Week 10: WSU's Archives - Montgomery County

This week I headed back to Wright State University's Dunbar Library to search Montgomery County Township records in their Special Collections and Archives. WSU's Special Collections and Archives holds many local government records for counties that do not have an archival repository. However, their most famous collection is the Wright Brothers Collection. Seven sections of materials concerning the Wright Brothers are housed in the archives including photographs, phonographs, family papers, technical manuscripts, awards, and more.

Special Collections and Archives reading room.

But it was the township records, not the Wright Brother Collection, I was there to see. I looked through 13 Justice of the Peace minute books for the townships of Van Buren, Clay, German, Jackson, and Perry.

A page from a Van Buren Township Justice of the Peace minute book.

I found some interesting entries in the minute books. Women taking their husbands to court for abuse, bastardy cases, indebtedness cases, and even the occasional attempted murder charge. I also found that someone had a case of the doodles when bored.

A page in a township book showing mathematics and doodles.

I also found a practice sheet of paper for someone practicing their handwriting. It read, "Begin in youth to fix virtuous habits in the mind."

Paper used for handwriting practice.

Unfortunately, for all the pages I thumbed and entries I read, my search for Manumission records came up empty. It seems that the photocopied handful in the Montgomery County Records Center and Archives might be the only ones that have survived. The lack of records is disheartening as is the fact that the only Manumission records in existence were found in the back of a stray animal book. It is hard to see people, human beings, treated that way. Although it could be that the records were lost in the Great Flood of 1913 or even thrown away after the end of the Civil War when African Americans no longer needed to register as free people. We may never know the answer.
Well, that is all I have for this week. I hope you all enjoyed and please join me next week when I make my final post. It has been an incredible adventure, so please don't miss out on the finale.
Thanks, and be good!