, i’ ,  
  YW 
ll  
`; 
HOUSING, CARE AND ACCESSIBILITY OF TH  RECORDS gg
Wx
The majority of available county records are now housed in the courthouse ii
at Lexington. In the early days of the county, records were kept in the homes iq
ef the various officials, a large portion of them being in the charge of Levi h
Tedd, the county clerk. When his home burned in 1805, therefore, most of the Ei
records were destroyed. What few were still legible were copied by a special ii
. committee appointed by the governor for that purpose. A second fire, in 1897, QT
. destroyed more of these early records in addition to later ones. At present, `$
, the earliest extant record (Entry 257) bears the date 1785; this, however, is iw
unique.
i 5
Early series of certain basic records which are missing or illegible due ,m
to fires, scattering of records in private homes, or gross carelessness on the ·
, part of the custodians are: Entries 8-9, ll, 21-22, 55-56, 41-45, 46, 49-50, *W
56-57, 74, 108-109, 116-117, 151, 177, 185. Where gaps occur in dates of a §
,7 series, the record entry and number have been listed under the title "Missing e
A Records" in the "Index to County Records". Y
M
q _, The present courthouse is a four-story stone building, erected in the last _,
years of the nineteenth century. Except for the county clerk's vault, it is LQ
well-ventilated and dry. It is electrically lighted throughout and approximate- vm
ly eighty per cent fireproof. The roof is of slate. q
On the first floor are located the magistrates' offices; on the second im
· floor are offices of the county judge, county court clerk, auditor, treasurer, AW
master commissioner, board of education, sheriff, constables, csunty tax com- *“
missioncr, county school supcrintendrnt, county attorney and the county road 4
engineer; offices of the circuit judge and circuit clerk are an the third floor; [
and attic record rooms l and 2 are on the fourth. li
— Records in the magistrates’ offices are in good condition. The offices
are equipped with wooden shelving and steel files.
Offices on the second floor, except those of the county board of education
and the sch ol superintendent, contain modern steel shelving and file boxes. ~
Records in these offices are given good care, and an effort is made to keep 1
them in proper order. There is very little dust or soot, except on a few files
located on the balcony.
4
The county clerk's vault, connected with his office, has only artificial _
illumination. It is somewhat damp and dirty, both of which conditions are
directly attributable to careless cleaning methods. Fittings are of steel ini `
the floor, walls and ceiling of concrete, making it comoletely firepr;of.
Records on shelves near the floor suffer to same extent from the dampness. i
Offices of the county board of education and the county school superinton— A
dent are provided with wooden bookcases and steel file cases. The bookcases t
have glass doors. The small lycks with which they are fitted are not used. g
The circuit judge's and circuit clerk's offices are equipped with the suns 4
type of steel shelving as is used in most of the second floor offices. The
YG0®PdS are clean and in gqed condition. f
Attic record rooms 1 and 2 are used to store non-current records ~f all Q
dCP&T`tTHC1ll3S, when space in the offices become cramped. Tho 1*,102113 }1i`LVC W—JJdCH we 
Shelving, and their cnntents are dusted annually. Top shelves, containing
miscellaneous records, not systematically arranged, are quite dusty. The q
YOUNG. being located directly undgr the reef, frequently bcc no rxoossivoly {
Fi 54-14 lj