A page from a ledger at the Historical Holt House Museum.
We have many old ledgers given to us from the Gilmer County Courthouse along with other hand written documents that are one hundred plus years old. They’re full of wonderfully handwritten script by ink and fountain pens. The feeling I get when I look through the pages is that of wonder. I ask myself who else has touched these pages? Knowing full well the person who filled in the entries is long gone. The paper is so fragile I must handle it with such care. The musty scent, of books kept too long on a shelf, drifts up as I move them about. I’m pulled deeper by the information stored on each page. Names, dates, money owed or spent. I find myself browsing longer than I had planned, drawn into the past. I carefully close the ledger I have chosen today to explore. I place it back on the shelf cautious to leave it the way I’ve found it. And step back into the present, feeling somehow better for the reminder that the past is being cared for the best way we know how by the present day families of our ancestors.
We are setting up a digitizing station in our Library Annex so we may continue the huge job of recording our possessions for you to see and enjoy no matter where you’re located.
There is nothing like the feel of old books, and the sound paper makes as you turn each page. Maybe someday technology will advance and make it possible for us to experience this from a distance along with the digital photos.
It’s up to us to put into safekeeping the delicate pieces of our past. It makes me sad to think the future generations might not get the chance to experience first hand the wonder of being able to touch an artifact older than ones self. History comes in many forms. Help build a love for the sights, sounds, feel and flavors of our past.
