the history · the founding decade
the first ten years of the county, as filed. the office does not explain the county; it keeps it.
in march the office opened at the county seat with one camera, one clerk, and a book of negative numbers beginning at 000001. the first photograph filed was the courthouse door, standing open. virginia is given as born this year. the file gives no month.
first damage filed. branches along the creek road found broken at nine feet. nothing in the county stands nine feet. class .0100 was opened for what could not be photographed, and has never been closed.
plate not yet mounted
the river rose in january and took the low quarter. the flood mark was cut into the wall of the feed store and measured. it has been measured every year since. see the record.
plate not yet mounted
in september a photographer from the federal unit passed through and filed one negative of the old abandoned farmhouse between morgantown and elkins. the office pulled the caption card for reference and never returned it. see the file, lot 1723.
the chapel at the crossroads held its last service in june. the congregation was eleven. the bells were sold for scrap the same summer, which is entered here because of what is filed in the record for year ninety.
a red bird was counted at the county line in the spring census of birds. one. the count has been taken every year since. the count has always been one. see the bestiary, plate ii.
plate not yet mounted
testimony was taken concerning a canary that went down with the men and came up a different color. the testimony is filed in the bestiary, plate iii. the office asked no second question.
plate not yet mounted
the war took the young men and the mine took the rest. the company store closed its ledger with debts standing. the debts are in the file. the names are not.
plate not yet mounted
in the spring the government dissolved the photography offices and called the negatives home to washington. the boxes went. this office received its order of dissolution, filed it, and remained. the order is in the file, stamped received. nothing further was done with it.
plate not yet mounted
the office issued its first shooting script under its own seal. field staff of record: one. she signed the receipt virginia, as she always had. see the succession.
plate not yet mounted
the war ended. the county did not refill. a porch light on delilah road burned every night that winter over an empty porch, and was filed rather than explained. the decade closed with the file open. the file has stayed open.
plate not yet mounted
continuation
the record continues in year ninety. read the record →