Donowutt County: The Courthouse

The Beginning

Donowutt County is unique in Missouri, or possibly even in the whole USA. What other county can boast it's not documented in state or national records anywhere? The county is, however, documented at the County Courthouse in Higginsburg. Most of the early records were lost in the Civil War when Quantrill burnt the courthouse in the early 1860s. He was a bit upset that he couldn't find it on his maps and assumed it was part of a Northern plot. But that's another story. The new courthouse was started in the late '60s and finished in the mid 1870s about when the great locust plague hit our part of the state.

I want to tell you so much about the courthouse and county. I tend to get a little excited about it because I find it all so fascinating. So please bear with me, as this may tend to be a little disjointed at times. I guess I'm proof Donowutt County is not impossible to find. How I came to be the Recorder of Events for the county was a bit odd, but I guess it keeps in character with the rest of the place –a bit odd.

I was writing the story of one of the county's accidental citizens and while researching, found myself in the county, itself. Word got around that I was writing Redtail's story and I became known as "the author" or "that author". The police dispatcher out in Thistle Dew began calling me Mr. A. and it stuck. On one of my sight-seeing drives, I happened on the courthouse. It's a beautiful big old building. I went inside to look around and was stopped by one of the county commissioners who was seemingly expecting me. He had a certificate of appointment, signed by the Count (They call the head administrator of the county the count.), and met me quite near the main entrance to the building. He handed me the certificate and briefly explained what was going on and disappeared off to conduct other county business.

I looked at the certificate and it stated that the commissionership had appointed me as Recorder of Events. I didn't even know they were aware of my existence. As I looked around, still not knowing what had really happened, I spotted an office door. There, to the right of the door was a painted wooden sign labeling the "Recorder of Events" office, with my nickname below, "Mr. Author" So I went in. Everything happened in a blur to me. I was only visiting, and now I had my own office. This writing is my attempt to make sense out of what happened, and to learn my new surroundings, while telling you of my findings in Donowutt County.

Organize my thoughts here. I guess the first thing I should do is learn my way around my office a bit, then around the courthouse, but in doing that, I can't neglect the whole reason I came to the county, Redtail's story. I guess even if I do get sidetracked, I'll likely run into her or at least people who know her.  That should serve to get me re-focused.

My office is a pretty good sized room. High ceiling with three hooded incandescent lights hanging on long wires, three tall narrow windows on the wall behind two desks, four floor lamps, and a desk light for each desk with one near the computer provide the lighting. During the day, the ivory walls with the windows provide a very pleasant diffused light. It really gives a sort of soft-focus surreal feel to the office. It's like a step back in time. I feel like there should be ashtrays on pedestals and background clutter like in a 1940s detective movie. I don't smoke, so that's out of the question, and the clutter is really missing, since my office assistant, Sue, keeps things pretty tidied up.

Sue is an interesting piece of office equipment. I shouldn't call her 'equipment' but she just seemed to be included with the office. She seemed shocked and embarrassed at encountering me for her first time in the office. She's what I'd call, in no derogatory sense at all, a little old blue-haired lady. Her 'real' job is the writer of obituaries for the county paper, "The Donowutt County Record". She's also a printing assistant for that office. The paper is published out of the basement of the courthouse. I've not been down there yet, but probably will have been by the time this document is finished. Sue worked at one of the two desks in my office for many years before I arrived. It was vacant, so she put it to practical use. She asked if she could be my assistant because she was bored writing just obituaries. I agreed, pending my finding out rules of the job that might preclude that, but, my certificate of appointment said my duties were to be performed in accordance with rules of the Office of Recorder of Events. Then I discovered those rules are written and adapted by the Recorder. It seems I get to make my own rules for the job. Anyway, Sue knows her way around both the Courthouse and the county, and that will be a great help for me.