By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Pendleton County Judge-executive Henry W. Bertram looks over a 19th-century deed book from the county, one of dozens of books of county records damaged in the 1997 flood. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

FALMOUTH - Revolutionary War soldier and city founder John Waller was deeded a parcel of land near the town's center in 1795.

Tax officials assessed John Hobday's 20 slaves at $7,900 in 1837.

And J.W. Elliott gave written permission for the county clerk to issue a marriage license to his underage daughter, Myrtle, in 1923.

The fate of nearly 200 historic deed books, tax ledgers and marriage licenses containing snapshots of the lives of some of Northern Kentucky's founding families is at the center of a debate that pits Pendleton County officials against state bureaucrats in Frankfort.

The Pendleton County Historical Society and the county's judge-executive want them saved. The state may want them destroyed.

An official with the Kentucky Department of Archives is traveling to Falmouth today to assess the condition of flood-damaged court records that are now stashed in an attic of the county garage. There is concern the records were contaminated with E.coli and arsenic during the 1997 flood.

"I don't know what the state official's purpose is going to be other than perhaps destroy the documents," said Pendleton County Judge-executive Henry Bertram, while sitting at an 18th-century cherry desk salvaged from the same flood that damaged the court documents.

He found himself in the middle of a debate about the documents' historical significance when he ignored an earlier state directive to destroy the records.

Jim Nelson, director of the Kentucky Department of Archives, denies his agency will order the documents destroyed today.

"I think there is some confusion about the issue," Nelson said Wednesday. "We want to give our perspective on what the issues are during tomorrow's meeting with county officials and local historians."

Archive officials have said there is no reason to keep the original documents, because they have spent close to $40,000 to preserve information contained in the flood-damaged records on microfilm.

Connie Pfanstiel, a member of the Pendleton County Historical Society, spent hundreds of hours after the flood helping preserve the marriage records that are now in jeopardy.

"It is an indescribable feeling to hold a paper that was written in the 1700s," said Pfanstiel, who was born in Pendleton County in 1946 at the home built by her great-grandfather. "Now our records are in jeopardy because of an out-of-county decision."

Pfanstiel said the historical society is willing to take the documents to keep them from being destroyed. She wrote a letter to Gov. Paul Patton and Frankfort legislators asking for their help.

Barbara Hopkins Hall, 74, of Nashville had traveled to the Pendleton County library Tuesday to research her family genealogy - and it was then that she learned the flood-damaged records might be destroyed.

"You would think they would want to keep those documents in the day when genealogy has become so popular," said Hall, who was with her daughter and granddaughter. "If someone is willing to take the documents, I don't see why they have to be destroyed."

Nelson said the books are the state's and not the county's to do with as it wants. He stressed that the information contained in them has been preserved and warned people who might handle the originals to wear gloves and masks.

"This type of debate is not unusual," Nelson said. "The state has a lot of old records. We preserve the information on them, but we can't keep all the originals. Some people just have a particular interest in keeping old documents, even if they don't have a real historical value."

Pendleton County resident Mildred Belew, who volunteers at the county library, says the documents do have historical value to Pendleton County residents.

"The state thinks of them as just old, musty documents," said the 71-year-old. "They are more than that to us."

She questions whether the state microfilmed everything, such as the 1835 newspaper that appeared to be randomly placed in an 1837 commissioner's book. And Pfanstiel complains that some of the documents are not legible on microfilm.

County Clerk Rita Spencer said the poor quality of some of the microfilm was the result of the deteriorated condition of some of the original documents.

"There are a lot of little tidbits of information the original documents contain that is lost when they are transferred to microfilm," Belew said. "Genealogists learn to gather clues from those tidbits."

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com