ARCHBOLD WEATHER

German Township Records Restored By Sauder Village

Thousands of Pages of Documents Date Back to 1835




Clockwise from top left: Tracie Evans, curator of collections at Sauder Village, with some records she has restored for German Township; a ticket to the 1916 Fulton County Fair; a poll book from the Nov. 8, 1921 general election, containing

Clockwise from top left: Tracie Evans, curator of collections at Sauder Village, with some records she has restored for German Township; a ticket to the 1916 Fulton County Fair; a poll book from the Nov. 8, 1921 general election, containing

If you had family members that lived in German Township anytime after 1834, chances are Tracie Evans has seen their name, or possibly touched a document that bore their signature.

Evans is the curator of collections at Sauder Village. She just completed an extensive cleaning and restoration of German Township records from as early as 1834, when the township was created.

The invaluable collection includes dozens of old record books, thousands of old documents– most handwritten– and even an old machine bolt or two.

“When you start looking at old records, you never know what you’re going to find,” she said.

“We found nuts and bolts that were in the bottom of boxes. Somebody had not realized they dropped them in there, and left, and the next thing you know…”

The collection of old records is larger than that of many other townships.

“Somebody must have said, ‘I think we’re supposed to keep some of that, so we’ll error on the side of caution and keep it all,’” she said.

 

 

“That’s a blessing. It doesn’t happen all the time, but we just love it when it does.”

Included

Items in the collection include school records, and records of relief for the poor and relief for military veterans of the Civil War and their families, with records of payments made in the 20th century.

“They did save most of their original file boxes, so we have these really wonderful old boxes of records. Like this one,” she said, pointing to a box.

“This one is 1912 bids, so we have every bid for every piece of equipment the township has looked at, especially in the 20th century; the 19th century, not so much. The bids were done verbally, if they were even doing bids at that time.”

In early December, she was looking at documents dated in 1941 related to the food stamp program.

the names of persons who cast ballots; an ink blotter bearing an advertisement for Lauber Clothing, Archbold.– photos by David Pugh

the names of persons who cast ballots; an ink blotter bearing an advertisement for Lauber Clothing, Archbold.– photos by David Pugh

“The food stamp program was first organized in May 1939, so these were the rules for 1941, including a copy of the application, which is not quite like we do today,” she said.

Today, the food stamp program is administered by the state, not townships.

Joint Project

Kenneth “Skip” Leupp, township trustee, said the trustees were aware of the old records and that they were “something we wanted take care of.”

Evans said Sauder Village officials were aware of the records for a long time, and had used them periodically for research.

Then in July 2012, the township garage was severely damaged in a windstorm.

Evans said the Village offered space to store the old records, so they were moved to Sauder Village.

There they sat.

In the winter of 2012-13, Evans learned of a grant available through the Ohio Records Board. Sauder Village and the trustees applied as a joint project, and received about $2,000 in grant funds.

 

 

She began working on the project in June, with the help of three others– Shelby Phillips, Whitehouse; Gail Richardson, Delta; and Ann Lux, Ida, Mich.

The grant money paid for supplies needed to clean and organize the records.

“There was no cost to the township,” Leupp said.

“Many of these documents have been moved several times over their lifetime, and ended up in big plastic tubs,” said Evans.

“The township trustees don’t necessarily know how to take care of paper; that’s not their job.

“They just stuck them in the tubs.”

Evans said there were mouse bits– bits of paper they used to build nests.

“There was lots of water damage. You name it; it was in there. We didn’t find anything alive, so that was good,” she said.

But the records were filthy.

Cleaning

How does one clean old paper?

“There are several ways to do it,” Evans said. “One way is with a vacuum. We have one that you can turn the speed lower, so it doesn’t suck the paper into the vacuum.

“One of the things we use is a paper cleaner… that looks like a giant eraser, and you sort of erase the dirt off. It won’t remove everything, but it gets the worst of it.

“We didn’t think it would take so long to clean all the records, but they actually ended up being dirtier than we anticipated.

“We thought we would be able to vacuum most of the records and that would be enough, but we very quickly realized that wasn’t going to be enough.”

It didn’t seem like a daunting task at first.

“But once I got into it, I was like, what did I get myself into?” said Evans. “I’m quite the optimist, but in October, I was saying, ‘We’re never getting done!’”

The documents will be returned to the trustees and stored in their new building on West Mechanic Street, the site of the former Dielman Supply Company.

By law, there are records they must keep forever. As part of the grant, Sauder Village is working with Northwest State Community College and Bowling Green State University to prepare a document telling the trustees what they must save, and what they might like to save.

Evans will also prepare a “finding guide,” telling future researchers where to look for particular items.

The old German Township records “are invaluable as a research tool,” she said.

“This is one of those gems. It’s priceless.”

Old Blotters

Also among the findings were old blotters. Old dipwell ink pens, and later, fountain pens, were blotted to make the writing neat and legible.

Among the collection were blotters with advertising messages.

“They never threw any of them away, which is really odd,” she said. “They’re not really something the township will have to keep.

“Those are the kinds of really cool pieces of information that are the hidden gems of this collection.”


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