Old clerk’s office being restored for commemoration
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| Dr. Richard Shores and Marilyn South (above) are spearheading the renovation of the historic county clerk’s office on the courtyard green in Saluda. (Photo by Larry Chowning) |
by Larry S. Chowning
The historic county clerk’s office on the courtyard green in Saluda will soon provide the public with an overview of some Middlesex County history.
The Middlesex County Museum, in cooperation with the county board of supervisors, county historical society and Preservation Virginia, are restoring the old clerk’s office and plan to eventually open the building to the public.
“We are trying to tie the opening of the clerk’s office to the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Civil War this year,” said museum board member Dr. Richard Shores. “We think it will blend in real nice. We are going to have a timeline with information so people can come in and read about the history of the clerk’s office.”
The clerk’s office has an interesting connection with the Civil War, noted Shores. The county courthouse was moved from Urbanna to Saluda in 1852 and shortly thereafter Phileman Taylor Woodward was named county clerk.
Woodward was clerk of the court for 40 years until his death on January 3, 1892. He’s considered the most famous clerk in county history because of his defiance of an order during the Civil War to move Middlesex County’s colonial court records to Richmond, the Confederate capital.
Instead, Woodward buried trunks of records underneath fodder in a barn on an island in the Dragon Run. When Union General Justin Kilpatrick’s raiders came to Saluda with the intent of destroying those records, all they could find were empty shelves and some worthless papers.
Woodward’s decision to bury the records kept them from being torched. The records of most other Virginia counties were destroyed when Richmond was burned by Confederate troops as they evacuated the city in 1865. Counties that lost their records are called “burn counties.”
When the war was over, Middlesex County records were uncovered, returned to the clerk’s office, and remain available today to the public in the new courthouse adjacent to the old clerk’s office.
“We have a wonderful history here in Middlesex County,” said museum president Marilyn South. “We feel the clerk’s office is a very important building in our history and that’s why we’ve gone to so much trouble to preserve it.”
The interior of the small brick building has been completely refurbished and heat and air-conditioning have been installed. Museum officials are putting together timeline displays of the events surrounding the historic structure and plan a grand opening later this year.
