Records returned and preserved

An Arbovale store ledger from 1907-08 and a 1902 Durbin Justice of the Peace court record somehow traveled from their homes in northern Pocahontas County to the Beaver Lick in southern Pocahontas. They were discovered in the estate of the late Eldridge McComb by his son, Morgan.

Morgan noticed the names of several Sutton family members in the store ledger and gave the ledger to Chris Sutton, his colleague at Pocahontas County High School, to see if he recognized any of the names. Sutton certainly did and thought that they might be included in the Pocahontas Preservation data base.

This is how the Pocahontas County Historic Landmarks Commission ended up with two volumes of rich early 1900 Pocahontas County commercial and legal history.

The store ledger was from the R. G. Brown store, which was located on the corner of Arbovale Cemetery Road across from the Arbovale Methodist Church.

A notable account was that of the Rev. Harry Blackhurst, Landmarks Commission member Bob Sheets’ great-grandfather. Blackhurst paid his bill with cash and a watch crystal. The bill included a 15 cent straw hat for Allen, Sheets’ grandfather.

Other local families are equally represented, and this information will soon be available on the Preserving Pocahontas website as Roger Orndorff kindly scanned and digitized the entire volume.

Because of Sheets’ involvement with Historic Landmarks, he knew Jason Bauserman was working on an article about Durbin and had extensive knowledge and access to the Durbin court records.

Bauserman has returned the 1902 court docket to its original home in Durbin.

How these two large historical volumes traveled the length of the county is open to conjecture and comment.