse went
pretty fast, but they managed to save a big chunk of the school. That was the wall which had the library. There wasn’t enough left of the courthouse to
rebuild or even salvage, but they rebuilt the school. When the school moved to a bigger building,
the old school became the public library in memory of Max Higgins saving that
wall.”
“The Civil War,” I pondered aloud, “must’ve been a rough
time for everybody.”
Ruby said, “I don’t know about for Donowutt County. Except for the Quantrill thing, we pretty
much had no clue what was going on, other than news we got from the outside.” She glanced at Rick. “And I guess I gotta
admit, Wilder’s official name is probably Thistle Dew, since the Post Office
has that name.”
I said to Ruby, “You seemed so nervous most of the time
while interviewing Redtail. You sure
seem to have lightened up since then.”
Rick said, “See? He remembers
us now!”
“This isn’t really an interview,” said Ruby. “No pressure, and besides, my mom’s not with us
either.”
“I think you guys would be quite helpful. I don’t know quite where I’m going with this
job yet, but whenever you’re in town drop on by and we’ll see what ya got.
Sue said, “Or come by the paper office. We can probably put you to work folding the
papers or coloring the black and white pictures.”
Ruby’s mouth dropped. “Really? Like you have to fold all the
papers?”
Rick laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
Sue smiled and said, “Oh no, the papers are really
mechanically folded. It’s a neat process
to watch. You want to do that some time?”
I smiled and shook my finger at Sue. Ruby gave Rick a glare, and he laughed
again. She looked back to Sue and said, “I
think that would be interesting!”
I glanced at the clock. “I think I better be headed out for
the day. I got a 6:00 appointment
tonight and I’d like to be ready for that, whatever that may entail.”
Rick and Ruby got up and the three of us departed
together. I almost think Sue lives
there. She’s there in the morning, and I
don’t ever see her leave. We got
outdoors and Ruby turned and waved. They
wanted to make a stop at Fabric Fashion and Fun Craft store on their way back
to Thistle Dew –or Wilder.
