The gold leaf., 1907-03-28
Judge Clark's Great
Work.
After Fifteen Years of Earnest, Pa
tient Labor Chief Justice Walter
Clark Completes Publication Of
State and Colonial Records.

State and Colonial Records.
Fayetteville Observer.
As We all know, Judge Clark is a
prodigiOus worker but it is hard to
realize just what is the output of his
wonderful brain. His last work is
the completion of the State Records,
the second part of his labor in this
direction. OF this the Raleigh News
and Observer says:
After remarka BILE labor cOnsum-
ing fifteen years, Chief Justice Walter
Clark has completed the publication
of his State and Colonial records
which he undertook upon the death
OF Colonel Saunders. who Inaugural
ted the series, at the request of Gov
rrnOr Carr and the governors who
have followed him.
| The records, Colonial and State.
now comprise twenty-six volumes,
ten of which were completed by
Colonel Saunders before Judge Clark
took up the work in 1892. In them
are contained every scrap of impOr-
! v
Colonial and Revolutionary history
OF the State which could be obtained d
after exhaustive search in England,
| through the Government records at
Washington, public libraries and
private collections of historical data.
| Three OF the volumes, numbers %,
"a and %, contain all the available
laws OF the State from 1869 to 1791
with an index to the three volumes
at the end of volume %. OF these
| three volumes a number of extra
copies are being printed for the use
OF lawyers to whom they are of the
greatest value While the last volume
OF the series contains a roster or cen
sus giving the names OF heads Offami-
lies in North Carolina at the census of
1871.
"a general index of three volumes
will conclude the series, this having
been prepared with great care by DR..
Stephen b. Weeks and now ready for
the printer. The whole series in q
way serves to bring out of chds and
preserve from fiual loss many of the
facts, persOnages and Incidents which
would otherwise have occasioned
many an irreparable hiatus in the
history of the State. Chief Justice
Clark, who has performed the labor
without compensation, is to be con-
graduated upon the completion and
the thOroughness OF the work and
will receive the gra titude ofthe State
increasingly as the years point to
the value OF the work.
''The ten volumes of the Colonial
records published by Colonel Saun-
ders were compiled from records OBJ
taned by him in England, all papers
prior to the Revolutionary period
having been sent ''home," l. @. to
London where they are in the main
carefully preserved. In the prepara-
tiun of the State Records, Judge
Clark had to deal with a different
problem. Up to the year 1892 the
State had no capitol and the State
Records were kept in the residences of
various officers, Secretary of State,
Treasurer, etc, and carried about
from place to place, as the incum-
bents of these offices changed. Legis-
latiye meetings were held in different
parts of the State, as at Newbern,
Halifax. HillsbOro, and Fayetteville.
AS result the material for the prep
aration of the records was neces-
sarily fragmentary. A good deal of
what was left was borrowed by his
tOrians, who never returned it. More
was burned in the capitol building
in 1892. Still other records Of large
quantity and great value were looted
by the soldiers of Sherman during
the Citil War and by the Reconstruc-
tion government in 1868. These not
only pillaged the State but purloined
valuable papers, which they after
ward sold to citizens in Northern
States for the sake of the autographs
which they contained
! In securing the material for his
work, Judge Clark had not only to
go with great care through the mass
of papers in the offices of the Cover
nor and Secretary of State and
Treasurer. He also corresponded ex-
tensively with collectors OF auto
graphs in the North and in this way
secured copies of many valuable
papers which had been bought from
the thieves OF the Reconstruction
period. He also personally visited
Madison, Wisconsin, where he went
through the library of DR.. Draper,
author OF Kings Mountain and Its
Heroes" He visited q number of
private libraries, among them the
LenOx Library, in New York. He Sc
cured access to the collections of
General Gates and obtained many
valuable copies. He also conducted
extensive searches in the library OF
the University and through the col.
lection of Governor Swain, he having
been one of Mrs. Swain's executors
finding therein many valuable papers
of which copies were made and much
correspondence of Revolutionary he
Iroes. He also resurrected all the
available journals of the legislatures
that could be found in manuscript
Previous to her death, he had OBJ
tained permission OF the grand
daughter of General Greene, to go tC
Brunswick, Ca, and go through his
ICOiIeCllOii. but dilet hei uedth wax
thwarted in this by the refusal O
permission by her nephew and heirs
at-law. Also Judge Clark found ii
London some additional and uncop
led material which had not beer
available to Colonel Saunders.
"In such ways, through every pos
sible chance, Judge Clark obtained il
fifteen years the material for sixteer
volumes, which contain 16, ,0OOpage.
in folio.
In addition to the valuable compi
lation oflaws with index already men
toned, perhaps the volume of th,
census of 1871, referred to, will prove
of more general interest this being
the last volume of the series. Tht
method in which the material was oh
toinod chnuc tho indofa / iora bio oh q r