INTRODUCTION
Correspondence,
essays, forms, instructions, lists, publications, reports,
research material, and notes of the Historical Records Survey, a
division of the Work Projects Administration.
DONOR
INFORMATION
The WPA
Historical Records Survey was donated to the University of
Missouri by the WPA through E.M. Basye on 24 September 1942
(Accession No. 1).
HISTORICAL
SKETCH
The
Historical Records Survey was created to inventory all county
government records of each county in the United States. It was
started in January 1936 as a part of the Federal Writers Project
of the Works Progress Administration, one of the many government
sponsored projects created to provide employment during the
Depression.
The
survey had two purposes: to list manuscripts, church records, and
public records in county offices in a reference volume for the use
of county officials and the general public, and to locate,
classify, and catalog all extant county and city records to make
them more easily accessible to county officials, historians, and
research workers.
There
were field workers in each county and the City of St. Louis who
inventoried the records on prescribed forms and forwarded them to
the state office. County court records up to 1879 were transcribed
for use in the state office.
The
survey in Missouri became a separate unit of Federal Project No. 1
on 15 October 1936 and continued to operate as a part of the
national project. By an act of Congress Federal Project No. 1 was
abolished on 31 August 1939 and the Missouri project was converted
into a state-wide, locally sponsored project under the
administrative authority of B.M. Casteel, State Administrator, and
the Director of the Professional and Service Division of the WPA.
In time
the survey broadened to include inventories of church records,
manuscript collections, women's organizations, vital statistics,
American Imprints, federal archives, Civil Works Administration,
defense, Negro education, and a space survey. The completed
inventory of each county was to be published, one volume for each
county. Due to the outbreak of World War II, volumes for only
about one third of the counties in the United States were
published.
County
office records are
arranged by office. These records use either volume forms or the
unbound records forms or both. There may be essays describing the
individual offices.
The general
information category contains general descriptions of the
county, bibliographies, lists of county newspapers, answers to
county history questions, essays on topography, climate,
geography, county government and offices, paleontology, geology,
archaeology, early settlement, population, growth, development,
ethnology, particular things in the counties such as parks and
statues, relation of the county to national and state political
systems; county government, folklore, clubs, highways, cities,
points of interest, manufactures, public utilities, union labor
and labor conditions, history of the courthouse, county history,
railroads, banks, county organization, schools, county
participation in the Civil War, and lists of early county
officials.
The laws
category contains lists of Missouri laws affecting each office of
county government. The date the law was approved and the date from
which it became effective are given, as well as page and section
numbers. The laws refer to towns and cities, boundaries, territory
attached, congressional apportionment, roads and bridges,
academies, schools, agriculture, trespass, internal improvement
fund, and the seat of justice.
The lists
consists of lists of records, each entry giving type, name, date
of record, and whether the record is in file boxes or in volumes.
Ordinarily there is a list of the records for each of the county
offices. At the beginning of the list the location of the records
is given.
The manuscripts,
newspapers, and painting and statuary categories
consist of manuscript collection forms, individual manuscript
forms, newspaper forms, paintings and statuary forms, volume
forms, printed records forms, and newspapers and newspaper
clippings.
The maps,
photographs, and floor plans consists of map and
photograph forms, floor plan drawings, maps, photographs and
measurements of the offices. There is frequently material on
housing and care of records.
The publications
subcategory usually consists of one volume, Inventory of the
County Archives, ---- County, Missouri. Occasionally such
publications as city directories are included.
The township
records category is found in very few counties. When it is
found, it consists of volume forms and unbound record forms
covering the records of clerk and ex-officio assessor.
The transcription
of county court records consists of a verbatim copy of the
county court record from the first volume down through 1878. Many
county transcriptions stopped before 1879 because WPA funding had
ended. There are some gaps in the records either because the
original was destroyed or the transcription is missing. These gaps
are noted in the folder lists.
Marion
County, organized in 1826. The county seat is Palmyra
and there is a second courthouse in Hannibal.
f13213-13215
|
Buildings
|
f13216-13243
|
Churches
|
f13244
|
City
Records
|
f13245-13274
|
County
Offices
|
f13245
|
Board
of Equalization
|
f13246-13247
|
Circuit
Clerk and Court
|
f13248-13249
|
Collector
|
f13250-13259
|
Common
Pleas Court. Includes court record from 1845-1847
|
f13260-13264
|
County
Clerk and Court
|
f13265
|
Deputy
State Commissioner of Health
|
f13266
|
Highway
Commission
|
f13267-13268
|
Probate
Court
|
f13269
|
Public
Works Board
|
f13270
|
Recorder
|
f13271
|
Social
Security
|
f13272
|
Superintendent
of Schools
|
f13273
|
Surveyor
|
f13274
|
Treasurer
|
f13275-13319
|
General
Information
|
f13320-13322
|
Laws
|
f13323
|
Lists
|
f13324-13325
|
Manuscripts,
Newspapers, Paintings and Statuary
|
f13326-13331
|
Maps,
Photographs and Floor Plans. Folder 13330 is OVERSIZE.
|
f
13331
|
Publications:
Inventory of the County Archives of Missouri, No. 64,
Marion County.
|
f
13332-13613
|
Transcription
of County Court Record, 1827-1870. The transcription from
November 1864 to January 1868 is missing.
|
|