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Columbiana archives keeps tabs on the past
The archives has records of some of Columbiana County’s earliest history.
LISBON — A small building just south of the Columbiana Courthouse houses some of the county’s oldest history.
Formed in 2005, the Columbiana County Archives and Research Center has criminal- and civil-court records dating to the early 1800s.
Shirl Criss, the president of the board, said the archives at 129 S. Market St. are financed by donations and charges for copies of old records made for people trying to learn about their past.
People have come from all over the United States to do research. Criss said one couple from Canada recently came and left a nice donation — in Canadian money.
Financially, the archives is run on a shoestring budget of a few thousand dollars a year and is in need of better equipment and supplies. The archives once went through 1,600 manila folders in less than a month.
The archives gets many of its documents from a legal process.
An office-holder can decide to get rid of old cases or files. The Ohio Historical Society and the Ohio auditor’s office have to sign off on the disposal plan along with a local board of county officials. County Commissioner Jim Hoppel said he, along with the county auditor and prosecutor, agreed to give the records to the group.
The county commissioners are allowing the archives to store an undetermined number of old records in a large storage area in the Columbiana County Jail.
For those in search of their past, Criss said, “People get to see the original document with one of their ancestors’ names on it.”
The archives has divorce records, naturalization records, lawsuits over estates and businesses that have sued one another.
Records from the founding of the county in 1803 indicate that women, “were little more than property,” Criss said.
A woman seeking a divorce had to put up with a drunken or violent husband for three years before she could get a divorce.
“I guess it was to show it was habitual,” Criss said.
Criminal cases go back to 1954, but the archives didn’t get murder cases.
“I guess murder is different,” Criss said.
The first criminal case on record dates to 1805. The records, which were written on paper containing cloth to aid preservation, states that on March 10, 1805, Benjamin Wright Jr. did “wound and evilly threaten and did other wrongs to David Harveyman, James E. Caldwell” and a woman whose name was recorded only as “Phebe.”
Linda McElroy, the treasurer for the group, is offering classes for people who want to dive into their past.
Mary Ann Creatore of Boardman, another board member, said people in Mahoning County doing research may have to go to Columbiana County since parts of what is now Mahoning County were originally in Columbiana County.
The archives also has books from historical societies along with copies of old area newspapers that aid research.
The archives is closed Mondays and is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays. For more information, visit: www.columbianaarchives.org/.
wilkinson@vindy.com